Thursday, April 17, 2008

Shake a hand, make a friend

There was an uncomfortable feeling throughout the match between Alize Cornet and Sara Errani. The two women had to deal with some bad line calls, and Cornet became incensed when a let was called in the middle of a volley (some trash had floated onto the court). At one point, one of Cornet's shots was called out, the umpire overruled the linesperson, and Errani successfully challenged the umpire. Cornet became more frustrated as the match wore on, and even when she won it, she seemed strangely out of sorts. She and Errani walked to the net, and--standing on either side of it--strolled to the umpire's chair to shake the umpire's hand. It was only when they were about to do so that the seemed to realize they had not shaken each other's hands. There was a very quick handshake with almost no eye contact involved.

Later, after Agnieszka Radwanska won their tough, drawn-out match, Edina Gallovits walked to the net to shake her opponent's hand, but--on the way--threw her racquet in anger. It landed on the tip of the handle and bounced a couple of times. Needless to say, the look on Radwanska's face during the handshake was less than calm. I was surprised and disappointed.

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