Friday, September 2, 2011

Passing shots

Forty years ago today, Chris Evert won her first U.S. Open match. She made it to the semifinals in that first tournament, and she would go on to win 101 more matches at the Open. Evert won the championship six times; four of those victories were consecutive.

When the new rankings are published, Sloane Stephens will be in the top 100 for the first time.

After Andy Roddick pointed out that it doesn't take a lot of mental agility to be a tennis commentator, Mary Joe Fernandez described Roddick as "somewhat disrespectful." I think perhaps "disrespectful" would be almost never pronouncing players' names correctly and sometimes pretending that one of the competitors on the court doesn't even exist.

Be sure to read Colette Lewis's preview of U.S. Open junior competition.

Venus Williams has enrolled at Indiana University East to study business.

Here is a short film that showcases photographer Dewey Nicks' year-long "Strong is Beautiful" (Silent is Sublime) campaign for the WTA. I have mixed feelings about the campaign, as I've mentioned before, but I think this film is worth watching for Kim Clijsters alone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think perhaps "disrespectful" would be almost never pronouncing players' names correctly and sometimes pretending that one of the competitors on the court doesn't even exist.

1) Right on! but, 2) I would argue that rather than "sometimes" pretending one of the competitors doesn't exist, ESPN commentators + Lindsey Davenport often do that.

They also talk about Serena no matter what the topic is, or what match is on. If I drank, that would be my drinking game. Every time one of their many talking heads says Serena's name, or brings her up for no pertinent reason - bottom's up.

This tourney is getting very interesting!
Rebecca

Diane said...

Oh, yes, Davenport does it often; I was just referring back to Fernandez, since she made the comment.

Yesterday, Rebecca, I was watching Tennis TV, and I don't remember who it was--but after making yet another comment about the many virtues of Sharapova--actually said "Well, I know we're going to get Tweets and emails about this, but...."

svente said...

"Well, I know we're going to get Tweets and emails about this, but....

...not mentioning only the marquee player, and the three things I know about her (shoulder surgery, serve, mental toughness) would require me to do some research on other current players and their games and then analyze the match at hand. And frankly, I'm not terribly interested in working that hard. Because Maria Sharapova."

Finished that thought for them! :P

Diane said...

Really. And like they should have to even do research about the opponent. But nothing surprises me. I once heard a very big-deal commentator get a full briefing on the world number 1 because said commentator knew absolutely nothing about her.

There are so many things about which I know little to nothing. If only I could get paid a lot of money for it :)