Monday, January 18, 2010

Australian Open--what they said

"We didn't know until 10:00 last night we were first on today. A bit tired from doing absolutely nothing."
Katie O'Brien

"I thought I played well and served good. I'm very happy to have victory...."
Ana Ivanovic

"I'm not in that [underdog] position anymore now. I'm the player that I've always played against."
Sam Stosur

The heavy bandage on your leg, was that just a precaution?
Yeah, I've been having it strapped all week, all last week as well. So just keep it up and making sure I'm able to keep moving as best as I can.
Is it for a knee problem or a hamstring situation?
Well, my age, you know, it's several...
Serena Williams

"Niculescu, I've had problems with her in the past. I'm actually hoping it's Jankovic."
Katie O'Brien, referring to her next round

And finally...clueless quote of the day--and probably of 2010:
"I don't think gender had anything to do with it. We're just so surprised when a woman does something like that."
Mary Joe Fernandez, on whether reaction to Serena Williams' U.S. Open behavior was in any way gender-based

5 comments:

Overhead Spin said...

OMG Diane did you hear that as well? OK, so if it was not gender related, why is it then a shock to you to see a woman behave like that? I swear sometimes these female commentators want to be so much like the men that they will agree with everything that the men say. The fans, who are the most important part of the tennis landscape have moved on. It is clear that the commentators in the booth have not taken the pulse of the fans. Except for a few die hard folks who cannot stand Serena anyway, I have not seen on any message board that I have visited any vitriol being spilled against Serena. As a matter of fact the feedback that I am getting is that people need to move on already. No one wants to read her reactions in the press anymore. People want to see her play tennis for as long as she is playing. She plays her first doubles match today and she has been placed on a show court. I doubt that even the No. 1 doubles team will be placed on a show court. The fact is that the commentators have not realised that people have been following Serena for years and know that what happened at the USO last season was an anomaly. Move on already because we the fans and the players themselves have moved on. The fact that when Hit for Haiti came about one of the people that Roger Federer emailed, texted, called or whatever he did was Serena Williams says it all.

Diane said...

Blogger Diane said...

What's even more interesting is that the commentator who asked MJF the question was referring to something Serena "said"--which she didn't even say. Serena, after all, displays plenty of internalized sexism herself.

MJF, I'm afraid, is a product of her generation and of U.S. culture. She obviously doesn't have a clue about what she said.

Overhead Spin said...

So Diane, did you hear the comments last night after Roddick had a go at the chair umpire last night. It was brushed over as "much ado about nothing"

Diane said...

I just got in on the last part of that, and then I saw Andy's press conference, so I don't really know what he said. I did understand why he was angry, though.

I know that "swear" words were used, but that is common. If every player who swore were fined, the Grand Slam Committee could buy all those additional Hawk-Eyes (that Navratilova says they can afford now, anyway).

Overhead Spin said...

LOL - brilliant