As agonizing as the Thursday night Sony Ericsson Open semifinal was--in retrospect, it's actually looking pretty good, compared with today's final. Again up a set and 3-0, Kim Clijsters had no meltdown today. In fact, it took the 14th seed less than an hour to defeat Venus Williams 6-2, 6-1 and win her 37th Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title.
The problems today were on Williams' side of the net. The 3rd seed, who entered the championship match on a 15-match win streak, made 29 unforced errors, compared with Clijsters' 12. There was only one good rally in the entire match, and Clijsters did a good job of just keeping the ball in the court, as Williams made error after error. Sometimes a player just has a bad day on the court, and today was a bad day for Williams.
With this win, Clijsters gets a ranking of number 10 in the world.
5 comments:
During the Belgian semifinal, one of the FSN or Tennis Channel (whichever one it was on) commentators appropriately mentioned how just because a match is long and close on the scoreboard doesn't necessarily mean it was a good match. After this one, it was said on CBS that KC "dominated" the match. Maybe on the scoreboard, but considering the severely lacking competition she received from Venus, your mention that she simply kept the ball in the court is about all you can really say about any "gameplan for victory."
Well, one out of two ain't bad, I guess... and Pammie Shriver wasn't even there.
In fairness to Kim, it was the only game plan she needed. Venus was pretty wrapped up, but I've seen her that wrapped up before--and winning.
As a Venus fan I cannot begin to describe how I felt when I saw her come out all taped up. There are only a few occassions that I can recall since I have been watching Venus play tennis that I have seen her call a trainer mid-match or indeed take a medical time out (has she ever retired from a match with injury?), but you are right, all Clijsters had to do was keep the ball in play and no amount of cheerleading from Serena in the stands could push Venus to do more than she was doing out there. She tried hard but she just did not have it in her. The headlines have been quite embarrassing for a Venus fan like me to read, but the media wants her gone and unfortunately for them Venus has not seen it yet. The level of vitriol being levelled against her clothes, her game, her technique, everything since Australia is just mind boggling to me. Some players play a match and the combined UFE count is over 100. Neither player can hold serve and it is called a classic match, best match since ... [pick ur year] yet when the Sisters play a match and make plenty of UFE it is because they lack the right technique, footwork and they have no game plan except to hit the ball harder. It is very disheartening to this fan who was brought to the game of tennis by these 2 champions and who by themselves have opened up the sport to so many minorities. A loss is a loss but when you see headlines and read media reports that say that your favourites say things when if you read the transcript nothing of the sort was said I have to question what is the media's motive behind all of this.
Diane, sorry if my thoughts are a jumbled mess, just going through the usual angst whenever my favourite loses a match.
Venus Williams is a true warrior. She is talked about by the media with their bitter and twisted stories. She dose not complain, she puts on her armor and gose on. I'ts so sad, that in the year of 2010' we still have so much hate. Hoping my granddaughter's generation fair's better, If not, she to will have her armor!
I read a lot of tennis sites and magazines and watch various channels, and I'm not hearing this tear-down of Venus. Yes, some writers and commentators have mentioned that her body is more vulnerable now that she is older, and yes--they sometimes talk about how coy she is about her (non)-injuries. They also sometimes talk about how she is now prone to making multiple unforced errors in big matches. But they also call her a great champion, a superb athlete, and a fine ambassador for women's tennis.
Post a Comment