Venus Williams
I move on much more confident from being in that hole. I stood up there strong.
Svetlana Kuznetsova
That's a hard, you know, steps to follow in. I mean, if you watch her play, she plays very well. It's a credit to her.
Venus Williams, referring to Kimiko Date Krumm
I don't see them respecting the other players like we did when we came here....(They) come and they see themselves equal and it's not like that, you know.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, on the tour's adolescents
You're among the players who tend to scream a little bit on court. Is there a meaning to that? I mean, does it give you energy, or is it more like a weapon against the opponent?
Yeah, I started because Monica Seles was my favorite player when I was 10. So I started grunting, and that was 20 years ago. I haven't stopped. I blame Monica.
Venus Williams
Wow so there is a power struggle going on in the WTA. Women fighting amongst themselves to be the alpha female. Why am I not surprised by this? There was an interesting interview done by the Times where it focused on women's tennis. I will find the link and post it. It sort of echoes what Sveta said but what it does is show that the older generation on Tour are not as accommodating as the young ones would like them to be. I know that Venus has taken a number of the young players under her belt. She has played doubles with Wozniacki and she seems to have the respect of her peers in the locker room. Her sister does not seem to command the same respect and I think that has to do with the fact that Venus has always been secure in her own skin while Serena still has that penchant for proving herself and showing that she is the best at this sport. I am not sure where I sit on this. Do the younger players need to have more respect to the elders of the game, or do they show their respect by trying to take them down? I think from what I have witnessed in matches it is more of the latter than of the former. Young players are more in your face when they are playing the veterans of the game. They want to see how their games match up against the veterans on tour. I think it speaks to respect. However, sometimes the game goes beyond that where you have in your face shenanigans, fist pumps, screaming, yelling and a bit of rock the shoulders going on especially when they play the veterans on tour. In comparison to the men's tour whenever the younger guys try to take down Federer there is an almost steeliness and professionalism in the way it is approached. I would have preferred if the attempted take down was more professional rather than emotional.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think that if Sveta were winning these days, this wouldn't even be on her mind. Some of it, I fear, may be projection.
ReplyDeleteI recall, last season, Shvedova saying, in an interview, "We're coming!" after one of the younger players pulled a big upset.
Diane, here is the article that I wrote about earlier.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/39eyet2
Does Sveta expect that players are going to roll over for her. Venus said it a long time ago. She says every one of these women who play tennis are very good players. It is really the media who makes it seem as if they have no clue as to what they are doing.
Thanks for the link, Karen. I found the feature quite suspect. First, you know how I feel about writers calling adult females "girls"--of course, Brit writers are among the worst about this. And the author seems to have cherry-picked a few (not necessarily true) sensationalistic stories in order to set a provocative "cat fight" tone. Again, typical of male British sportswriters.
ReplyDeleteWhile it appears to be true that the tour doesn't enjoy the camaraderie it did back in the day when women were fighting to even have a tour (and had a consciousness beyond tennis and photo spreads)--I doubt that it's a festival of cutthroat behaviors, either.
Diane I agree and for some reason the so-called journalists are hell bent on thinking that the women's tour is all about having cat fights. Ugh. Someone posted elsewhere that Rennae Stubbs spoke on TC about the women's tour and she is of the view that the players need to be a bit more selfish in order to be competitive. She cites the friendship that exists between Wozniacki, Radwanska and Azarenka. In some form I agree with her. I think people pay their money to see competitive matches where you feel that each player is bringing their all to the court. When either of the 3 ladies up top step on to the court you cannot help but feel that they are not giving their best effort. A case in point, when I watched Azarenka play Serena at this year's AO, you can tell the effort that she was putting into winning this match, but skip forward a few months, and you have Radwanska playing Wozniacki and not only are they smiling and laughing during the coin toss but they are hugging and kissing right afterwards and talking about the loser buying dinner. I do not want to see cat fights but I want to see players going out there behaving professionally and entertaining fans as well as showing us that they care whether they win or lose.
ReplyDeleteWell, two players were never closer than Chris and Martina, and they fought each other on court like nobody's business, so it probably depends on the individuals involved.
ReplyDelete