Thursday, January 20, 2011

What they said

I was like what the hell, I can't believe it.
Agnieszka Radwanska, commenting on her flying raquet head

This is a different stage in my career. This is where I'm trying to find my groove after being gone for a while, and also finding it on the court and playing matches.
Maria Sharapova

I don't understand why she's always on guard.. It sounds as if she’s attended a course on how to answer media questions.
Matt Cronin, on Caroline Wozniacki

You said in Sydney already that you had taken some time off. What did you do during your holidays? What did you do in order to make your head fresh again?
It was not quite like holiday. It's not like I took time off and I went like to Australia to see penguins.
Svetlana Kuznetsova

Okay, I faced Justine. But it was a wonderful experience to play a legend, and I gave it my all. I can't complain about my week. It's been wonderful.
Elena Baltacha

What was the injury today?
Psoas. I guess a strain of some type.
Your thigh or hip or stomach or...
Psoas.
What does that mean?
It's a muscle.
So you're not saying.
No, it's a psoas....
Is it in the abdomen or is it in the top of the leg? Whereabouts is that?
Psoas.
I don't have a medical degree.
Neither do I. It's in the area around the groin like that, you know.
Venus Williams

5 comments:

Overhead Spin said...

Does Cronin think that Sharapova does not get media training as well in order to respond to questions from the press? They all do. They are spokespersons for many large corporations and they have to portray the right image. Wozniacki is guarded with the media because everyone is attacking the poor girl.

Right now the commentary on TC between Davenport, Moraiu and Navratilova is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I cannot believe that they are ragging on her like this. I am a one woman defence team on twitter for poor Wozniacki.

It does not look good for women's tennis when legends of the game like Martina and Lindsay are joining the bandwagon of downgrading Wozniacki as the current holder of the NO. 1 ranking

Diane said...

I found Wozniacki somewhat difficult, too, but not because she was defensive: She just wanted to talk about her jewelry and how quickly she found the shopping mall, and how important it is to her to look "feminine." But I defend her as the top seed--she didn't invent the ranking system, and she isn't responsible for it. And I don't know if anyone works harder than she does. But in a media situation, she's kind of "not there."

Anonymous said...

I thought Lindsay and Martina were quite fair. Lindsay especially because she went through a patch as number one without a recent slam win -- so she can empathize with reporters asking the same question over and over again. For her part, Martina is Martina: she speaks her mind... and I don't feel that she belabored the issue. Martina mentioned that you almost have to give a robotic answer otherwise the questions can get into your head -- reporters are still asking Jelena Jankovic about being number one without a slam for goodness sakes.

Overhead Spin said...

Diane, for some reason I tend to give Wozniacki a pass for the simple reason that the WTA has done its best to market its players not as professional women, but as glamour girls. What else then are they going to talk about apart from the latest jewellery line, movies, favourite designer etc. They are all reading from the WTA playbook which is yes you are a tennis player but we want to market you like you are Hollywood's next big thing.

They need to make up their mind whether they want champions who are deep like Venus, who not only design their own clothing lines, play tennis, but also speak on issues that affect women and are effective ambassadors for the sport.

From where I am sitting the media has what it made. They basically downgraded the efforts of champions like Hingis and gave people like Kournikova all the money in the world because she was beautiful. It continues today.

Diane said...

Well said, Karen. These are very young women, and--unfortunately--do not know how to ignore, and even go against, the WTA. Grace Min is a bit of a breath of fresh air, but who knows how long that will last? There are exceptions, like Venus and Stosur, but they are a bit older.