Monday, January 23, 2012

Her name is Makarova

I was really pleased that, in her post-round of 16 interview, Ekaterina Makarova made it clear that she doesn't like being called "Macaroni" or "Macarena," the "nicknames" sometimes given to her by the crowd. It's bad enough that commentators, and even some umpires, don't bother to pronounce players' names correctly (I wish that Zheng Jie hadn't gone along with that awkward, ridiculous Jay-Z stunt; it only served to encourage people to keep mispronouncing her name), but to also call players "cute" names they don't like just adds to the insult.

For a few years now, Svetlana Kuznetsova has practically begged people to stop calling her "Kuzy," but even her friend Martina Navratilova still does it. Brad Gilbert nicknamed Yanina Wickmayer "Wicker Chair," and he calls Richard Gasquet "Dicky Gasket." Wow, that's so funny.

This isn't a new phenomenom. Shirley Muldowney hated the nickname "Cha-Cha," but to this day, writers use it when referring to her.

4 comments:

Ronald said...

excellent commentary Diane!

Diane said...

Thanks, Ronald :)

svente said...

As someone who's had her name mispronounced all her life I really feel for these players. Adding a ridiculous nickname (i'm looking at you Braddy Gilbertoni) must be maddening.

Diane said...

We should call him "Bad Filbert"--but he'd probably like it.