Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor, French Open runners-up and the 8th seeds at Wimbledon, won the mixed doubles title today when they defeated top seeds Lisa Raymond and Bruno Soares 5-7, 6-2, 8-6 in the final. Mladenovic (who, for most of the match, had singles champion Marion Bartoli enthusiastically cheering for her from the stands) put on a show that confirms why she might soon be the most sought-after doubles partner on the tour.
Mladenovic served superbly and cleverly, hit some big passing shots, and played the net very well. She held her nerve at a very big moment, too. Serving at 4-5 in the third set to stay in the match, Mladenovic and Nestor faced two break points--match points for Raymond and Soares. Mladenovic faulted on her first serve, which she had attempted to place up the middle. She then hit as big a serve out wide as you could imagine, and saved the second championship point.
When Nestor served for the match, the team went up 40-0, and Mladenovic had a chance to hit a sweet angled volley for championship point. She failed to get the ball over the net, however, but she and Nestor won the tournament on their second championship point.
And so France has two Wimbledon champions this year.
The top-seeded Czech team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won the junior girls doubles title at Wimbledon today. Krejcikova and Siniakova defeated Anhelina Kalinina and Iryna Shymanovich 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Kalinina and Shymanovich were seeded 8th.
Krejcikova and Siniakova, who didn't drop a set at Wimbledon, won the French Open junior title earlier this season.
Jiske Griffioen and Aniek Van Koot, the 2nd seeds, won the women's wheelchair doubles championship. They defeated Sabine Ellerbrock and Sharon Walraven 7-5, 7-6. Ellerbrock won the French Open singles title; there is no singles wheelchair competition at Wimbledon.
Back to the mixed doubles match for a moment. This is what poor Kristina was called by the commentators:
"Malanadovic"
"Malendovic"
"Meladanovic"
"Maladnovic"
"Melanovic"
And Virginia Wade's masterpiece--"Malaneninov," which came out of Wade's mouth only once, but it's too good to not repeat.
Hello! Aren't all of you making a lot of money to sit there and say words? Could you even try to pronounce a Wimbledon champion's name correctly? It isn't really hard to pronounce; it sounds the way it's spelled.
Re Mladenovic and Kvitova: Most English-speaking people have trouble pronouncing words that begin with two consonants MLadenovic and KVitova. They insert an 'uh' or 'ah' between the first and second letter. Practice is said to make perfect.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm aware of that. The people who pronounce "Kvitova" "correctly" are pronouncing it incorrectly :)
ReplyDeleteThe errors made with Kristina's name, however, were huge and ridiculous.
As to pronunciation. We are now into the fourth generation of American kids being taught 'whole language' reading, rather than phonetic reading. Whole language is bad news; one must begin with phonics, which teaches newbies to look carefully at each and every letter, their sequences, etc. Whole language is somwhat of a 'similarity' and guessing game, entire words being looked at kinda sorta.
ReplyDeleteActually, whether a child should be taught via phonics or whole language depends on the child's "point of entry" for that type of learning. It appears to depend on the brain chemistry for the individual child.
ReplyDeleteA phonics learner ends up being able to take in whole words very adeptly, but can decipher an unknown or oddly-spelled word quickly. The whole language types must become great memorizers of overall shape. The dean of my law school had all sorts of trouble because he had learned whole language reading. Example: Syndicalism. This appeared in a case. The dean stammered, tried 'socialism', 'synthesism' and then, making an effort at phonics, 'synsicalism.' I submit that no child started on phonics would have this trouble as a sixty-year old man. A child who, as a child, is involved already in rote memorization, is setting himself/herself up for a tough life of the mind.
ReplyDelete