Sabine Lisicki is allergic to grass.
What's Wimbledon worth?
Could ESPN possibly have less respect for Marion Bartoli?
Coach Sam Sumyk says that Victoria Azarenka has fluid and strain in both her knee and her hip, but that ten days of complete rest should do the trick.
Thank you, Steve Tignor, and--well, another message to Bill Simmons, who maybe should apply for U.K. citizenship.
And finally--way off-topic, but I'm doing it, anyway--congratulations to Inbee Park for her remarkable, and historic, performance this past weekend.
5 comments:
Ah, ESPN, where the jack-assery never ends (Tony Kornhiser has made Simmons look like Billie Jean King.) I liked Tignor's article, but it was kind of depressing that even he seemed to think Simmons' view was sort of "understandable."
Personally, this is the most I've anticipated a major semi-final in years. Three women with beautiful all court games and Marion Bartoli? If you don't like that, you don't like tennis. Not even a little.
Well put, Johnny. For those of us actually paying attention, the semifinal line-up is beautiful. But until the media makes women's sports about sports and not about every other imaginable thing, we an expect this kind of attitude.
I always say it at this time of the year, but I'll do it again: why does the LPGA seem to schedule all their majors at the same time as the tennis grands slams? Golf is the biggest women's international sport in the world... other than tennis. So when they hold their biggest major events it's not even the biggest WOMEN'S athletic story of the weekend.
It reminds of how the WTA used to announce the SEASON award winners in March of the FOLLOWING season, when it pretty much was just ignored. But even the WTA eventually realized it was sort of ridiculous, and began announcing the winners at the END of the season for which the players were being honored.
Sometimes logic is hard.
I know; it makes no sense at all. And it (presumably) keeps fans of one sport from getting involved in the other. Go figure.
In the Tignor piece, he mentions Azarenka as one of the name big name players that the networks and commentators would want this deep in a slam. Thing is, though, a little more than a year ago she, too, was included in the "who?" comments. Oddly enough, all the stuff that happened in Melbourne that had nothing to do with actual tennis probably served to carry her "over the threshold" from "who's she?" to a player with some name recognition.
Truthfully, ESPN specializes in people who love to parade their ignorance of the particular sports they propose to comment about and pass it off as humorous, when it really just shows a lack of professionalism.
As is often the case, and I think you've mentioned before, Diane, they have no difficulty wrapping their lips around "foreign-sounding" names of basketball (or even hockey) stars and think nothing of it, but when it's a tennis player many act as if they're embarrassed to actually do their job and admit they know what and who they're talking about.
It's not the case with everyone, but it is with enough that it qualifies as a network trend no matter how many slams it covers.
Post a Comment