Wimbledon--the second week
Sounding a bit like me, Pam Shriver asked everyone today to please stop saying "Wimbleton" and pronounce it correctly. In the next sentence, she mispronounced Elena Dementieva's name. Thank you, Pam.
NBC has triggered the anger of tennis fans beyond my capacity to describe. For the past couple of days, there has been a one-hour gap between ESPN2's morning sign-off and the time that NBC picks up coverage of the tournament. That is a disaster in itself, since some very big matches have begun (and some almost finished) in that hour. But then, when NBC coverage began its coverage, it showed reruns instead of the live matches. This is so irrational I cannot even guess what it is about, other than giving NBC yet another chance to show us Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick.
Venus Williams is too cool for the school, but she has pissed off the folks at Tennis X.
The Venus/Mary Pierce quarterfinal tiebreak was excruciating. What's going to be worse for me is when Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo, two of my very favorite players--possibly the top two-- compete in Thursday's semifinal match. I can't bear for either of them to lose, which makes me a bit of a fragile sports fan. But it isn't just that they are two of my favorites; there is more conflict than even that: I want Lindsay to win another grand slam before she retires, and I want Amelie to win her first grand slam and get the monkey off her back.
In between watching matches this week, I read the new book, The Rivals, by Johnette Howard. The sub-title is Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship, and that covers it all. It's a wonderful book, full of WTA history and great stories of a time when the players on the tour had a strong bond because of the way they were changing the sport for women. Mostly, though, it is a tribute to two of the most talented women to ever pick up a racquet, their close and colorful professional and personal relationship, and their individual evolutions. There never was such a rivalry before, and there never will be again.
NBC has triggered the anger of tennis fans beyond my capacity to describe. For the past couple of days, there has been a one-hour gap between ESPN2's morning sign-off and the time that NBC picks up coverage of the tournament. That is a disaster in itself, since some very big matches have begun (and some almost finished) in that hour. But then, when NBC coverage began its coverage, it showed reruns instead of the live matches. This is so irrational I cannot even guess what it is about, other than giving NBC yet another chance to show us Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick.
Venus Williams is too cool for the school, but she has pissed off the folks at Tennis X.
The Venus/Mary Pierce quarterfinal tiebreak was excruciating. What's going to be worse for me is when Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo, two of my very favorite players--possibly the top two-- compete in Thursday's semifinal match. I can't bear for either of them to lose, which makes me a bit of a fragile sports fan. But it isn't just that they are two of my favorites; there is more conflict than even that: I want Lindsay to win another grand slam before she retires, and I want Amelie to win her first grand slam and get the monkey off her back.
In between watching matches this week, I read the new book, The Rivals, by Johnette Howard. The sub-title is Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship, and that covers it all. It's a wonderful book, full of WTA history and great stories of a time when the players on the tour had a strong bond because of the way they were changing the sport for women. Mostly, though, it is a tribute to two of the most talented women to ever pick up a racquet, their close and colorful professional and personal relationship, and their individual evolutions. There never was such a rivalry before, and there never will be again.
posted by Diane at 10:38 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
NBC totally sucks. Their philosophy seems to be "Sports are live when we show them." What's even worse is that because they're on at 10 in all time zones, ESPN picks up coverage at noon while NBC is still on until 1 in the Central time zone. How ridiculous is that?
There's a blurb about Serena and Venus's fall from brilliance at Salon. Quite funny and stupid all at once, the writing especially the latter.
By
Anonymous, at
1:28 AM
Yours is a pretty good assessment of the article. And while Drucker admits that the greats of American tennis (I assume he meant American, since the great players of other countries have stories that make the sisters' boring) have not come from wealthy families, it is ridiculous to put on the sisters this burden of "bringing tennis to the people." There is even something mildly racist about it.
Richard Williams has said that he cannot stand seeing players hanging around in tennis after a certain age, and he hopes Venus and Serena do not do so.
By
Diane, at
10:17 AM
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7:47 PM
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