Sexism, women's tennis, and Kim Clijsters

2006 U.S. Open winner Kim Clijsters has always had a reputation for being a very nice person. She is nice to her fans and nice to other players on the tour. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before that reputation would be turned against her, and the turn is now taking place.

Back in November, when Sports Illustrated's Elizabeth Newman was declaring Clijsters her pick as the "sportsman," (why, why, why can't even a woman writer stop calling women men?!), everyone was still basking in Clijsters' amazing comeback from a wrist injury and two surgeries that almost destroyed her career. But now, fans on message boards are are writing furiously about Clijsters' "fake injuries" (she was injured during the Australian Open, but played anyway, and rather well until her hip just couldn't take it anymore) and "constant whining" about her injuries.

Tennis writer Peter Bodo, not known for his generosity of spirit toward any player, recently went after Clijsters in a particularly vicious way in a blog post entitled "That Kim, She's Sooo Nice." Bodo attacks Clijsters for "harping on her injuries," thanking her courtesy car driver in a speech, and inviting to her Australian Open box a man who turned out to be a convicted heroin smuggler. He goes on to say that Clijsters, who has done her share of choking, needs the crutch of an injury as a back-up excuse in case she chokes again. He also says that she has never made an interesting observation in public, and I think I may have to agree with that one, but how many professional tennis players have? (Thank goodness for Amelie Mauresmo and Martina Hingis.)

When Clijsters won the U.S. Open, she bought everyone in her little Belgian village a beer. At the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, she bought her fans champagne. There has been speculation that she is insecure or that she has been manipulated by some promotional sharks.

I have no doubt that, being human, Clijsters is flawed. But the problem is that she never sought the title of "nice girl, and never claimed it for herself. It was an invention of the press, and it will be the oh, so clever press who "takes it away" from her. This has happened before, most notably when the great Chris Evert was on the tour. When Evert first appeared in her pigtails, she was called "America's Sweetheart." A few bows in the hair later, she was known as "Prissy Chrissie." And when she turned out to have the precision, focus, and desire of Beatrix Kiddo, she became the "Ice Maiden," which was a both a compliment and a term of disdain, depending on who was making the reference.

Now that Kim Clijsters has won her first Grand Slam, she is on a pedestal, and everyone knows what we do to people on pedestals. But in the world of professional tennis, all the talk of "nice" and "not nice" is reserved for women. Of course.