TENNIS: US Open 2018
Sep. 11th, 2018 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllCongratulations to Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic. As it was on Amazon, I didn’t see a second of the US Open.
The reporting has mainly been about Serena Williams’s meltdown – it took some work to find out what the scoreline was and work out what had happened. I’d like to see more evidence to back up the sexism claim myself. It does seem to have been the umpire’s call, and possibly different umpires rule differently (with different players) on what constitutes coaching. But what are they meant to do? Ignore everything because they can’t see everything? If they see it, they have to call it.
It is not as if Williams is new to all this, she knows how the rules and penalties work. I want to use the word ‘sportsmanship’ (which is good, unlike ‘gamesmanship’), but it’s obviously loaded in the context. To put it another way, then, it’s not too much to ask a professional athlete to channel their rage at things not going their way – Serena was thrashed in the first set – at improving their play, not at lashing out at their racquet or at umpires. I don’t feel like rallying for the right of women to have what looks like a temper tantrum with no consequence (and if male players behave that badly, they should be penalised as well.)
So, Osaka announced herself on the world stage. I reiterate that I didn’t see her play, but I know her name’s been bandied about as promising. Possibly commentators are bending over backwards to make up for the booing, which was all about Serena’s treatment, as to the claim that this could be the start of something great. After all, Halep, Wozniacki, Stephens and Ostapanko have recently won grand slams without backing it up. Let’s see if she can follow Kerber, Muguruza etc, at least. Meanwhile, Williams is trying to break records and not quite managing it, which was a problem before she became a mother and the age she is.
On the men’s side, Djokovic underlined that he is back and has managed a comeback as Federer and Nadal have done (hope for Murray?) Two back-to-back slams prove that he’s right back at the top of the game and has bragging rights over the other two this year, even if their overall totals are higher. Federer’s loss to John Millman seems to have been a shocker, but it was grand that Del Potro was able to make it to the finals.
I’m working my way through old newspaper cuttings about tennis at the moment. They’re from the period when Sampras and Agassi were waning, and Federer hadn’t broken through, but Safin and Hewitt had. The Williams sisters were just coming through. It’s entertaining.
The reporting has mainly been about Serena Williams’s meltdown – it took some work to find out what the scoreline was and work out what had happened. I’d like to see more evidence to back up the sexism claim myself. It does seem to have been the umpire’s call, and possibly different umpires rule differently (with different players) on what constitutes coaching. But what are they meant to do? Ignore everything because they can’t see everything? If they see it, they have to call it.
It is not as if Williams is new to all this, she knows how the rules and penalties work. I want to use the word ‘sportsmanship’ (which is good, unlike ‘gamesmanship’), but it’s obviously loaded in the context. To put it another way, then, it’s not too much to ask a professional athlete to channel their rage at things not going their way – Serena was thrashed in the first set – at improving their play, not at lashing out at their racquet or at umpires. I don’t feel like rallying for the right of women to have what looks like a temper tantrum with no consequence (and if male players behave that badly, they should be penalised as well.)
So, Osaka announced herself on the world stage. I reiterate that I didn’t see her play, but I know her name’s been bandied about as promising. Possibly commentators are bending over backwards to make up for the booing, which was all about Serena’s treatment, as to the claim that this could be the start of something great. After all, Halep, Wozniacki, Stephens and Ostapanko have recently won grand slams without backing it up. Let’s see if she can follow Kerber, Muguruza etc, at least. Meanwhile, Williams is trying to break records and not quite managing it, which was a problem before she became a mother and the age she is.
On the men’s side, Djokovic underlined that he is back and has managed a comeback as Federer and Nadal have done (hope for Murray?) Two back-to-back slams prove that he’s right back at the top of the game and has bragging rights over the other two this year, even if their overall totals are higher. Federer’s loss to John Millman seems to have been a shocker, but it was grand that Del Potro was able to make it to the finals.
I’m working my way through old newspaper cuttings about tennis at the moment. They’re from the period when Sampras and Agassi were waning, and Federer hadn’t broken through, but Safin and Hewitt had. The Williams sisters were just coming through. It’s entertaining.
