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GIP: gratuitous icon post
Jun. 10th, 2007 08:40 amI have been meaning to use this for nearly a fortnight, but couldn't find much on an excuse. Noting that I've been watching the French Open (hurrah for today's final being the one the world wanted!)? Well, there, I did that. I like both Federer and Nadal. There's a part of me that wants Federer to win the French and then Nadal can have Wimbledon, although if he did lose the French, would that crush him a little too much and would he be able to adapt his game enough?
Other thoughts, I'm no convinced that it's equal pay for equal work (ie right and fair) for the women's champion to earn as much prize money for being out for just over an hour and playing two sets, when the men's champion could potentially be out there for hours on end playing five sets. (Well done, Henin, by the way!)
Having said that, despite issues with the quality and the sometimes bludgeoning play, I love women's tennis as one of the few real-world sports where women athletes have a high visibility and respect. They run full tilt, stretch their limits, grunt and struggle and win and lose. I did play hockey at school, but not lacrosse (and certainly not well enough to be parachuted into the school team and strike the winning goal), netball but not cricket, and tennis, so I got the adventures of Katharine Gordon, Blossom Willoughby and her from the Trebizon books.
The only reference to tennis that there's been in one of the Girls Own books I've been reading of late is in Bessie Marchant's 'By Honour Bound', where the heroine, a new girl in the sixth, an all-round scholar, helps the school win a yearly cup against a boys' team. Her name was not Serena Williams. I rolled my eyes a fair bit.
The advert for Eurosport's coverage of the Stella Artois championship - shots of the players, especially Leighton Hewitt and his wife, and the track is 'I'm Mad About the Boy' - amuses me no end.
I did have plenty to say about tennis, apparently. I do have a review in the works, but I need to redraft it so that it reads more like a review than a frothing, incoherent rant.
Other thoughts, I'm no convinced that it's equal pay for equal work (ie right and fair) for the women's champion to earn as much prize money for being out for just over an hour and playing two sets, when the men's champion could potentially be out there for hours on end playing five sets. (Well done, Henin, by the way!)
Having said that, despite issues with the quality and the sometimes bludgeoning play, I love women's tennis as one of the few real-world sports where women athletes have a high visibility and respect. They run full tilt, stretch their limits, grunt and struggle and win and lose. I did play hockey at school, but not lacrosse (and certainly not well enough to be parachuted into the school team and strike the winning goal), netball but not cricket, and tennis, so I got the adventures of Katharine Gordon, Blossom Willoughby and her from the Trebizon books.
The only reference to tennis that there's been in one of the Girls Own books I've been reading of late is in Bessie Marchant's 'By Honour Bound', where the heroine, a new girl in the sixth, an all-round scholar, helps the school win a yearly cup against a boys' team. Her name was not Serena Williams. I rolled my eyes a fair bit.
The advert for Eurosport's coverage of the Stella Artois championship - shots of the players, especially Leighton Hewitt and his wife, and the track is 'I'm Mad About the Boy' - amuses me no end.
I did have plenty to say about tennis, apparently. I do have a review in the works, but I need to redraft it so that it reads more like a review than a frothing, incoherent rant.
