Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Ladies of the Court

If you have told me some 30 years ago as I was setting my alarm clock for one of the dozens of Breakfast at Wimbledon telecasts I would savor over the years (I STILL can't believe Chris blew that 4-2 lead in the '78 final!) that a day would come when the women's quarterfinals would be on and I not only didn't care enough to watch them, but barely knew who half the players were, I'd have said you were crazy. But sadly, that's exactly what happened yesterday.

The "kid" in A Kid, a Rabbit and a Champion

From the summer of '77 till the early '00s, women's tennis was IT for me. From the first time I saw Tracy Austin in her pinafore dress and pigtails to the triumphant resurgence of Jennifer Capriati at the 2001 Australia Open -- and everything in between -- I was obsessed with the ladies of the court.

My brother and I even devised our own competing ranking systems: his involved a Vic Commodore computer that created far more work just entering the data and computer codes than mine, which simply consisted of a spiral notebook and "giving bonus points on top of bonus points." Each week, I'd wait by the mailbox for the latest issue of Inside Women's Tennis to arrive, and then I'd go to work tallying up the results from all the draws that were printed in the back. From there, I would re-arrange the cutout photos of the top 50 players I had on a bulletin board in my bedroom. (I still haven't forgiven my mom for crumbling up my Mima Jausovec photo in a tirade about what a horrible person I was. Granted, the photo didn't really fit in -- it was on a WAY LARGER scale than the others -- but it was the only one I was able to get my hands on, goddammit.)

Back then, I used to worry that the game wouldn't survive the end of Chris and Martina. But then Steffi Graf came along and quickly replaced both of them in my heart, bringing me another decade of women's tennis bliss. (Although cut short, her rivalry with Monica Seles completely consumed me: I still can't watch clips of the 1992 French Open without screaming as each ball is hit; and let's not even talk about the '99 French Open final!) Even when Steffi retired in 1999, Hingis, Capriati, Davenport and Pierce were still keeping things entertaining for awhile. But somewhere in the last few years things really went wrong. First, the Belgians completely sucked the fun out of the game. Then the Williams sisters -- whose idiotic father made it hard for me to warm up to in the first place -- went from dominating to not caring about the game at all. Then, even though they weren't fit and didn't seem to even be trying, the handful of players who had the game to beat them would still roll over and die whenever they played 'em. (Talk about annoying. I completely gave up on Lindsay Davenport because of this; Maria Sharapova was the one exception when she beautifully let Serena have it in the 2004 Wimbledon final.) Oh, and when they weren't handing matches to the Williamses for no reason ALL of the top women took turns becoming complete choke artists: Jankovic, Kuznetsova, Ivanovic, Myskina, Mauresmo, Clijsters, Zvonareva, Dementieva, Safina and so on. (And they are all REALLY BORING!) A writer friend of mine confided in me after one particuarly embarrassing Grand Slam blowout that he was beginning to disagree with Billie Jean King's equal pay argument.

Don't get me wrong, there were certainly many one-sided matches "back in the day." The dropoff after the top 5 or so players was HUGE, and Chris actually even beat Martina and Tracy 6-0, 6-0 in the early '80s at various points. But I don't EVER recall seeing Chris, Martina, Tracy, Andrea Jaeger, Billie Jean King or Evonne Goolagong become completely unable to play during big points or through ENTIRE Grand Slam finals the way these gals do now. (Even loopy Hana Mandlikova knew how to give the top players a hard time when push came to shove.) I only wish Tracy Austin's matches against Chris and Martina at the 1981 Toyota Series Championships had been filmed so I could relive the power, precision and steely determination of it all.

This fortnight looks like it's heading toward another all-Williams final. They both seem to be quite "on" again, so they definitely deserve to be where they are. Unfortunately, history has shown that the awkward situation of playing your sister in a Grand Slam final does not equal entertaining tennis. So even though I'm happy they're back in the game, this scenario -- like it has in years past -- only adds to my increasing lack of interest in a game I once loved. If there's a cure for women's tennis, I sure don't know what it is.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i totally agree with you on this.
the new players are interchangeable. they all play the same, have similar names, look alike, choke at the same points in time. the next years don't look to promising either.

henin and mauresmo had/have beautiful games, but you couldn't really care much for them. the williamses are great to watch when they "want" to play; otherwise its just crap. sharapova i actually quiet enjoy, and i hope she gets better.

on the other hand, the boys . . .
much much fun.

mikeinbama said...

I love the Williams sisters. I love the fact that everyone hates on the Williams sisters as the continue to dominate womens tennis. If it weren't for the Williams sisters, American tennis would be non existent with the exception of Roddick.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

But that's just it, Mike. They HAVEN'T dominated the game, and certainly not like their talent would warrant.

Venus won ZERO Grand Slam titles in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006 and Serena won ZERO in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006 -- peak years of their 20s. When you think about the fact that they are SO MUCH BETTER than all the players out there it's pretty pathetic that they don't each have Federer numbers. Like I said, when they "show up" they're great. But that's like rolling the dice with these two.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about Gaby Sabatini. She had such a stylish and creative game. The drop shots and drop volleys were created with so much feel and she has my favorite backhand of all time. So fluid and beautiful.

Brent said...

To be fair, Venus has 7 grand slams (and completely dominates at Wimbledon) and Serena has 10, both of which are nothing to sneeze at. They've both had their fair shares of injuries as well, which accounts for some of the slamless years you mention, Kenneth. And, not sure if you've watched any of their recent matches, but they're over the sibling match-up anxiety they used to become mired in early on; last year's Wimbledon final match and US Open QF match were both fantastic. And you probably didn't see their finals match in Bangalore earlier in '08 but it was a real barnburner. Like them or not, when they've been healthy over the last 10 years they've been the ones to beat.

Also, keep in mind that while you may not have known some of the quarterfinalists, you should pay attention. Some of those ladies (Schiavone, Dementieva) are never going to be contenders but keep an eye on the younger crop (Wozniacki, Lisicki, Azarenka) as they'll be the the contenders of the future. After all, Jaeger, Navratilova, Graf, Seles, all of your "idols" had to start somewhere as well...

Alistair said...

As my wise Mum used to say, "If YOU can't do BETTER than those you criticize, DON'T criticize them!" So, I ask, you, MR. WALSH, do you think for a moment that YOU could take on EITHER or BOTH of The Williams sisters and make THAT game as "EXCITING" as you often mention you like to see your tennis matches? Huh? Do you????

tim said...

Safina. Most. Boring. Player. EVER! At least Clijsters and Jankovic had some acrobatics.

But spot on with the current state of women's tennis.

Jimmy said...

The Williams sisters also have to contend with the fact that they are the only thing to talk about when it comes to American tennis, and this situation shows no signs of changing. Andy Roddick?? 1 major.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with this post, and can relate as well. The first thing I used to do was read the scores every morning in the newspaper, and I knew all the names, etc. I was actually surpised to see Andrea Temesvari and some of the other pros I used to watch practice, etc. have their names show in the results I skimmed over the other day. I had no idea Safina was number one, and I have never even heard of her. Like you said, if you told me that in 21 years I wouldn't know the top ten by heart, I never would have believed it either!

Anonymous said...

I miss Martina Hingis! Such a fiesty whipsmart player - her power seem to come from within - and you could tell she had the whole match planned out behind her steely gaze, and propped open mouth.

What a sad way for her to have left the game though, a real shame.