He tried to make a similar point about Venus, which made no sense because V was seeded lower than her Monday opponent, Vera Pironkova. Patrick kept on…offended by the idea that any of the Williams Sisters wins during the first week were “upsets” because those players are ranked higher than Serena and Venus.Yes, the rankings are ass-backwards but the Williams haven’t played in a year! They were lucky to get seeded as high as they were.

Still,  it was clear that Patrick’s larger point was “ha ha ha, these losers aren’t going to beat the Williams Sisters.”  Patrick sounded dismissive of the other women, simply because they aren’t American and have funny-sounding names. That’s completely unfair. It’s true the women’s game has really suffered from some major collapses by top players, but that wasn’t at issue here. The women are playing exciting tennis that has finally moved beyond one-dimensional bashing.

So it was fitting that two of the hardest hitters in the game – Venus and Serena – got beat in straights today. Marion Bartoli is unorthodox , but a savvy player who relishes competing on grass. I’ve never seen her serve better. She creatively used angles to pull Serena around the court like a yo-yo. Usually Serena is the one  dictating play, but Bartoli surprised her. Serena is not yet in peak physical condition and that hurt her in this match.

Then Pironkova took Venus to the woodshed 6-2, 6-2….and who’s laughing now Patrick McEnroe???? That’s two years in a row that Prionkova dumped the five-time champ. Pironkova could barely win a match this year – however she kept herself steady and waited for Venus to implode, and Venus obliged by slapping horrific forehands all over the court. It was a dismal performance by Venus, who should be officially considered a part-time player now. Her age is showing, she’s not committed to the game. That’s a shame, because I love watching her attacking style on grass.

I expect Serena to come back strong, but this ought to be a lesson to Patrick and everyone else:  there are limits to what players can do, even great ones, when they skip a year, particularly in their late 20s. The Age of the Williams Sisters won’t last forever. Patrick needs to busy himself preparing the next generation of American women to follow in these very big footsteps.

The match with Spain will be in Austin, Roddick’s hometown. The USTA awarded Austin the Davis Cup as a favor / thank you to Roddick for his years of dedication to the Cup. After this Wimbledon, everybody has to be wondering how many more Davis Cup ties Roddick has in him, and how many more majors he will play.

There are times in life when a window closes without you even detecting it. You know it’s closing and then one day you look up and it’s shut. The sill is painted over. You’re never going through that window. For Roddick, I think you have to assume that the elusive chase for his second grand slam title has abruptly ended. He has been off form for almost a year now, but he was still winning enough at the smaller tournaments for it to seem plausible. But 2011 is where things really went off track. He now finds himself outside the top ten for the first time in a decade.  The emergence of Djokovic is just one sign that there is too much distance between Roddick and the top of the field. Players ranked below Roddick are hungry and ready to move up the rankings (Tomic, Raonic, Harrison, Dimitrov).  Worst of all, Roddick isn’t making it to the second week of his bst grand slam tournamnts, losing  to lesser players like Lopez, Lu Yen (at SW 19) and to Tipsarevic at the US Open.

Roddick’s happy personal life is the root cause of his decline. As soon as I saw Andy’s wife Brooklyn Decker emerging from the surf in a deliberate reference to Bo Derek in the trailer for a Jennifer Aniston / Adam Sandler comedy, I though “uh-oh.”  It means Decker suddenly has a hot career in Hollywood, which is great for her…but not conducive to her husband’s tennis.

It’s difficult for Roddick to sustain the single-minded focus that an elite tennis player must have if he’s got one foot in Hollywood. That’s not a criticism, just an observation. We’ve watched this play out before, with John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Of that trio, Sampras’s wife temporarily shelved her career for him while he finished his career…but even then he spiraled pretty quickly.

Of course the reason Pete ran out of steam may well be the reason Andy eventually hangs it up:  he gave it 100% for more than a decade, and once he experienced true happiness off the court, that was it. Former coach Jimmy Connors sized it up this way before Wimbledon:

“There’s other things on his mind probably that are taking up space,” Connors said. “Tennis is a 365-day-a-year job. If you’re not willing to put in that time and make that happen over the course of that year, other things creep in there, they take your mind off your business, and all of a sudden tennis is not the most important thing.”

I don’t think Roddick is going to quit tomorrow. However, last summer he said he was not afraid of retirement and did not expect to play beyond the point where he realistically felt he could win a major. He won’t play out the string as a journeyman, like James Blake is doing, because Roddick has always played to win majors. My guess is that he will hang on until the end of 2012, if only to play Wimbledon and then mixed doubles with Serena at Wimbledon in the 2012 Olympics.

Last year Roddick said if he won Wimbledon he would have everything he wants in life – so you know Wimbledon is his Great White Whale. Maybe in ’12 he can have a magical run a la Goran Ivanesevic, who was unseeded when he won his fourth final at SW 19. That’s what he’s trying to figure out now on that long flight home to the States.

His performance last year during the Wimbledon Marathon only added to his lore. Isner-Mahut is the strangest tennis match I have ever seen and it will never be replicated. Wimbledon randomly paired the two men for a first round match in 2011, which quickly proved my point.  Isner dropped Mahut in straights. That was anti-climactic, but it was appropriate for where Isner is in his development. Unfortunately, John followed up with a disappointing loss to Nicolas Almagro of Spain.

When I looked at the draw this year I thought anything less than the fourth round  would be a total failure for Isner. This is grass. With that serve he ought to be a lock for the final eight. But he looked totally outmatched by Almagro, getting caught repeatedly standing 10 feet behind the baseline. Almagro isn’t known for his return game, but he was cracking them today, and he played one hell of a clean match – more than 60 winnersand only 14 unforced errors in 4 sets.

For Isner, this loss might boil down to it  just being Almagro’s day. My feeling though is that this is becoming characteristic of Isner – his fitness is better but his play is not consistent. I also see him struggling to change tactics during the match. Almagro caught him by surprise and had him back on his heels. But Isner  just backed up behind the baseline and let Almagro control the match. It was reminiscent of some of Andy Roddick’‘s performances, where the other guy’s great play is a result of Andy letting him have his way. Isner’s entire game rests on his serve and he’s like eight feet tall, so it’s even more important that he keep the points short. If you are Isner, you have got to dictate play.

Isner never expected to play professional tennis, and I often sense that he’s having an internal struggle between just happy to be here, life as a player is sweet and a desire to push himself to the brink to see how far he can take this tennis thing.  His ranking has dropped from 19 to 47 in 2011 and he needs a big summer. Isner is a hard worker but it’s time for Bambi Legs to grow up and prove he belongs in the top 20.

Then Serena was pushed to the brink in her first match back on Centre Court. She dissolves into tears of joy and suddenly I’m Michael Corleone in Godfather III…“just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” Earlier this year she was in a hospital bed with blood clots in her lungs, wondering if she would ever play Wimbledon again. Now here she is just so grateful to be a part of this wonderful game. It was a rare show of vulnerability by Serena. Gratitude is not something Serena shows us – if she has an Oprah gratitude journal, it would surprise me.

But let’s give credit where it is due. She has a passion for competition that is unmatched by her generation. Every time Serena leaves and then shows up to dominate again, we are left with the question what does that say about the women’s game? I think I finally know the answer. Nothing. It says nothing. It says everything about Serena’s greatness as a champion. She deserves to be in the same breath as Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. She hasn’t played as consistently, nor showed the commitment to women’s professional tennis that I believe she should have. The last year has shown us that the women’s game could survive and thrive. Tennis is still bigger than Serena Williams.

Serena pulled out another tough three-setter today. Venus had her own scare. I feel generally that Serena could win this tournament and you had better beat her before the quarters… because after that she might be too sharp. Venus is enjoyable to watch on grass, but she’s not in the shape that Serena is, nor does she have the consistency.  I wish ESPN could cover the Williams Sisters with more slivers of honesty. But I’ve wished that forever, and this channel is never going to be fair and balanced toward the American players.

I had to laugh when I saw the headlines today:  Serena and Venus Bitch About Playing on Court 2. “They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason,” said Serena. “I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe one day we’ll figure it out. But obviously they’re not gonna change. [The men’s defending champions] are never moved across. Actually, Venus and I have won more Wimbledons together than a lot of the players, or by ourselves in doubles even. Like I said, they’re not going to change, doesn’t look like.”

Lest you think they are just bitching to be prima-donnas, they actually have a point. There is a gender disparity in the court scheduling at Wimbledon. You don’t see Roger on Court 2.  I know I’ve said this before but it bears repeating – Venus is as much a champion on the lawns as Roger, but she only gets half the respect. And I think she earned it. We also have evidence of a looks disparity, with Sharapova and her one title permanently ensconsed on Centre or Court 1.

I would love to cross-examine the tournament referee about the scheduling, because it flies in the face of logic to have either Williams on an outside court when they are two of the most popular players among fans.

Let’s keep this in perspective though. The Great Pete Sampras was relegated to Court 2 in his last appearance at Wimbledon, which also struck me as disrespectful. But Court 2 is known as the Graveyard of Champions because of all of the greats who perished there. Only Rafa and Roger have been granted the special privilege of avoiding Court 2. I guess Roger and Rafa are just special unicorns who are unable to show their horns if they have to play a one-sided match on an outside court.

As for the Williams Sisters, right now I’m enjoying their controversies and dramas as a complement to the women’s game as a whole. We’ll see how many more days (hours?) that lasts.

The back features a triangular cut-out right above the area where women usually get tramp stamps. Venus says this “peekaboo” spot is her attempt to do something fun and unexpected. All of Venus’s forays into fashion designs share this sense of daring, but frankly most of them have been ludicrous and ill-fitting. We’ve seen Venus bare her ass and cooter. I just don’t buy that these clothes have anything to do with who she is as a person or a player. Venus is not the Cher of the tennis world. She has the statuesque body of a runway model. It’s time she signed a deal with a designer who could actually make her look like one.

I don’t think we will ever see Serena’s outburst featured in a funny commercial. She isn’t going to profit from it. Over the last 18 months there have been some incidents featuring misbehavior and fights between women athletes and each one has been met with hand-wringing by the culture and lots of attention – none of it good. Women play sports with the same intensity and passion that men do. That isn’t always going to be pretty. We still have a little ways to go to accept that simple truth. The majority of female athletes compete with class and grace and the same is true for the men. Both sexes have their bad apples.

Try as I might, I can’t chalk up the entire Serena Meltdown to sexism. Tennis’ attitude toward arguing over line calls and making threats has changed considerably since McEnroe’s heyday. At the end of his career he was, appropriately, defaulted for a tirade. And Serena did directly threaten a lineswoman, which is completely forbidden. Her conduct cannot be dismissed without discipline. The women’s tour, however, gave Serena a slap on the wrist.  The WTA should have been as heavily scrutinized as Serena over the incident.

Serena should not be permanently shunned or brow-beaten because of the 09 US Open. It’s over and as usual we have plenty of other Serena issues to discuss. Such as… why the fuck happened to her foot? Why is that injury and all that surrounded it treated like a state secret? Is she practicing now for Wimbledon, as we recently heard, or will she be out for six more months, like we also heard? Did she get plastic surgery? (I don’t care if you think that’s tasteless, when we saw her at the 2010 US Open her entire face had changed).

Controversy will always be part of Serena’s legacy, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Serena Williams on a tennis court. She may yet surprise us.

After a year of being burned out, this blogger has returned. My sporadic 2010 posts on a now-defunct domain were deleted by the ISP. A year of thinking about tennis totally wiped out. This leaves us with an incomplete archive here at WordPress. When I read through my 2008-09 tennis writing, there are some things I don’t like, others that I was dead wrong about and some pieces that I am still proud of. Overall I stand behind it.

The original purpose of this blog remains the same:  tennis talk for the serious tennis fan. I will not be focusing quite as much on rebuking the anti-tennis media. The coverage of tennis by non-tennis media is a little better now than it was five years ago. But the tennis media, led by ESPN, has devolved. Like its news division cousins, tennis journalists increasingly value entertainment and access over truth. That is why Mary Carillo left ESPN.

On this blog we will try to have reality-based discussions about the major tennis issues of the day. Insisting that Roger Federer is about to re-take the #1 ranking is like claiming that the jury is still out on global warming. Fundamentalist believers can ignore reams of evidence if they want but I’m not going to play pretend.

There is one major change I’m making to this blog and it is this – I can no longer promise not to put up the occasional post on politics in America and the world. However, I will strive to keep my focus on tennis. So I invite readers to join the conversation. This has already been one hell of a tennis year and there are many twists and turns to come.

“I want to amend my press statement of yesterday and want to make it clear as possible – I want to sincerely apologise first to the lineswoman, Kim Clijsters, the US Tennis Association and mostly tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst,” Williams said.

“I’m a woman of great pride, faith and integrity and I admit when I’m wrong. I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself inappropriately and it’s not the way to act – win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner.

“I like to lead by example. We all learn from experiences both good and bad. I will learn and grow from this, and be a better person as a result.”

Rather than quibble about the reason it took two apologies or the genuineness of the sentiment,  let’s just say:  APOLOGY ACCEPTED. Conduct not forgotten.

Suspension?

There is a legitimate argument that Serena should face suspension. This is laid out most persuasively by Bill Dwyre (Serena Williams Makes a Fool of Herself and Deserves Punishment) (hat tip, fearless Philly fan Carol). Dwyer’s recitation of Serena’s brazen press conference comments is worth a read.

Although tennis gives players harsh (some say too harsh) suspensions for drugs, I know of no precedent in women’s tennis for a suspension. The executives running the women’s tour are gutless wonders, so I doubt they’d have the stones to punish Serena with a suspension. (Remember, these idiots are the ones who responded to rampant illegal coaching by making coaching legal at non-grand slams)

Economic Fallout

As astute tennis (and LSU fan) Mary pointed out today, Serena is likely to suffer repercussions in the endorsement arena. Especially now that companies will have Melanie Oudin as an alternative. I know she hasn’t won anything and has no resume, but Oudin is fresh, recognizable and most importantly, cheaper. Consider:

In this economy Buick actually dropped Tiger Woods, the most bankable athlete on the planet, because of Detroit’s economic woes. That ended a nine year partnership.

Just last month Bobby Labonte, 2000 NASCAR Champion, was pulled from seven races because Yates Racing could not find a sponsor for him after Ask.com dropped out. The team was able to secure sponsorship from two regional companies for Eric Darnell, who has never made a NASCAR sprint cup start. So the young, unproven racer is in, while the established champ sits out.

I don’t expect Nike, which designed an entire line of clothing lionizing McEnroe’s You Cannot Be Serious tirade, to sever ties with Serena. (I don’t expect much from Nike, ever, since the company has one of the most atrocious labor records). But wish Serena luck securing new deals, because she’s going to need it.

Congratulations to Venus and Serena for winning three out of four doubles titles this year. They captured the US Open doubles today.

Remember when Safin shocked the world by beating Pete Sampras in the US Open final? Veteran player playing on less than a day’s rest, youngster who had the power to blow him right off the court. Just putting it out there.

His play against Nadal was very impressive. Nadal’s obvious injury doesn’t take too much away from the victory, it was an outright beating.

Delpo has been referred to as Crazy Elf by some fans. I think this is a damn good description of the 20 year old from Argentina.

Crazy Giant Elf

Many media folks thought Delpo was ready to win this tournament. A lot of them picked Andy Murray. He gagged. But Delpo has cruised all the way into the final. I’ve been a skeptic. However, Darren Cahill predicted a five-setter and since I think Darren is the best commentator out there, I’m starting to believe.

The key will be Delpo’s mindset. He’s got to be aggressive and avoid getting into a rally contest like Djokovic did in the semi. He has the power game to do it and he knows he was up 2 sets to 1 on Roger at the French. But is he ready to compete at the necessary level in a grand slam final, or is he satisfied with his progress? We’ll find out. Comments welcome.

Now Kate Harding, the feminist writer behind the blog Shapely Prose, has decided that It’s Time to Forgive Serena. Oh really? Harding knows nothing about tennis, its history and its movement away from the McEnroe temper tantrums. She relies on her memories of McEnroe and borrows from a ridiculous column by Filip Bondy in the New York Daily News. Harding and Bondy are projecting their own agendas onto what remains a very simple thing:  Serena violated the code of conduct and was appropriately booted.

Filip Bondy is a Tool

Bondy’s columns on this are probably going to win the award for Worst Column of the Year. He’s all over the place, reminding everyone that Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton were at the US Open and they also made errors in judgment. (So freaking what?) He also wrote an asinine column after Serena’s loss that included this instant classic and surefire candidate for Dumbest Sentence of the Year:

Here’s the trouble with rooting against Serena, which was not an uncommon occurrence Saturday night at the National Tennis Center: You end up with two women in the final who must be explained to the American public, at the biggest U.S. tournament.

Two women who must be explained to the American public? Explain as in...

• Explain why women who aren’t American citizens are allowed to participate in the US Open?
• Explain how Serena losing meant one of dem feriners gets to be in the final?
• Explain how Wozniacki was allowed to beat Melanie Oudin?
• Oh noes! Howz didz that happenz to poor Amerca?? Somebody call Glenn Beck! We wants our country back!!!!!!!!
  

But I digress.

Filip also made the ridiculous claim that “We condemn Serena and Venus for juggling business interests, while applauding Clijsters for quitting the game completely to have a baby.” (Is this the royal we? Don’t include me in your sexist fantasy.)

Facts please Filip! Where are these alleged slams on the Williams sisters for having business interests? Everyone gave them great credit,  appropriately, for buying into the Miami Dolphins ownership group. I’ve always given Venus mad props for designing and running her own clothing line – wholly independent from an established clothing manufacturer.

Look:  I’m a feminist, I’m a lawyer. I know these stereotypes and preferences exist, but these writers are straining to find bias without citing any evidence.

Bondy slammed Dick Enberg for making Serena “a villain.” His proof? Enberg said that’s not how champions act. That’s an inflamatory statement? Really? In reality, CBS was quite tepid and deferential to Serena in the immediate aftermath of The Incident. Enberg’s statement was about as above the fray as it could be. Yes, Filip, other champions have acted like assholes. It degrades the game, though, and is not conduct that should be defended or rewarded no matter which player acts like an ass.

A Feminist Breakthrough?

Harding quotes Bondy with approval because they both consider Serena’s meltdown a feminist breakthrough:

Serena’s poor sportsmanship is a sort of breakthrough, proof that women athletes can behave every bit as irrationally as men. And because of that, it would be a mistake to punish Williams more than a man for the same actions.” Of course, that’s already happened. Not only did she lose a big game on a technicality, but her fine — and the threat of suspension — far exceed what Bondy describes as “the customary penalty: a tut-tut and a $1,000 fine.”

I predicted this would be described as a “technicality,” but I’m disappointed that someone as astute as Harding be the one to do it. Gender roles are absolutely at play in sports. The court of public opinion employs a more stringent code to judge women athletes. We just discussed this last week when Oudin’s parents’ divorce became gossip fodder. But as  a civil rights lawyer who sues people for sex and race discrimination, I must say that the Serena Incident is not the best test case for that issue. Her hypothetical comparators were only fined $1,000 to $1,500? Cry me a river. (And bring me names and facts). The fines are ridiculous, I can assure you Serena spends more than that on her average shopping trip on 5th Avenue.

And She’s Not Sorry

Harding thinks it’s great that Serena didn’t apologize:

Personally, I think it’s refreshing that Williams is refusing to play along with the expected script here. We’ve all heard a thousand empty apologies from celebrities and athletes who have been caught acting like jerks…She hasn’t groveled for forgiveness — in fact, she’s confidently expressed an expectation that she’ll get it from reasonable people, because she’s human, she messed up, and it’s over. And you know what? She’s right. She’ll be forgiven by anyone who actually gives a damn about tennis, because she’s a phenomenal player with a long history of good sportsmanship.

Personally, Kate, I don’t give a damn if Serena apologizes to me, a fan. And I feel no obligation to “forgive.” The issue for most of us is that other F word – Forget. The next time Serena plays masterful tennis, I’ll call it masterful tennis. But whenever I’m discussing things outside the white lines, of course I’m going to remember this incident. I won’t forget this, anymore than I won’t forget that Andre Agassi once spit on an umpire. That was also deplorable conduct that is not befitting a champion.

Although I agree that women are judged differently in athletics, we must be careful not to overstate the case.  Roberto Alomar was pilloried for spitting on an umpire and saying the ump was “bitter” because of the death of his 8 year old son. He received a five game suspension and paid $50,000 to a research group on behalf of the umpire’s late son. Despite his apology, contrite behavior and what amounted to a 50 k fine, Alomar was dogged by press and fans for years. And Agassi got off scot free for treating the umpire like a spitoon. That’s also inequitable, right? Serena’s conduct is at least as bad as Alomar’s.

Serena’s Character, Neither Black Nor White

As for Harding’s allegation that Serena has a long history of good sportsmanship… what’s her source on that? Serena has a maddening history of being both incredibly positive and incredibly denigrating to her opponents, especially after a loss. That is fact and every tennis fan knows it. (Also noteworthy but not forgotten by yours truly was the lawsuit against Serena and Richard Williams from a few years ago – where they essentially perjured themselves by lying to the Court and the IRS.) See what happens when we presume someone’s character is all good or all bad? Serena has many marks on both sides of the ledger. Many of us do. And when we cross the line, we pay.

Harding concludes that this whole brouhaha is inextricably linked to Serena’s race – because when Serena shook her racket, anyone who was threatened by that was really reacting because of their fear of a rich, powerful black woman. (If you said, “Because she’s a rich, powerful black woman who needs to be put in her place,” I think you might just be onto something.)

Harding is right:  a racist, sexist, classist undercurrent does indeed pervade our entire society. Black women are always dumped on.  I have written about this before, particularly after the Williams sisters were banished to minor courts at Wimbledon. (“I suspect racism here as well. White women are pretty, black women aren’t, isn’t that what they’re implying? Because no other tennis players are bigger ratings stars and worldwide celebrities than the Williams sisters…”)

I have no doubt that some people with race issues viewed Serena’s actions through that prism. But the bigotry of others doesn’t shield, excuse or minimize her conduct.

Rules Are Rules, When They’re Broken, There Are Consequences

For Harding and Bondy, The Incident is not about the words Serena spoke. Harding does not even bother to quote them – she says only that Serena said she wanted to shove the ball down the line judge’s throat. Unbelievably, Harding questions whether the kill threat even happened because… well… it doesn’t fit with her narrative of Serena’s prosecution at the hands of a racist, sexist media and world. Check the tape Kate- Serena made the kill threat.

Here’s one final quote from Harding that shows total ignorance of the rules:

It could happen to anyone. It has happened to many other players. (And you might notice that pretty much every time it does, the player in question waves a racket “threateningly,” because hello, they’re already holding rackets. It’s not like Williams stopped to pick up a deadly weapon on her way over to the judge.)

So Serena was inappropriately penalized because she used the instrument that happened to be in her hand rather than say, a knife? But when other players waive their rackets they are similarly penalized. Every player knows that you don’t approach the linesperson to challenge a call. You go to the umpire. It’s a rule. Who should we trust on this – Jimmy Connors, Lindsay Davenport, Mary Carillo, Martina Navratilova, Darren Cahill, Pam Shriver, Cliff Drysdale and Mary Jo Fernandez – or writers who don’t follow tennis?

The lineswoman reported the Fuck phrases because that is what they are instructed to do when they hear an audible obscenity. The reason for that rule is to protect the linespeople from the kind of verbal abuse heaped on them by McEnroe, Nastase and Connors.

This went beyond the normal racket shaking because Serena went directly to the lineswoman at least three times. Many people, Harding included, reject the word “threat” – okay, so when the lineswoman went back to her position after talking to the umire, Serena walked up to her and talked loudly while shaking her racket, which happened to be in her hand because she’s a tennis player. Does that make it all better? As Darren Cahill pointed out, Serena would’ve been defaulted on the first point of the match had she done the same thing in the first set. It’s clearly unsportsmanlike conduct.

This subject is getting exhausting, but I think it has legs. We’re going to be hearing about it all week. I can’t wait until the Richard Williams interview.