One of the reasons I started blogging about tennis was because of the persistent myth that men’s tennis is pathetic and women’s tennis is scintillating, when nothing could be further from the truth. Oh yes, believe me, I know Sharapova and Ivanovic are babes, but so what? Can’t we get over that? Can they play or not? Ultimately that’s what I care about.
The reason the parity in women’s tennis fails to impress or inspire is because the tennis is godawful. I can barely watch most of these matches. Between the shrieking like banshees, the 68 unforced errors a match, the mental weakness and the obvious lack of fitness from some of the players, it’s like one of those Naked Gun parody movies.
So three contenders lost before the quarters, but none was a huge surprise. We’ve seen Venus flameout in so many early round matches that it hardly registers anymore. I wrote last summer that I could see her bagging four more Wimbledons and I still believe that. I just think she could care less about every other tournament on the planet.
As for Ivanovic, she has a lot to learn, and she just might. However, when the reigning French Open Champion hits a slump so bad she can’t get out of the third round against inferior talent, there’s a problem.
Jelena Jankovic lost tonight (that’s today in Oz) to Marion Bartoli. She’s had some great results, including a Wimbledon final, but let’s not kid ourselves. Bartoli would get her ass kicked by almost any player you can name from the last 25 years. She’s a nice kid, but she isn’t in shape, her game is quirky at best… And Jankovic was number 1. I panned Jankovic’s reign as the world’s top ranked player last week, when I compared her to the Florida Gators. She got that ranking because she played the system. Then I felt guilty about criticizing her because she’s such lovely personality and she did a great job of defending her ranking. I really enjoyed her rhetorical flourishes, she sounded like a good public defender. But today was a dismal performance.
Sharapova has shown flashes of some great tennis, but her shoulder injury is much more serious than we know. She’s been out for almost a year now. And despite all the talk about how terrific her rehab has been (which we’ve been hearing since August), somebody is not being honest. When she pulled out of the Australian a few weeks ago, her statement was all about how great her shoulder was, that was pure propaganda (penned no doubt by daddy Sharapova and her agents). No, we aren’t getting the full story.
There have been some magnificent moments in women’s tennis this decade, but the overall product is not so good. I’ve said before but it bears repeating: once the Tour let the players and their parents and agents do whatever they want, things went downhill quickly. What I miss most is seeing someone with nerves of steel. That’s anathema on the women’s tour right now.
Passing Shots 
Posted on January 25, 2009
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