Tennis commentary

In My Humble Opinion
1

I forget exactly when this happened, but it was a few years ago before Venus and Serena Williams had become the overwhelming force they are today. I was watching Venus play and Chris Evert was the commentator on whatever channel. Venus, at this point, was obviously a major talent, but she still had some mental lapses and she would lose matches she could or should have won.

Anyway, Evert says, as the match is slipping away from Venus, the reason she is losing this match is that she isn’t a seasoned match player because she didn’t work her way up the junior ranks. The other player (who I have forgotten, it might have been Hingis) was more experienced and when the match got close, Venus couldn’t handle it and she lost. At the time I thought it was a stupid thing to say. Richard Williams, for all his faults, had a plan. Playing tons of matches in the junior tournaments wasn’t a part of it. While it may have been hard for all of us outsiders to see years ago, it certainly has paid off (and I mean that in the professional not monetary way, although they sure are rich now).

And in hindsight, it was an incredibly stupid thing to say. Serena and Venus are 1 and 2 in the world. They have little real competition. They rarely lose. They beat everybody. They have won 5 of the last eight Grand Slams! The ridiculous part is that Evert wanted Venus to be tough at, like, age 18. OK, say she’d been tough at 18. She would have won that match I saw instead of losing. And she’d be burned out at 25. Now, she’s 22, she only loses the odd match to anyone but Serena and she’s worth millions. She apparently has a life away from tennis. When she does retire, she can move on.

The important point here for me is that while Venus and Serena were certainly very focused on playing and learning the game of tennis, it was not the all-encompassing center of their existence. I think that if more children (and they are children) were allowed to progress at a slower pace, they would have longer, more profitable, more satisfying careers and, maybe, a better life.

Plus, I’ve never really cared for Chris Evert.

Any opinions out there?

2

Crap! I thought this was going to be about how there’s not a single, solitary tennis commentator you can bear to listen to (ESPECIALLY Andre Agassi’s butt licker John McEnroe), and I was going to chime in with a hearty “Me too!”

But since I see that it concerns the Williams sisters, their father, and their seeming lock on every championship for the foreseeable future, I will simply slip away without a hijack.

3

Jeeziz, predicting the winner of one game is hard enough (lord knows I’ve been burned too many times to count…); you’re getting on Evert’s case for not being able to predict a career?

Furthermore, there’s far more than enough evidence that it is possible to get started young and still have a long career. Steffi Graf did. So did Andre Agassi. And Jennifer Capriati…yes, yes, I know about the initial burnout, but she survived that, remember?

I do agree that it’s cruel to push too-young athletes against their will (which is exactly what happened to Capriati; her father’s part, in particular, was just disgusting), but it’s no different for any other sport. Some are far worse than tennis…figure skating, anyone?

Nor is burnout inevitable. I mean, look at Anna Kournikova, who, if anything, should turn it up several notches. There’s a difference between “saving yourself” and “coasting”.

4

Maybe I’m picking on Chris Evert.

[self-hijack] Anyone else think she looks like marilyn chambers?[/self-hijack]

Like I said with the benefit of hindsight. The match I was watching was before Capriati’s comeback, so i think she’s not pertinent. And i can buy your Anna K argument. Maybe it’s just that Evert was sooooooo wrong in this case that I remember it.

I guess my main point is that tennis seems to have a lot of up-and-comers who make a splash and then drown. Or I at least think tennis does.

5

Chris Evert a doppelganger for Marilyn Chambers? Get your mind outta the gutter!