I keep hearing from the Open announcers that Serena might have behaved poorly in the interview following her loss to Justine Henin. I missed it.
Would someone please fill me in?
Is the interview on YouTube. or elsewhere?
Thank you AudreyK and DustyButt.
Her sister was awesome in her on-court interview after she won last night. Incredibly likeable.
Ugh. is this for real? No one likes a sore loser, but she was hardly pulling a McEnroe. This is almost as bad as a letter to the editor I read (in the NY Times, maybe?) that blamed players like her and her sister for taking all the ‘grace’ out of the sport by grunting and wearing flashy outfits.
She wasn’t a sore loser, she was an arrogant loser. She can’t quite grasp the concept that someone else played better than her that day, even a person who’s currently the world’s #1 ranked player, a person who she’s lost to 6 times in 12 lifetime matches. It’s not like Henin is some low ranked schlub who just played the game of her life.
I’d rather have a McEnroe style blow up or hear complaining loudly about the officiating, or hear nothing at all, than dismissing the efforts of her opponent.
I have to agree with Cat Fight. She’s a young woman who’s very confident in her abilities, and felt she didn’t play up to them. She was understandably upset, and had to handle yet another round of inane questions from inane sports reporters. She didn’t dismiss the effort of her opponent (well, except for the lucky shot remark); Serena feels that when she plays her best, she can beat anyone. She didn’t play her best, and she knew that she didn’t play her best. Given what she has accomplished, that isn’t necessarily a bad assessment.
Would you prefer she approach the match like Roddick versus Federer, walking onto Centre Court knowing and accepting that her hiney was going to get whupped?
Roddick went on the court last night, played his heart out and lost in straight sets. In the press conference, he didn’t attribute the loss to Federer’s “lucky shots.”
Serena’s not a nice person. She has no class.
Maybe she is grumpy because she is pregnant.
Waaait a second. Men tennis players can grunt, have horrible hair (or be known for their hair) and dress like shit but when a woman grunts and wears “flashy” clothes she’s doing something wrong and taking “grace” away from the game?
Damn. Makes me glad my fave sport of all time is reining.
It’s always weird to watch a match where one player grunts and the other player is silent.
That’s not what the “grace” comment was about.
Yes, everyone should always be graceful. Whenever a player losses a match, they should go into the post match interview and say, “My opponent, fill-in-the-blank, was a better player than me today. I’m just happy to have been able to compete.” Hell, they should all just tape it.
Personally, I’m surprised more athletes don’t answer as Serena did. Unlike Roddick, she went into the match thinking, “If I play my game, I’m a winner.” Unfortunately, she didn’t play her game, and got thumped. She was likely more upset at herself than anyone else, and then had to face the legions of sportswriters - many who probably just got their jobs after being released by The Weekly World News. Good thing I’m not a pro athelete or celebrity of any sort. I’d make Steve Carlton seem garrulous.
I probably would as well. But calling an opponent who is #1 in the world, and beats her as often as she loses to her, lucky is just stupid and whiney. As is complaining that she can’t afford the fines if she skips the press conference. Cry me a fucking river. She could skip every press conference and never miss a beat. Hell, she could retire tomorrow on what she has made already.
I’ll give you that one. You could interpret it as Serena being facetious (I’ve made similar statements about going to the poorhouse over $5 or something just as trivial), but she should know that even if I interpreted it correctly, the press would jump down her throat at a statement like that. Journalists don’t do sarcasm well - ever. I didn’t see the part of the conference where she called Henin lucky, but I did see where she claimed she could beat Henin if she plays her best, and where she commented on not being able to afford missing the conferences. The first didn’t come out well, but I saw it more as confidence in her own abilities rather than knocking Henin’s. If anyone took the latter seriously, they need their sarcasm meters adjusted. Personally, I don’t believe that the journalists really took is seriously, but they love to get outraged over nonsense. Sells papers.
Yeah, that was the kicker for me.
She could quite easily have made clear that she didn’t think she played her best tennis, and that she thought she could have won the match if she had, without calling the world’s number 1 ranked player lucky for beating her.
But i’ve also gotta agree with D_Odds about the inanity of sports reporter questions, especially ones at post-match press conferences. I literally do not think i’ve ever learned anything useful from one of those, whether it’s baseball or football or tennis or whatever. Not only are the questions often simplistic and inane, sometimes the reporters don’t even ask questions, but simply request that the athlete hold forth on some general aspect of the game. “You guys were down by 8 at half-time, but you put together a 26-10 run in the third quarter. Talk about the turnaround and what the coach said to the team at halftime.”
This sort of boilerplate shit never gets anything except boilerplate answers. “Well, the coach told us that if we kept our head in the game and concentrated on scoring baskets and playing defense we could win. We came back out and just played as a team.” Well no shit! If you score baskets, and don’t let the other team score baskets, you might win the game? Do go on! And playing as a team helped you do better in a basketball game? Whodathunk? [I don’t mean to pick on basketball in particular here; it’s just an example. Probably the most common phrase in tennis (and golf) postmatch press conferences by a loser are “I just didn’t make enough shots today.” Another blindingly brilliant insight!]
I don’t blame the athletes; they’re paid to play the game, not to be public speakers. But the world of sports reporting seems to think that they’re only doing their job if they get some inane athlete comments which generally just repeat age-old bromides and/or tell everyone what they just saw in the game anyway.
Let’s face it, a good sports reporter should be able to do his or her job fine without ever once speaking to an athlete. Learn the game, report about the game, analyze the game. Hell, you don’t even need to be at the event to do that. I think a good sports reporter should be able to write a perfectly decent story after watching the game on TV.
To add to mhendo, when you (sports journalists) get a pro willing to speak, ask intelligent questions. Instead of "“You guys were down by 8 at half-time, but you put together a 26-10 run in the third quarter. Talk about the turnaround and what the coach said to the team at halftime.”, try “You guys were down by 8 at half-time, but you put together a 26-10 run in the third quarter. What adjustments did you make to account for their defense in the first half?” Be specific.
Instead we got (I’ll try to come as close as I can from memory):
“You said that when you play your best, you can beat anyone.”
Serena answered with a question, “Did it look to you like I played my best today?”
Is it wrong for Serena to think that? Or is it just wrong for her to say it?
Absolutely wrong. Roddick was incredibly focused and positive in his match for the first two sets. He played his heart out and it still wasn’t quite good enough. There are many players who mentally give up as soon as they see they are playing Federer, but Roddick wasn’t one of them. And yet he was still gracious afterwards despite being very disappointed that he lost.
Serena is classless. Venus used to be similar but has matured and I like her more and more.
Ah. Went back, re-read the thread from the beginning. :smack:
Nothing to see here, move along…