Posts filed under ‘Tennis’
Game Set and Shut Up
There were many things to be happy about in the Men’s final of the Australian Open.
First of all what a superb game of tennis, played by two true gentlemen and sportsman, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The match went five hours and 53 minutes and was almost an hour longer than the previous longest match in a grand slam final. That was the four hours and 54 minutes Mats Wilander took to beat Ivan Lendl at the 1988 US Open.
The second plus was that Channel Seven showed the game live in Perth. What a welcome change it was to be able to watch a major sporting event life as it was happening in Perth.
As mentioned both men were respectful of each other after the match, and the organizers, sponsors and all who made the vent the success it is each year.
Now maybe we are becoming slightly grumpy as we get older, but do the post game speeches have to be so long? It was abundantly clear that both players were spent forces, cramping up and struggling to stay on their feet. It took a while for chairs to be brought out for them so that they could sit through the speeches and the relief on both players’ faces when they did arrive was immediately evident.
We know that the sponsors want their money’s worth of air time at the end of the tournament, and to be fair the gentleman from Kia, the official sponsor spoke superbly, and eloquently, but is it necessary to have the head of Tennis Australia waffle on so long?
Fans and players alike really are not that interested in hearing from sports administrators at such events, they want to hear from the victor and the vanquished. Let us hope that the one thing to come out of this fantastic final is that the post match speeches need to be shorter.
Like this:
Sto-pendous
Congratulations to Sam Stosur for her emphatic victory over Serena Williams in the US open final.
While many were marveling at the return of Serena Williams from along term injury, many let their focus leave Sam Stosur.
Maybe that was because she did not play on centre court until the final. Maybe it was because an Australian had not won the Women’s US Open title for 37 Years when West Australian Margaret Court claimed the title.
Sam Stosur became the first female Grand Slam winner in 31 years since Evonne Cawley won the country’s last title. Australian women’s tennis has had many oh-so-near moments in those 31 years, which makes this moment all the more special.
Many in tennis circles believed that Stosur had what it took to win a major, and now she has proved to her self that she does. Congratulation Sam Stosur on becoming a major part of Australian and World Tennis history.
No Card for Novak
After viewing Novak Djokovic’s impression Maria Sharapova, we believe he is unlikely to be on the Russian’s Christmas card list. But he does a fantastic, job, a great tennis player who doesn’t take it too seriously.
Deserving to be Sent to Coventry
With all the riots currently taking place in the UK the charges against Darren Swain seem a little harsh, or do they?
Mr. Swain is a postman in Coventry England and he has just been found guilty of racially aggravated criminal damage.
He scrawled in his depots toilets that Andy Murray was ” a useless jock.”
Knowing where he wrote this Confucious-esque thought, one wonders if he might have been better of using terms more appropriate for the toilets.
Risky? Na!
Congratulations to China’s Li Na, on becoming the first player from an Asian nation to win a grand-slam title. By winning the French Open on Saturday, Li who has earned 5 WTA and 19 ITF singles titles moved to No. 4 in the world rankings.
It’s easy to underestimate her achievement; she has had to break a lot of new ground to go from novelty Chinese tennis player to Grand Slam winner. Li Na started playing tennis a virtually unknown sport in China at the age of 9. Growing up in China’s highly centralized and rigid sports program, similar to the former Soviet Union’s, she would have had to endure strict management and would have had to have made immense sacrifices.
Her father, who was an amateur badminton player, wanted her to pursue this sport. He passed away from cardiovascular disease when Li was 14, and it was her coach who introduced her to tennis. Li She joined China’s National Tennis Team in 1997 and graduated to the ITF circuit. By age of 20 she was in the Top 200 in the world.
She left the national tennis team to study and she completed her bachelor degree in journalism eventually in 2009. She did however return to the national team in 2004.
In late 2008, Li quit China’s tennis program becoming a free player and started her own team. This meant that she was able to choose her own coach, and she only had to pay 8-12% of her winnings to the government compared with 65% she had paid in the past.
She is now responsible for her own financial security, paying for her coach, traveling and everything on her own. Many in China believe this was a very daring move for someone who has always been looked after by the Chinese sports system, but it is a move that has paid dividends with an appearance in the Australian Open Final in 2011 and victory in the 2011 French Open.
One can’t help feeling there is still plenty more to come from this young lady.
Na Never Boring
She may not have won the Australian Open, but China’s Li Na won the hearts of tennis fans with her brutal honesty, and her declaration of love for her husband after her loss to Kim Clijsters in the final.
She has put Chinese tennis on the map and has been a breath of fresh air to the sport as shown in this interview after her semi final win over World Number one Caroline Wozniacki. Let us hope she continues to make Grand Slam finals and entertain both on and off the court.
Great Dane
No we are not referring to the dog, but Danish tennis player and current World number one Caroline Wozniacki.
We admire her tennis immensely but it was the handling of the media after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, taking charge of her post-match news conference, that we think makes her pretty special.
“Can I start this?” she said nervously on entering the interview room. “Yesterday I got the question by the media; they said that my press conferences were kind of boring, that I always gave the same answers.”
“I find it quite funny because I always get the same questions. So I’m just going to start. I know what you’re going to ask me already. So I’m just going to start with the answers.”
The 20-year-old Wozniacki said that she felt “great” on court, and was “happy” to get revenge on Cibulkova after losing to her last week. She was “happy” to be in the last 16, and she felt no pressure at being number one without a grand slam win.
“Hopefully this was a little bit different than usual,” she concluded, looking up from her notes with a big smile on her face as the media saw the funny side. “And now you can maybe give me some questions that are a little bit more interesting.”
Sampras Loses Memories
It was sad to read at the weekend that tennis legend Pete Sampras had lost a large number of his trophies from and extremely illustrious career. But it was amazing to hear that this priceless pieces were stolen from a public storage unit where he had stashed dozens of boxes stuffed with various memorabilia.
What is more Sampras has admitted that the boxes were uninsured as it was impossible to work out a value.
Sampras still has 13 of his 14 Grand Slam trophies, “everything else” is gone. It is doubtful that the stolen trophies will be sold on, as they will be too easily traceable. Some consolation for Sampras is that the ITF has said that if the property is not recovered, it will make sure the American gets copies of his 1992 and 1995 Davis Cup.
One has to ask why you would store such memorabilia in a public storage unit, and also have in uninsured. Game set and match to the thieves.
De- Kleining Career
Australian tennis player Brydan Klein is a troubled soul of that there can be no doubt.
In June last year he was fined and suspended for racially abusing South African opponent Raven Klaassen at a London event. At the time he said he had learned his lesson and was determined to overcome his temper on the court.
This week we read that he launched a verbal attack on the tournament stringer at the Goldfields St Ives International tournament on Sunday, after he lost the final of the tournament. He also complained about the standard of the court.
Isn’t there a line that a bad workmen always blames his tools?
Last month Tennis Australia rightly withdrew his coaching support, it really is time this 20 year old grew up, or he will soon find invitations to tournaments will dry up. When you are ranked number one you can throw a tantrum, a la Mcenroe, but when you are ranked 236 it looks like sour grapes.
