Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tennis Writing, Good, Bad and Ugly

I haven’t spent much time reading tennis media this tournament, so I figured it was high time I did a little policing to see how things are going. First, the Good. I don’t know who Chris Chase of Yahoo Sports is, but I’m following him now. Here’s Chase on Zvonareva’s classic meltdown:

After blowing six match points in the second set of a fourth round match against Flavia Pennetta, No. 7 seed Vera Zvonareva did the following things:

– Cried on the court during the second set tiebreak.

– Hysterically cried in the locker room in between the second and third sets.

– Ripped off a portion of the medical tape that was wrapped around her thighs.

– Complained to the chair umpire that the remaining tape left around her thighs prevented her from playing.

– Screamed an obscenity at the chair umpire when she wouldn’t give her a medical timeout to fix said medical tape.

– Loudly yelled a compound word/profanity after hitting an unforced error.

– Continued to rip the tape off her leg.

– Smashed her racquet into a post.

– Spent the final changeover sitting in her chair with a white towel draped over her head.

– Lost the third set 6-0.

How’s this for Bad Tennis Writing at the New York Times:

At the very least, Williams will have to contend with Pennetta’s indefatigable fighting spirit. After losing the first set to Zvonareva Sunday, Pennetta stared down a six set points, winning most of them with incredibly nervy shot-making with the match hanging in the balance.

It was six *match* points. I knew that and I missed the match. The writer should’ve known that if she lost the first set, and faced six set points in the second, that those were match points. Lazy. Newspapers constantly bitch about blogs and new media not doing as good a job as media printed on dead trees, but from where I sit, I think otherwise.

And also courtesy of the Dead Gray Lady, an Ugly headline: Americans and Enthusiasm Missing in Men’s Draw

Let me get this straight. For most of week 1, the media crowed about the great play of young Americans, men and women. But now that John Isner failed to advance to the quarters, the fist time the final 8 don’t feature an American male… the story is that Men’s Tennis Sucks Because There are No Americans. Don’t question my interpretation of that headline and story either. For ten years we’ve had to battle the American media from declaring tennis “dead” every time it wasn’t sparkling with American talent. After the fireworks from Nadal, Federer and the new blood provided by Joker and Murray, the American public decided tennis was pretty damn great after all. Any moron knows that the “Enthusiasm” is going to be there in the second week, with only Roddick MIA from the top seeds. This means we are in for some epic battles.

And by the way, let’s not hang the woe-is-me-Americans-waaaa story on Isner. He played brilliantly against Roddick and lost to a player who is in the top 10 today. Verdasco had too much physicality for fragile Big John. If Isner trains like a maniac, he will make plenty of grand slam quarters in the years to come.

[Via http://passingshots.wordpress.com]

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