DRAMA Takes Over the WTA
Did someone at the WTA consult with WWE folks and decide the way to make people watch their matches is to have it's players deliver verbal smack downs to each other? Today the barbs are flying hot and heavy. Here's a sample.
Q. This is going back a little bit, but you lost to Jelena in Madrid. I was wondering when you heard about that fist pump imitation she did after the match and just what your reaction was.
ANA IVANOVIC: You know, it's very, very hard for me to comment on that, you know. You know how they say: Sport doesn't build character. It shows it. Yeah, it's very hard for me to say.
Q. So apparently Ana was talking about what happened in Madrid after the match with you and the fist pump. You want to talk about, you know, your version of that? I know it was a big win for you, but why you decided...
JELENA JANKOVIC: What was her version?
Q. Well, she basically said that, you know, sports reveals character. That's what she was saying.
JELENA JANKOVIC: For me, you know, I don't need really to comment on that, you know. I don't think it's a right time to comment on this kind of thing.
But for me, as a player, it's ‑‑ every player has their way of, you know, motivating themselves and pumping themselves up, you know, if you win a point or you didn't win a point. But I don't think it's nice to put it, you know, the fist in their face. That's what can be a little irritating. That's the only ‑‑ but all the players, they do, you know, different kind of gestures, you know, with their hands.
But, you know, it's a little bit ‑‑ when you do that in the player's face, and especially after not winning a point after your opponent missed an easy ball, I don't think it's ‑‑ I don't think that's fair play.
Then there's this. The word "gross" in French means fat.
Notorious French interviewer Marc Olivier Fogiel has provoked outrage in France, following comments he made this morning on Europe 1 radio programme.
Walter Bartoli is understood to be extrememly angry and seeking to have it out with Fogiel on a French news station this evening.
Fogiel was previously embroiled in an incident over a racial slur, and two years running was voted the most disliked and unfriendly interviewer in France.
And this doozie. The link is in Russian.
Rausa Islanova on the split between her daughter Dinara Safina and Željko Krajan.
" Being a coach myself I can say that Krajan's coaching has produced almost zero result. I couldn't step it in because Dinara has got good results, (but) it had been based on her (previous)collaboration with her former coaches. Željko just listened to her and realized what were the things Dinara hadn't worked on with other coaches. Perhaps he used to say her something that she as a girl was pleased to hear. But the work that was to be done hasn't been done.
During this 2 years he hasn't make it better, he only made the shortcomings of her game worse. (Gaston) Etlis had arrived to Paris 2 days before the French Open started, Hernan Gumi had helped her before that. Anyway, problems can not be solved quickly and Dinara understands that.
It should be said that she did get to the Number #1 ranking and three Grand Slam finals. Anastasia Myskina said something very similar yesterday and also accused Kimiko Date Krumm of faking injury to throw Dinara off.
Finally there's this exchange reported by the Polish Press. The link is in Polish.
Robert Radwanski counted all errors of his daughter. Discretely, silently - hardly anyone heard it. Unfortunately Aga outbursted and started the polemic. She began: "Shut up, go home with all your mathematics, get out!" afterwards it got worse: "You're still counting? Fuck off! Do you understand? Fuck off!"
I wonder if they'll hand out popcorn before pressers and matches going forward?
Tennis News
There was tennis played today despite all the rain. Maybe some players would've preferred that their matches be postponed to tomorrow.
Alisa Kleybanova handed Ana Ivanovic a bagel.
Yaroslava Shvedova sent Agniezska Radwanska packing.
Jarmila Groth defeated injured Kimiko Date Krumm.
Anastasia Rodionova defeated Vera Zvonareva. The Tournament Director and the WTA must as thrilled as the French fans.
End Notes
With all of the filmed footage available to ESPN of players from all over the world the casual American tennis fan has to be forgiven for thinking that the tennis world consists of Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova (I know she's Russian but that is downplayed on ESPN), John Isner, and Venus Williams especially if she's wearing that black lace thingy. After showing Andy Roddick and Venus Williams matches ad nauseum the commentators got to drool over the Monogram to close things out.
The American sports establishment has finally gotten the message that the rest of the world could care less about football and baseball and is now actively promoting the World Cup. Maybe in another few years the American tennis establishment will start to promote tennis as a world sport and not focus just on Americans who play "those people".
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