Thursday, June 4, 2009
Open Letter to Serena Williams
I watched your press conference today, Serena. I'm sorry you lost. Yes, Serena, you lost.
Yes, usually when someone loses it's because they couldn't raise their game enough to triumph. But that doesn't mean that the other player didn't cause you to play that in a way that contributed to your loss. If I look at the match statistics, it was pretty even, except Svetlana Kuznetsova won a lot more points when receiving serve and won 20% more of the points on her second serve than you did. That pretty much says it all. That is probably not because of you. For the most part, those two statistics are driven by the performance of the player, not the opponent.
In your press conference, you stated, "Honestly, I think I lost because of me and not because of anything she did." Serena, you really need a reality check. You didn't make her win. Especially when receiving serve. The server always has the advantage (unless you are Elena Dementieva) and they usually force you into making a bad, weak, or otherwise unwanted shot.
I am still waiting for the Serena (or Venus) press conference where you actually acknowledge that your opponents have names. She has one, you know. Her name is Svetlana. How about you use herr name sometime in the press conferences?
Second, how about complimenting her play sometime? Svetlana outplayed you when the big points counted. She clearly played at a high level today. When you were asked about how she played, all you could muster was, "Obviously, she played well to walk away with the win." I know you are disappointed in your play, and no, you don't have to smile or be sunny during the interviews, but please, how about you actually give credit where credit is due? Just because you don't want to acknowledge it doesn't mean you shouldn't.
I will probably suffer a rash of hate mail after this column, but I don't really care. Once again, just when I think that Serena or Venus have turned a corner, they bring me back to reality. One of the things that makes a great champion is how gracious they are in defeat. It's easy to be gracious in victory.
I think one of the things I miss most about the early Open era players was their attitude, the civility. Great players, great champions, who always gave their opponents respect. I was young, but I'll never forget the 1971 WTC Championship match between Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. Laver was the king of tennis, Rosewall an aging but still amazing player going on 20 years of playing. Some say it may still be the greatest single match ever. And in the end, Rosewall took the match. The after-match interviews were short, but Laver gave full credit to Rosewall. He didn't say that Rosewall didn't win. He didn't say that it was really just that he lost. Same for Federer at Wimbledon last year. He gave Rafa all his props.
Some of my colleagues want to just pass Serena's comment off as, as one who shall remain nameless said, "it's just the way the kids are today. It doesn't really mean anything." Baloney. You can't blame this on youth. You can't blame this on culture. You really can't blame this on anything more than Serena being Serena.
Maybe when Serena wins her next major tournament, she will say something like, "Honestly, (insert player name here) didn't lose today because of me, it wasn't anything great that I did. She should have won." Yeah, in my dreams.