Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Serena Williams and a Great Set of Tennis
In 2009, Serena Williams made headlines with an outburst directed at a lines woman. Williams was competing against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the U.S. Open when a foot fault was called against. The events that followed are well documented, as are those of Sunday night's incident. This time against Sam Stosur in the U.S. Open final she directed her anger at the chair umpire.
I'm not going into detail about what happened since it's been a topic of much discussion for the last several days, nor am I defending Williams' tirade, which did get rather personal. The thing is that I've talked to a few people and seen various posts on the Internet saying that Williams should be banned or that she should never be allowed to play again. They claim that she is a disgrace and they are right and that's precisely why I'm about to defend her.
Firstly, we all say things in the heat of the moment that we probably shouldn't have said and the same can be said of Williams in this instance, as well as others. Furthermore, I believe the game would be worse off without people losing their cool and going mad at an umpire.
Of course we all watch for the tennis, but tennis, and sports in general, is nothing more than live non-scripted theater. We watch for the emotional ebbs-and-flows and the drama. As a result, when we see someone acting in a way that they shouldn't, our interest piques. It adds a little spice to the proceedings and sports would be a little less enthralling without the "bad men/women."
Williams is "bad" and that's her appeal. Like the gun-wielding cowboy who fights for good, yet shows of evil, she divides the audience. Some will watch to see Williams play great tennis because they admire her ability and want to see her progress, whilst others will watch to see her get her comeuppance and lose. There is no middle ground. You either love her or hate her and people like that are always needed in sport.
That's not to say that she shouldn't have been more severely punished. Given that she was on "probation" from the 2009 incident, a $2,000 fine does seem somewhat pathetic. In the meantime, however, let's just sit back and enjoy the show because when she's on the court, it's about as enthralling as it can get.
Meanwhile, hats off to Novak Djokovic for winning his third major title of the year. With only two losses, he's quite possibly having the best year anyone has ever had and it's certainly the best year I've ever witnessed.
Both Djokovic and Rafael Nadal deserve credit for putting on a great show in the final, particularly the third set. After Djokovic had taken the first two sets, he looked to be coasting towards the title with an early break in the third. At that point, Nadal's fightback began and throughout the third set the tennis was just about as good as it gets. Both men were hitting the ball hard and clean and neither man would yield. In some ways, it would've been more fitting if Djokovic had won the tiebreak and that had been the final set. As it is, the final set was an anti-climax.
The third set, however, was one of the best sets of tennis I've ever seen and definitely the best this year, though the first set between Roger Federer and Djokovic at Roland Garros is a very close second.
It will be interesting to see what happens as we go forward given the dynamic that seems to exist. Djokovic clearly has the beating of Nadal, but Federer looks capable of beating Djokovic, whilst Nadal has the beating of Federer.