Its been a day now since the conclusion of the U.S. Open and, frankly, I'm exhausted. Every day for the last few days has been such drama!
What am I thinking about after the end of this Slam?
1. The Serena Williams implosion during her semi-final match against Kim Clijsters was just ugly. Even though she's been fined, has made the requisite apologies (heartfelt or not) and tried to move on, its still front page news (at least in my newspaper). I'm tired of this story. Can't we hear about incredible mom Kim Clijsters and her amazing return to tennis?
2. But here's the big lesson I took away from that situation: don't lose control. I think Serena was going down in that match no matter what and she knew it. But she guaranteed that with her behavior. And not just because her actions resulted in a penalty point that turned out to be match point. She had obviously worked herself up to quite a state before the foot fault was called and I don't think she was going to finish out in anything even nearly approaching a calm and cool state of mind.
3. On the other hand, here's a story we STILL never hear: that Serena made it so deep into the singles draw and still managed to win women's doubles with her sister, Venus. I just find that amazing but none of the commentators seem to talk about it.
4. Juan Martin Del Potro defeats Roger Federer – and I'm actually excited about this! My husband is not. He wants to see records broken, i.e., Federer winning another Slam. I, on the other hand, want to be surprised. I don't want to keep seeing Federer play Nadal.
5. How great was Melanie Oudin? She was a true break-out star at the U.S. Open and I'm sad the season is pretty much over just because I'd love to see what happens with her next. We'll just have to wait until the Australian Open.
6. Leander Paes is a pretty incredible doubles player. This is probably old news to a lot of people but, because the Tennis Channel, ESPN, the networks, etc. choose to show so little doubles, I'm only now really noticing him. He won in men's doubles and lost in the finals of mixed doubles. Hopefully, we'll see more doubles play in the future.
7. Finally, I'm a little tired of hearing Bud Collins tell me how Rene Lacoste made such a huge contribution to tennis when he invented the polo shirt.
© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved
I wholeheartedly agree. Nice review. I do hope that Melanie enjoys her little ride of fame (Ellen, People, etc.)and gets back to the focus that it will require to sustain competition in the upper echelons of the game. This game of ours is tough to maintain with a lot of distractions. I want to see more of her.
The doubles coverage was great. Thanks Tennis Channel for that. A whole lot of players got the exposure they deserve. Also wheelchair tennis…
Oh and John McEnroe can make any tennis match interesting no matter how much of a baseline slugfest it is. Gimelstob should take a page…