Take it away, Serena…
“I wasn’t moving my fastest but all I could do was try and do the best I could. I don’t know. I definitely wasn’t at my best,” said Williams, who criticized the tournament for its scheduling. “This isn’t a player-favorite tournament, just to be honest. None of the players are really gung-ho about playing here.”
(From Yahoo). For those who didn’t see, the Serena/Nads match was a huge slugfest, with some really great fighting from Nads (including a service hold at 1-all in the second set that was a big turning point) to take the match in 3 sets. Serena, oddly enough, didn’t look too apathetic come the third set. She was frustrated and looked flat out of solutions.
Do I even need to explain why this is stupid? Serena was probably tired from her other match, and was flat out beaten by Nads. And instead of the typical “well I gave the match away” it’s “well no one actually likes it here anyway”. It’s a premier mandatory tournament… and your number 1 seed is bashing the tournament. Just great for the sport. At least the good news is that it’s pushed two weeks forward next year and Rome is turned into a 10 day joint even in this spot next year.
Meanwhile, JJ was keeping the Serbian sisters rivaly alive:
Original Video – More videos at TinyPic
Screw off.
All in all, a pretty ridiculous day. The other two matches included Venus coming back from being down a set to Franny to win, and Lucie hanging on by her toe nails to beat Dulgheru in the third set, 7-6(6).
I guess we should be fortunate that Serena didn’t use her old and tired line of “I was only at ___% today and my opponent just had a lucky day.”
At least she’s bringing out some new material, like any comedian needs to do.
LOL Tim and good on you Brodie for posting. I’ve got no dog in the JJ/Ana/Serbia Civil war, but it is a refreshing change to witness, being a tired old vet of the nadal wars ( fuck this all sounds like a Star Wars Movie).
When i heard about this and Serena, i though, i really hope the gang is podcasting this week, cause surely this is gold baby, gold.
I remember Rafa wasn’t too happy to play last year. Yeah, he said the right things but it was like he was forced. Well, maybe not forced, but he felt obligated. And we all know what happened at this tourny last year with Rafa.
Was it a horrible time to say that? Yes. Should she have said it being the #1 seed in the tourny? No. But what reason does she have to lie? She doesn’t do well in any of these tournaments leading up to the majors and you never hear her say something like this about them.
I don’t know, I never got the impression that the players loved the tournament. You never hear them saying how much they love it or how special it is to them, etc. It’s just there and pretty much mandatory for both tours so they go and play.
As for JJ v. Ana, sorry Brodie, I know Ana’s your girl, but this made me LOL. And no, I’m not a fan of Jelena, I just love a good WTA bitchfest.
Defending Serena and laughing with JJ. I feel like you’re about to hate me Brodie. Blame it on the tennis hiatus thing I have going on right now. It’s got my brain all out of whack.
Oh, the JJ thing is super drama… which you can’t hate on. Cause it’s the WTA, we need the drama. It’s just that she’s hating on Ana (again) which gets me annoyed, and she did it at RG08 too.
Serena can say what she wants… but I think after a loss is just making it sound like a bad excuse. It’s also not really constructive. Rafa seemed to actually have something to say. The courts, the altitude. Serena is just going “wah wah” it sucks here. It’s different.
I kind of like Serena’s honesty here. It did not smack of sour grapes to me and perhaps if the No. 1 player speaks out about how players are being treated then maybe the powers that be will ensure that the facilities are more player friendly. The Spaniards will not be saying much because this is their city and tournament but if you are a fan of tennis, try going to this tournament’s website and finding the OOP. If we as fans cannot navigate the website can you imagine what players and their entourage are going through on a daily basis trying to navigate their way through the tournament site. On another note, I am tired of people bashing players when they speak the truth. Just saying.
I’m tired of ReeRee’s schtick when she loses, but I’m not going to go there. As BG pointed out, she has a legitimate beef about getting put on court #3 when she’s the #1 player in the world.
Looking at the Wed OOP, I would guess that while she was playing: center court had Rafa v. Dolpo, court #2 had Nico v. Sod or Muzz v. Chela. Can anyone say, chauvinism? Couldn’t Ree Ree play on court #2 instead of Nico or Muzz?
I’m glad i’m not the only one that is struggling with the madrid website. I only knew when jj was due to play because of her twitter! And good point tennisace regarding Serena speaking out about the tournament. That hadn’t occured to me. There is something about this tournament that i am not feeling, certainly not in comparison to Rome.
@Forehand Shanker – she was not pissed because she lost, she is pissed because of the treatment that players are not getting in Madrid. And yes there is some amount of chauvinism involved in relation to the court assignments. In addition to that the court conditions are abysmal. There have been so many bad bounces that you can tell that the courts were not prepared properly. Players can injure themselves with uneven clay surfaces and she has every right to call them out on it. I do not know what specifics she was referring to but from what the commentators were saying the conditions were pretty bad.
@Claire, the Madrid website needs to be taken outside and shot. I am not feeling Madrid either. The players do not look very happy there and people are just dropping like flies in order to rest up for the big dance. I just want my faves to get there healthy and happy.
Quick note on the players-court selection that is TOTALLY being ignored is the Spanish people getting preference. With all the big Spanish dudes (Rafa, Ferru, Fer) as well as some of the chicks (MJMS, AMG etc.) a lot of big court time was getting hogged cause of that.
Absolutely agree about the website, for OoP and draws I always use the WTA and ATP sites, but spent way to much yesterday trying to find a page with a transcription or video of Ana’s presser after the Serbian Civil War. Didn’t succeed, is there any? Too much (bad) design and no accessible content. Why can’t tourneys just make light versions of the Slams hompages?
About Serena, well she is known to speak her mind and be extremely self-centered. If she loses it is always because of her, not the opponent. But I have never seen her being spiteful against other players (unlike you, JJ), she just doesn’t care about them. She has always gone her own way and been incredible successful doing it. However many of her fans critizise WTA for not marketing her more and instead trying to make Ana or Caro the poster girl for womens tennis. Well Serena-fans, here you have one of many reasons why the WTA is doing that.
@Calle, LOL so true. Serena is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. You have no idea what will come out of her mouth. As far as she is concerned it is more important to be honest in everything you do rather than toe the party line. She has been like that since the day she came on Tour and I absolutely love her for it. Venus is more diplomatic and I love her for that but I wished she would really say what is on her mind sometimes as her body language says a whole lot.
JJ is a classless bitch. End of.
Hey Curtis. She has been that way for some time. It has to do with her insecurities. She knows she is not all that good and she hates the fact that Ana is in the people’s hearts regardless of her results. I have never liked the heifer and as a one woman protest, I refuse to watch any match that she plays. I hope Rezai kicks her ass tomorrow but even more so I hope she does the whole gamesmanship stuff on her. She is a classless bitch
Agreed TennisAce. Ana has the grand slam title, Ana got to #1 first, Ana is more popular internationally, Ana gets all the photoshoots and magazine covers, Ana is the one adored by the press, etc. JJ is just jealous. I guess the best analogy is, since they’re referred to as the Serbian sisters, Ana is the younger one who gets more attention from everybody and is the more accomplished one, so JJ (the older sister) does everything she can to get attention.
I dislike all the talk of classless bitches. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Claire ordinarily I would agree with you as I am a woman and really do not like to see women compared to dogs, but JJ really does get to me with her behaviour. If she was being competitive I could totally understand but she is not. She is just an attention seeking person and it grates on my nerves when instead of letting her tennis do the talking she has to engage in theatrics to get even more attention. Clearly she does not realise that the fans of the game are tired of her schtick.
Curtis, I totally agree with you in relation to what you say regarding the younger sister thing. Everyone likes the prettier and more accomplished sister. Frankly speaking no matter what Jankovic does she will forever be second best and that must really hurt even more.
I watched the match between jj and ana this morning, which i wasn’t going to do after reading how awful it was. Well, I’m glad i did because it wasn’t terrible and it has changed my mind on the whole fistpump business. I had not realised that at 2-2 30-30 in the second set, jj pushed a ball wide. Ana fistpumped twice – straight at jj. In response, jj fistpumped back and then laughed. And i think that was the only way to respond to someone cheering so obvioulsy at your error. So if i was put-off by the name calling earlier, i have even less patience for it now.
@Clare
I did not see that incident, watched the game while at work so couldn’t concentrate 100% on it. If you have a youtube-link I’d love to see it.
However it isn’t really about the fist pump-mocking, it’s about what she and her mother said after Serbias Fed Cup loss that makes me despite her. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1275343/No-love-lost-big-tennis-fall-Jankovic-Ivanovic.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Despise is quite a strong sentiment to express especially based on a piece written by the daily mail. And what did she essentially say – she’s disappointed by the no show and with Ana the team would have been stronger? I guess its all a matter of interpretation. And sorry – i recorded the match but it must be somewhere out there.
Claire, Ana fistpumped because she won the point, not because she was rubbing her error in her face.
She didn’t ‘win’ the point, it was ‘lost’. And she did a small fist-pump and then a larger one. And how can you possibly know that! Again, its a matter of interpretation.
And let me be clear – i like Ana but what i dislike here is when any player celebrates an opponents error.
I just don’t see the what is all the fuss about fist pumping. Haters are always looking for a reason to hate Ana, but they can’t find any so they make a big deal about something as silly and harmless like fist pumping. Ana is one of the nicest and classiest players in the game. She was voted by her peers for the 2008 WTA sportsmanship award. Ana isn’t celebrating her opponents errors, she just gets a little to excited at times, that’s all.
I agree, all players do get caught up in the moment. And Jelena was probably just a little excited to win. No reason to hate anyone.
@Claire Yes it is a strong word, I despise JJ for constantly trying to backstab and throw shit at Ana. It is perfectly fine to make snide remarks about players one dislikes, see Mashas “Is her name Jankovic?” or Serenas “I’m not Justine” but Ana and JJ are team mates in Fed Cup for Serbia, to pretend that she misses Ana’s moral support when her awful behaviour during the years is probably a big factor in Ana’s desicion to not come is such hypocrisy.
I used to find JJ quite amusing, but for me she has gone too far, she seems like a really small and petty person.
Curtis, while I am a big fan of Ana, that is one part of her on court persona that I do not like – the constant fist pumps after an opponent makes an error. That along with the twirl and the adjes. Yeah, it gets pretty annoying after awhile.