Rafael Nadal vs Billie Jean King?

Nadal is quite obviously right.

Here’s another example. I turn on my TV and watch the morning show and there are three women and no men on the Today show set. If we wanted equality there would obviously be a man there but TV viewers prefer seeing women talk about the weather and their hair in the morning and that drives ratings.

People who debate these things are being silly.

Amongst Idiotic Questions Journalists Ask this surely ranks with the one a certain person (I know who it was) asked Serena Williams recently: Had she ever felt envious of Maria Sharapova’s blonde good looks ?

Bill Simons used to edit Grantland, which was part of ESPN or something like that, I’m not sure. It was closed a year or so ago and he currently edits ‘Inside Tennis’ in California. Grantland as far as I could see was an online mag devoted to sports and related things – a lot of basketball. Not bad writing.

But Simons has always been obsessed with Serena, I mean really obsessed to the point it seems a bit weird. He’s written some really pretentious stuff about her. Can’t keep an appropriate journalistic distance. Well, obviously.

The worst thing is – you NEVER ask a woman if she feels jealous/envious of another woman’s appearance. It’s an insult – suggests that she’s lacking in that department herself. As you say, insane.

I can only imagine Simons had some kind of brainstorm.

Actually – I’ve noticed that Bill Simmons is the guy I’m referring to, although he’s referred to as ‘Bill Simons’ in a couple of reports I saw. So I may be talking about the wrong man.

However Bill Simmons does edit a tennis magazine and he does have an obsession with Serena Williams. And he did work for ESPN at some stage.

Novak losing to Cecchinato doesn’t look quite so bad now – Novak is No. 21 and Cecc is No. 27!!!

Scoop – I agree with you. Simons’ question was completely inappropriate in a post match interview (or anywhere). And bearing in mind Serena is black and Maria white – with differing perceptions of ‘beauty’ among many other issues – the impertinence and insensitivity take your breath away. The sort of stuff you see on Youtube chat.

The subject of physical looks is extremely personal and can be very hurtful in implication. Has anyone ever asked some of the German girls if they are envious of Kerber’s looks ? They wouldn’t dare. And the answer would probably be no. Again, imagine asking Simona the same question. That might put things a bit in perspective for Dan.

And Serena has no reason to be jealous of Maria’s money. She’s got plenty of her own. Absolutely irrelevant.

Back to tennis – Osaka is playing in Nottingham and has reached the third round. She’s seems serious about improving on all surfaces – I’m sure Sascha will be encouraging her in that – potentially Naomi’s got a decent game for grass. Japanese Wimbledon champion someday ?

Amazon Prime are now getting tennis locked up – just added Queens to the bundle. So it’s goodbye highlights I suppose unless I sign up to Prime – don’t know what the world’s coming to.

Except yes I do – the Amazon cloud getting bigger than the Universe 🙂

Catherine, I did see the match. Denis, with his go for broke style, is not a very consistent player. In that match he would hit a brilliant shot one minute, and then shank the next. And to give Gunneswaran credit, he played pretty well. The first set TB was very close, and then Denis ran away with the 2nd set. But my stream died halfway through the third set, and I could only follow the scores. Denis did badly and then fought back at the very end, when it was too late.

Scoop, Denis could not be expected to continue to play at the crazy level he did last summer. He is still learning his craft and, for someone who had never one a match on red clay before this spring, didn’t do badly during the clay season. He is in the top 25, more than respectable for a 19-year-old youngster.

Bartoli has now abandoned any ideas of a comeback and seems a little confused about her future. Coaching ? I wouldn’t think so.

Again, while I’m not a Bill Simon’s fan, i think his question is appropriate while not maybe political correct. If you have to write a feature on a player, you have to go beyond the standard, “Well, what were you thinking at 4-5 in the third set” type question The question is asked not so much to get a straight answer from Serena, but to see if there’s anything beneath the surface in the way Serena thinks about Maria.

Obviously, “looks” question are more pertinent in women’s tennis than men’s, but if you saw the “Borg v Mac” movie you got the indication that McEnroe was if not jealous of Borg’s looks, the Swede had long wavy-straight hair that women adored and piercing good looks while McEnroe had kinky brown hair and less defined good look’s features, at least he was aware that he was going to have to beat the Swede on the court because he wasn’t going to surpass him in off-court popularity.

This same sentiment might’ve driven Serena as well to dominate Maria as she might’ve thought, “I’m never going to have Maria’s long blonde hair or long silky legs so I’ve got to defeat her soundly on the court.”

You never know as a reporter what question is going to elicit an interesting and revealing response from a player. And if you’re looking for more than just the standard fare–like I remember being in the press room in Cincinnati when Agassi said Sampras looked like an ape. We were all stunned and I forgot who asked the question where Agassi responded, but when two rivals are known to have had a checkered relationship, as a reporter you try to draw out the bends and curves of their relations so a question like Simon’s I feel is on the up and up.

Let’s not forget – these are real people, they’re not toys. They have real emotions which they do not have to share with anyone in the media. We don’t know what Serena and Maria’s true relationship is – it’s possible they don’t have one.

Scoop – those questions of yours are more sensitive but my guess is that neither Maria nor Serena would answer them. Or just with clichés.

Dan – even for a reporter I believe there are limits to what we need to know about players – the ‘bends and curves’ of their relationship on and off the court are none of our business. It’s just a kind of gossip. And belongs in the gossip columns. And very often it’s wrong.

I doubt Serena has ever spent two seconds thinking about Sharapova’s appearance – she’s a proud black woman who also happens to be a much better player than Maria. Why should she want to look like her or be envious of her or her fan following ? Serena most likely plays for herself.

We can construct scenarios which satisfy our need for theatrics and drama but can also veer dangerously close to libel if we forget about others’ feelings and about reality.

If you’re writing a feature, doing an interview,and someone confides or volunteers information – that’s fine. If they choose not to then you can end up writing the kind of stuff Bill Simons does. Intrusive, presumptuous and of doubtful accuracy.

That’s why I think his question went beyond what’s permissible in a public press conference.

Scoop those are great questions. I’d like to see them asked except the doubles one in which she would way I only play with Venus.

Interesting usage by Dan of “curves and bends” and not how I would use that phrase!

Wow Rena and Coco Puffs? That would be amazing.

I think the premise that Serena is jealous of Maria’s looks is flawed because it presents the argument to say that all men think Maria is more beautiful. I believe that is far from the case. Without saying too much more, Serena’s muscular, thick body has plenty of appeal to many men. I believe if you took a poll on this, it would be about 55 percent or so in favor of Maria. I could be wrong.

Now if we are talking about comparing Kournikova’s looks to Serena and Maria, that’s a whole another story…

There is no question that Maria going after Grigor upset Serena and there is bad blood over that. Serena may have felt that. Thankfully for Grigor, he moved on from both even though his career is a shadow of both women. Grigor, though, as someone who dated both is an example of how you can’t say which woman is more beautiful.

I may be dating myself but I had a thing for Barbara Schett back in the day. We all loved Chrissie too.

So Dan is one responsible for those questions? I guess both Roger and A-Rod shut up that line of questioning really quick. Nice to see they didn’t fall for it.

I feel for Bartoli. The woman is mental. Hopefully she can stick to being an RG MC and not go too far off the deep end.

I am going to take Fucsovics in the upset over Milos.

Stephen,

Scoop and me discussed that match on the Hewitt thread so you are a bit late to the party. But yes brutal defeat and shows that DY is ready to be a club pro in Kamau Murray’s academy in my estimation. He is going to have to grind and win some challengers and he can’t even beat no-name bums in the 600s.

You know my theory that not apologizing to Harry for the fake racism claim has given him bad karma. He needs to come out and apologize; it’s no biggie since these kind of fabrications are sadly all too commonplace in today’s America.

Word is that DY has a Black Panther-type gf like Colin Kapernick so that may explain his downfall similar to Kapernick.

Off course there are questions which are ‘off-limits’ to sports reporters. We know what they are.

Everyone, famous or not, is entitled to a private life. We know now a little how it was for Kerber when she was going through her horrible year because she’s talked about some of her feelings, but that was her decision and believe me, she hasn’t revealed anything she doesn’t want outsiders to know.

Duke – ha ha – I ‘ve been there when some nosey asked Chris a question which she deemed inappropriate – her look would have stunned an elephant 🙂

My big complaint about Bill Simons is the way he murders the English language. Can’t forgive that.

Duke that clip’s hilarious 🙂

Scoop- I think there’s a difference between questions asked in an interview (and your Biofiles are mini-interviews) and the routine fodder served up in a press conference. Interviews are kind of organic – something between the interviewer and subject.

Players very rarely do interviews these days – can’t remember the last decent one I read, because agents and PR flacks are frightened of them. Mostly they come through product promotion (eg Kerber/Porsche)or in a glossy for publicity and are strictly controlled.

My view is that it’s perfectly possible for a knowledgeable and experienced journalist to report a match without speaking to the players at all. Used to be done in the past. After all, when you go the theatre, ballet etc do you interview the performers afterwards ?