It’s Serena’s world and we’re just living in it
First off, kudos to Sweden’s Robin Soderling for pulling off a stunning upset of prohibitive French Open favorite Rafael Nadal in the fourth round Sunday. We don’t typically use the word “upset” a lot around here, given that the term has been rendered useless due to rampant overuse in the media (sorry ESPN, but the No. 12 team in the country beating the No. 9 team in the country on their own floor is NOT an upset, no matter how many times you post it on the crawl).
Soderling’s victory, however, truly qualifies as an upset. No modern player has dominated the clay the way Nadal has. He had won 31 consecutive matches heading into Sunday’s stunner, and hadn’t dropped a set since beating Roger Federer in the 2007 final.
Nadal, not surprisingly, was cordial in the wake of his loss. The classy Spaniard praised his opponent, saying afterward, “He didn’t surprise me because I know how he plays and how dangerous he can be.”
On the opposite end of the “classy” spectrum, we now present … Serena Williams.
You’ve probably heard by now that America’s tennis sweetheart accused her Saturday opponent, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, of “cheating” in Williams’ three-set victory. The contention centered around a pivotal point in the first set in which Williams fired a backhand at her Spaniard foe, who had come to the net. Martinez Sanchez, out of desperation to protect herself from the missile shot, raised her racket. The ball then glanced off either her racket, her arm or both, and the point was awarded to Martinez Sanchez. The Spaniard insisted the ball went off her racket, and Serena cried foul, during the ensuing changeover and post-match news conference.
After chiding the chair umpire for awarding her opponent the point (“That’s totally not cool,” Serena said.), Williams even lobbed a threat to the umpire by saying “She better not come to the net again.”
So let’s recap the World According to Serena:
- In Serena’s World, it’s OK to cheat the paying fans of your game by routinely showing up to events grossly out of shape, or by dogging it through matches when things aren’t going your way (see sister Venus Williams’ pouty performance in a straight-set loss to Agnes Szavay on Friday).
- In Serena’s World, it’s OK to cheat your opponents out of credit for beating you by showing up to every post-loss news conference and proclaim “I beat myself out there today.”
- In Serena’s World, it’s not OK to cheat her out of a point she so richly deserves when she’s absolutely, positively certain you’re a big, fat liar.
The amazing part is these two windbags still can’t figure out after all these years why crowds always choose to get behind their opponents rather than them. Vexing, ain’t it?
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