The French have a had a pretty good post-Wimbledon run, led by Gilles Simon, who captured Indianapolis and made it to the semifinals in Toronto, beating Federer in the process. Other French success:
Fabrice Santoro defended his title at Newport. Meanwhile, his namesake, le chat, easily conquered Big Ben.
Alize Cornet continues to impress, winning the Gaz de France in Budapest.
Marion Bartoli lost in the finals of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.
Pauline Parmentier captured a Tier III event in Austria.
Simon's big breakthrough should goad the other French players to, in the words of Emeril Lagasse, kick it up a notch. Tsonga and Monfils need to follow-up their Grand Slam successes (Australian final and French semi) with hard court wins.
To those of you who think we just pick on Serena unfairly, consider this:
(H)er relatives willingly take much of the blame for her inability to deal with defeat as an outgrowth of them always spoiling her as the baby of the family. Her sister, Lyndrea, who flew in from Los Angeles yesterday, said Serena to this day can't even bear to lose when they play the card game "spoons."
"Serena thinks everything is supposed to go her way, that's the bottom line," said mom/coach Oracene Price, who had finally removed the large sunglasses she hid behind during the match. "She thinks that's the way it's supposed to go in life. But this is life." --- For her mother's part, however, she believes it's time for Serena to grow up and experience a reality check on life in the real world.
"Well, you know, she's going to have to learn how to suck things up," Price said. "[She needs to] say, 'OK, I'm not going to win everything. This is going to make me a better person. This will build character for myself and I have to learn how to lose. I might not be happy about it, but I just have to go on, go on and say, you know what, I didn't get this one, but I'm getting the next one.'"
While Price compassionately understands Serena's disappointment in being outplayed, she would prefer her daughter to deal with defeat in a different way -- her present style of going AWOL is disturbing. Most recently, Serena tuned out after her shocking third-round exit at the recent French Open, in which unlike Saturday's final, she played sloppy, dispassionate tennis.
"I'm not going to say nothing," said Price, smiling when asked how she might go about consoling Serena. "Before she won Australia [2007] that time and she lost in Hobart I didn't see her for two days. She didn't answer my e-mails, no texts, nothing. And when she lost at the French Open [2008], which was the worst, nothing for a week or two. You can't talk to her because she's not communicating with anyone."
So far tonight, Shriver said the tournament director was going to keep the roof closed "to keep my hair from frizzing out." She blamed him for retaliating against her for something she said 15 years ago when he was an umpire.
Earlier she interviewed the delightful, chatty mother of Jelena Jankovic. Before throwing it back to the booth she said "that's the only parent I'll be speaking to tonight." The commentators cracked up, because Sharapova's father Yuri is a first-class wack - job. His latest antic? Making a "slit throat" sign as Maria's match with Henin ended.
Nice.
Remember the controversy in the States when football players started making the slit throat gesture? Maria said he was just putting up his hood, but earlier in the tournament she told the press he likes that sweatshirt since it makes him look like an assassin. Last time I called a Russian a jackass on this blog I got reprimanded by CYCLOPS. But seriously, when it comes to Yuri Sharapov, there's a whole range of blue words I could use.
The above video shows the throat-slit, at about the 48 second mark. I can't stand this generation of tennis parents on the women's side. They're bloody awful.
I'm taking heavy fire from CYCLOPS over my comments about Marat Safin being a jackass. CYCLOPS loves them some Marat, especially the Russian Blue half.
Great exchange earlier between Mary Carillo and Mary Jo Fernandez during the Sveta Kuznetsova match. Noting that Sveta is ranked #2, Carillo asked Mary Jo if she thought the Russian was ready to win her second grand slam title.
"No." said Mary Jo F.
Well played, MJF. This blog, minus the Russian Blue half of CYCLOPS, agrees.
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