THE WORLD OF TENNIS
By
Anthonystjoseph
My fascination with the game of tennis
actually started a long time after my initial introduction and relationship
with the game began. I received my
varsity letter in tennis as well as a couple of harsh lessons from my father in
the sport itself. I went through all
this never even caring about the game in the least. I didn’t come to enjoy the game of tennis
until I started watching a young girl named Venus Williams, who was African
American like myself, start playing on the professional tour competing in the
big events on television. She was young
and eager and full of life, hope, and ability.
It was explained that Venus had a younger sister named Serena that was
going to start playing in the tournaments as well but was too young at that
time to play professionally. Venus and Serena
were just so endearing with their big smiles, big hopes, big dreams, and big serves. Whenever I watched a match I would just hope
that I would see my girls with the white beads in their hair on one side of the
court because that meant that it was going to be fun.
I have watched since the beginning of
their wonderful and rewarding careers. I
have watched as Venus sat in the stands and had to go through the ‘life moment’
of watching her younger sister win a Grand Slam before she did and had to
ponder what that had to mean to Venus. I
sat through the wonderful Wimbledon matches and witnessed the glory and joy of
Venus finally winning her own Grand Slam Championship. I watched as Richard Williams jumped for joy
that his daughter Venus had joined her younger sister Serena in becoming a
recognized champion. These amongst many
others were such wonderful moments to be a witness to. It has been an emotional ride for those of us
who have ridden the wonderful rollercoaster called the Williams Sisters. I’m not sure if it was the twelve pack of Bud
Light that generally accompanied my watching of their matches or true emotion
but I even cried when Serena beat Venus at Wimbledon a few years later and
almost wanted to whip up on Serena myself for doing IT! It tore me apart when the camera was on Venus
and her index finger just slowly scrolled down her cheek as she looked
stunned. I’m sure it was at least a
little from the beer; I was usually knee deep in a twelve-pack by the end of
the match. I was young…
One of the joys of having watched the
Williams sisters come up was how much honor, pride, character, and family
loyalty that they showed through all the madness that sometimes surrounded
them. There are stories out there that
the predominantly ‘white’ game of tennis didn’t really take to the Williams
sisters hitting the field with their level of success and attitude. I loved the attitude and enjoyed the
success. In the beginning I have read
that they would even be taunted with such juvenile acts like dirty underwear
being left in their lockers and all sorts of silly and immature pranks. Serena’s dog was even found suspiciously
drowned in a pool one day. Three such
events that happened to them will always speak loudly in the history books as
far as I’m concerned.
The first occurred at The Indian Wells
tennis tournament which has surprisingly changed their name since the event
happened. Venus had to pull out of the
tournament due to injury and this apparently angered the largely Caucasian
crowd, or I should say mob, at Indian Wells and they decided to take it out on
Serena during her match. It was
embarrassing as a fellow human being to watch the way the crowd treated this
young woman playing tennis who was just a child herself. It was a complete testament to how a mob
mentality can become completely devoid of intelligent behavior. Richard Williams has said, which I believe, that
he was even called the ‘N’ word in the stands during the match. The Williams sisters vowed never to play at
Indian Wells again and have not to this very day, a decision which I
support. Overall, I was impressed at how
maturely Serena handled the situation and was mostly impressed that she went on
to win the match despite the crowds venom hurled in her and her father’s
direction.
The second event occurred at the French
Open where this manly girl thing named Justine Henin out and out CHEATED! I publicly called for a tar and feathering of
her back then when she did it but my voice went unheard, go figure. Tennis is a game of manners and honor as
there are only two people and four eyes playing sometimes so you have to be
honorable in what YOUR EYES see on your side of the court sometime. For example, if you’re on the court with just
one other person in the morning playing tennis and the ball is close to the
line on the other side of the net your opponent has to be the umpire on YOUR
SHOT and vice versa, so you have to use the honor system. This honor system migrates through the whole
game and is expected in all fairness and all levels. It is expected so much that it is almost
unbelievable when the honor system or code is broken. That is why when someone holds up their hand
to say they aren’t ready for a serve, you do it over and wait for your opponent
to be ready. You want and have a desire
for the results to be fair and ACCURATE.
So when Serena went to serve and Justine Henin put up her hand to say
she wasn’t ready, Serena went to do the serve over. Serena felt the need to clarify that it was a
do over, i.e. first serve, and sure enough the chair umpire hadn’t seen Justine
Henin’s hand up saying she wasn’t ready.
The chair umpire turned to Justine ‘NO HAND’ Henin and she denied
holding up her hand and had a sudden DUMMY ATTACK on what was going on. It was such a breach of game etiquette that
it threw Serena off who was still mastering the art of playing tennis on clay
that she didn’t win the match which she should have. Justine ‘NO HAND’ Henin went on to win the
tournament and several others with a defeat that should have an asterisk in the
record books as in *CHEATED! Justine ‘NO
HAND’ Henin has since retired early from the game of tennis and has disappeared
off the scene. I actually think that the
mustache and beard she was growing from those herbal drinks got her forced out
of the game but that’s just my opinion.
I think they caught her and told her to leave quietly because she had
too many wins to make it public but again that’s just my opinion.
The third thing happened at the US
Open. Serena Williams was actually
penalized a point which was MATCH POINT because of something she said to a
linesman. They got her for un-sportsman
‘like’ conduct. It was all over a foot
fault called at a crucial time in the game.
The reason Serena showed anger and got upset is because a foot fault at
that stage in a match is almost unheard of.
It was clearly a biased call. It
is extremely annoying and unsettling to me because during the rain delay of
this match, they showed a ‘classic’ match with the beloved ‘Jimmy Connors’ who
rudely, boldly, caustically, loudly, and angrily told a chair umpire OFF for
about a whole minute where you could clearly hear what he was saying and he
wasn’t PENALIZED! NOT AT MATCH POINT!
So these authorities, umpires, and one
little old line person took the match from Serena while she was on the
SIDELINES! I was through with televised tennis
and would not watch it again for months out of anger. I could not endure another moment of Martina Navratilova
saying how appalling it was for Richard Williams to dance on top of the box at
Wimbledon because his daughter who grew up in Compton won her first Grand Slam
Tennis Tournament. I could not watch as
another snooty self privileged self entitled girl thinks that she can commit a
dishonorable act just because she feels she deserves to win. I am so proud of the Williams Sisters and
what they have accomplished and the enjoyment they have given me.
By
Anthonystjoseph
All works copyrighted
and protected by law
P.S. They asked Serena in the press conference
afterwards if she had any regrets about losing her temper. If I was her I would have told them that I
had over fifty million dollars in the bank and I don’t have to regret anything
that happens on that court. That’s over fifty
million reasons NOT to have any regret!
No comments:
Post a Comment