Well, I feel like I just got buried in an avalanche. In the middle of last week, I was on track, ready to post Part 2 of my Most Pathetic Story of 2005 (this one on Mark Philippoussis, Part 1 having been devoted to Jelena Dokic). I also planned to announce the winner of the Write-A-Cap contest (see my previous post, "Hmmmm . . ."). Well, I got sidetracked into writing few doping-related posts and you know the kind of firestorm that always creates.
So suddenly, here we are - the Australian Open is officially underway (I’ll be traveling there on Saturday, to blog Week Two) and all else gets shoved aside – as it should, because it’s a new year and the first major is upon us.
By now, you know the big news – Venus Williams is out of the Australian Open, thanks to a remarkably poised performance by Grand Slam debutante Tszvetana Pironkova. If you saw the match, you may have been struck by how Venus was an echo of her 2005 self – undisciplined, powerful, athletic, inconsistent. The money quote from her press interview was annoyingly familiar: "If I had just one-third less errors, this match is a different story."
Yes, Venus. And if pigs could fly . . .
Of course, you could see this coming from a mile away. And what really strikes me is that Venus apparently failed to see the extent to which she is hurt, really hurt, by the lack of match play. All those unforced errors, all those hiccups at crunch time, all that confidence Pironkova accumulated as the match wore on . . . all those things are symptoms of the ill-prepared, unprofessional, insecure player. In today's game, that simply doesn't cut it. Opponents smell that like a shark detecting blood. End of story.
This loss, coupled with sister Serena’s first-round struggle (details here) can’t be good news for the legions of Williams fans out there.
Toward the end of last year, I took hits from the Kool-Aid drinkers for suggesting that instead of retreating into a shell of denial and defiance, the unfocused, under-trained, underperforming sisters ought to take advantage of what looked like an ideal, career-altering moment. I suggested that they ought to wipe the slate clean, chuck out daddy (Richard would have survived just fine – trust me) and replace him with a dedicated, tough, astute coach who could help them recapture the glory – and come up with a new plan for world domination.
Clearly, the sisters had no intention of doing anything like that. Heck, they apparently didn’t even find it worth the bother to try to regroup for 2006. I don’t think I’ve ever seen great – truly great – players of either gender so blithely and unconsciously flush away their careers. Serena showed us last year how good she can be in spite of herself, but she was living on borrowed time (and excess talent) – and it seems that she still is. If she can win again, more power to her.
Veteran tennis writer Richard Evans took a pass at the Williamses' situation the other day. Here’s the nut graph from the piece, which I’m quoting here partly because of its convoluted logic.
It strikes me that Richard is bending over backward trying to avoid saying what I've just written in this post.
Bottom line: The sisters are comfortable with the status quo. I guess they’re confident that they’re still - as they’ve so often reminded us - the best players on the planet.
Whatever.
The real shocker to me was Elena Dementieva’s loss (see my first link in this post). She’s a hard worker, so you figure she must have shown up fit and ready to rumble. Also, as a Russian, she's one of those northern players who really flourish during the Australian summer (see “S” for Swedes). But she got blown out in straights by Germany’s Julia Shruff.
Oh, and how’s this for a cruel fate: Dokic thought she hit a match-winning forehand in the second set tiebreaker of her first-rounder against Virginie Razzano, only to have the ball called out. She went to pieces thereafter, and got just one game in the final set. Check out this nice sentimental piece, and some of you might be interested to read that Jelena’s estranged dad, Damir, is now producing brandy – kind of like putting a loaded gun in the hand of a kid, no?