Archive: cheryl-jones
Competition is an innate human response to life in general. Since the beginning of time, humans have been competitive on some level or another. Societies wouldn’t exist if somewhere along the line one human (or group of humans) hadn’t felt the need for dominance in some situation or other.
One of the perquisites of being a tennis journalist is that I am able to steal a look at players’ who haven’t quite made it to the forefront of the tennis “scene” – yet.
Wednesday at Roland Garros was Kids’ Day. Face paint was in abundance and skipping, smiling youngsters filled the crowded pathways on the grounds that are consistently on the verge of overflowing.
Today, the skies over Paris have been dappled with clouds that are predicting rain. During the past few years, rain has been an accessory to the play at Roland Garros; unwelcome, but accommodating in a small way.
The WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) keeps track of who’s who in the world of women’s professional tennis. Each week the rankings shuffle a bit, depending on the wins and losses of the previous week.
In 1968, Roland Garros hosted the first Grand Slam tournament of the Open Era. The French Open or as it is known in France, Roland Garros has been hosting tournaments for 113 years.
It was tennis at 2:00 p.m. sharp for the two women who had outlasted all the others at The Championships. On paper, it looked as if the match could be either woman’s prize. But the game isn’t played on paper.
Before the matches began, there could have been a prediction that a woman whose last name ended with “ova” would be in Centre Court on the Final Saturday of Wimbledon. Quite a while ago, Bud Collins asked if anyone knew how many women with an “ova” ending to their name were in the draw.
Most of the buzz in the tennis world on this last Wednesday of Wimbledon is about the men who have bowed out in the last few days. Great Britain’s hopes for a repeat of last year have been dashed. The man who was a winner then was the first British champ in 77 years.
It’s the first Thursday of that fortnight known as The Championships. As surprising as this may be to tennis followers, it rained during competition at Wimbledon. It was the end of the day and only a few matches were held in tennis limbo on the women’s side.
Excitement may be like beauty. In essence, it is in the eye of the beholder. Lots of things are that way. Several men’s matches were filled with tense moments – just one element within the definition of excitement. But Wednesday at The Championships, the women’s matches were really not out of the ordinary.
Tradition holds that on the first Tuesday of The Championships, the initial match that is contended on Centre Court feature the Ladies Champion from the previous year. Last year, Marion Bartoli laid claim to the Venus Rosewater Dish when she defeated Sabine Lisicki, 6-1, 6-4.
American women have claimed eleven titles at Wimbledon over the past fifteen years. Ten of those titles belong to women who have the last name Williams and the other belongs to Lindsay Davenport. Maybe it’s the name of the “trophy”.
Competing in the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany must be like always finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for Roger Federer. When he won the final point today, it was his seventh singles title here.
The matches contested on Center Court at the Gerry Weber Open have a certain opulent flavor that belies the rural area where the venue is located. Over the 22 seasons that the tournament has been contested, most every top ranked player has passed through the gates of the venue at least once.
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