Let’s Talk Tennis
It was bound to happen sooner or later, you know. I live in Belgium so I only have two sports here that are worth following, neither of which I find particularly interesting: cycling and tennis.
Yes, those are Belgium’s claims to fame (not counting Tia Hellebaut, the Olympic high jumper)…cycling and tennis. And when I first moved here even those sports were in a slump. Kim Clijsters, Belgium’s top female tennis player had retired to begin a family, as did Justine Henin, one of the other top players in Belgium. The Belgian cyclist, Tom Boonen, was caught drinking and using cocaine and was disqualified from competing for a time. Sports in general here were pretty much dead air except for the medals won in the Olympics in China.
Until this past summer when Clijsters came out of retirement to begin competing again. There was plenty of cycling this summer, although Boonen got caught tooting again and claimed he had a drinking problem…though really, I still can’t see the competitive excitement of cycling anyway. Yes, it’s a race and one guy eventually wins, but it’s a race that goes on for hours with everyone doing the same thing (cycling) the entire time. Same reasons I find no interest in marathons. Yes, it’s an athletic event but it’s boring until the last lap (or kilometer if it’s cycling). I mean, don’t get me wrong, I admire anyone who trains and conditions and can run or bike that long and hard, but as a spectator, long distance races leave me cold.
Tennis, on the other hand, while not a sport I’ve ever bothered to follow, is at least two people (or 4) facing off against each other with the intent to beat the other in a face off type game. Point are scored, the game changes, faults occur. It’s not American football or hockey or soccer (the 3 sports I enjoy watching), but it’s a format that I can be somewhat interested in.
Anyway, Kim Clijsters had her baby and decided that she wanted to come back to tennis. Mad props Kim, I say. In my mind going through labor is enough exercise to last the rest of a woman’s life. Really…if you push another living human being out of your own body and then spend the next 6 months sustaining it on tears, sweat and breast milk? You’ve paid your dues for eternity. But I digress.
Clijsters returned and has been basically wiping the floor with her competition in the U.S. Open. I’ve been sort of keeping track of her progress, basically through CB telling me how she’s doing, but I didn’t really get interested until I heard she’d beaten Venus Williams.
Wow. I mean, one of the few things I do know about tennis is that Venus and Serena are some of the best players in the world right now. After she beat Venus, one of the sisters supposedly said, “Maybe I should get pregnant, then when I come back, I’d be a faster player.” The source I found quoted Serena as saying this, but CB thought he read it was Venus that said it. Either way, this is apparently a typical Williams retort. I thought that was pretty sad, but I was even more dissapointed when I heard how Serena Williams threatened one of the line judges after she lost the match on a foot fault. Apparently she’d already had a tantrum earlier in the set, breaking her racket in the process and had received some sort of penalty for it, but after she was called on the foot fault she approached the line judge and said, “If I could, I would take this ball and shove it down your throat and kill you.” *
What the hell?
This is tennis, for heaven’s sake! Who the hell threatens to kill the line judge in a tennis match?
Well, Serena Williams, I guess but really, how shameful is that?
A professional athlete is just that: professional. She does not shame herself (or her country, for that matter) by having a temper tantrum when she loses. And even if she is a poor sport and a rotten loser, she should have the dignity and class to at least pretend to take it in stride. Because she is a professional. Although I guess dignity and class aren’t qualities that tend to show up in someone who stomps her feet and breaks her toys when things don’t go her way. Pathetic, Serena, just pathetic.
Congratulations to Kim Clijsters for her amazing comeback, but more importantly, for her shining example of good sportsmanship.
*Quote taken from the Antwerp Gazette
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Actually, she lost after her little tantrum, but you are right…shameful and unprofessional behavior…she must be watching all those republicans at the town hall meetings!
My husband just told me the whole story. I agree. Kim did well.
Beautifully written and spot on. I’m so tired of these athletes who make millions of dollars and behave so terribly. It’s incredibly sad.
It’s a fact that internationally we’re not scoring big on any sport right now (except for the US Open this week). The Belgian soccer team is just sad, very very shamefully sad.
So it is so fantastic to see how Kim has returned to tennis and is succeeding in her own genuine spontaneous relax way. She’s very competitive yet always seems to be able to put things in perspective (now having a family even more so). I’ve always loved her genuinity and that made her my favourite over Justine . Yet we all hope Justine gets inspired to return as well
…and that Yanina is continuing to grow her tennis skills.
When I first read your post a couple of days ago I had the impression that you were saying only tennis and cycling are sports that are alive in Belgium and worth following. If that is part of your thinking, I must disagree on that! Even though we suck big time in soccer in international games, soccer is very much alive among the people here. Watch the news on Sunday and Monday and the special sports programs and it’s all about soccer. Watch FB when someone has done a nasty tackly, listen to the conversations on the bus etc….it’s all about soccer. Go on tram 21 on a Saturday evening when the Buffalo’s are playing at home and see all the families dressed up in blue/white to support their own team.
See all the people with flags along the roads of major cycling races sheering for their favorites (many more than just Boonen: Stijn Devolder, Gert Steegmans, ….
Check out the busses that arrive around the corner where I live with drums and scarfs to cheer for basketball.
There’s even an active hockey league in Belgium! (maybe you should look it up and go and see it).
My point is simply that a lot of sports are “big” in Belgium as in big in team support and enthousiasm. On the other hands Belgians are always quite down to earth and do not create idols very easily. So you won’t see us easily going nuts down in the street spreading a general sports maddness.
But I also think that it’s the latter that creates the professionalism of our athletes. We don’t accept them to behave as arrogant stars. That’s why Boonen’s hype is long gone already…and why we love Kim so much.