ruling the roost

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tennis players get hurt, retire, come back, and go through slumps. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen week to week sometimes. Good thing is, there are still some tangibles in tennis. In fact, there happens to be two: Venus and Serena Williams. Once again, they are the top two players in the world. They may not be as dominant as they once were, but after 15 years on the tour the fact that they are still even playing is remarkable. What’s extraordinary is that they are still winning the big titles.

I’m also in awe of their maturity and their commitment to their sport. I admire their desire to have normal lives outside the grind of the tour. I’m proud that after all the injuries, bad press, and injury layoffs they’ve never thrown in the towel and walked away.

*Dapz*

Day of Mothers

I always feel like a certain ambivalence towards Mother’s Day. When I was growing up I did celebrate it because my grandmother was still alive. Since she raised me and all, I had a reason to. My own mother had decided to renege on her responsibility long before so as long as I can remember, Mother’s Day meant a day full of flowers, cards, and mixed emotions.

Grandmother has been gone for 18 years now. I don’t use Mother’s Day as excuse to feel sad or wallow in memories. I have her birthday and the day of her death to do it. No, Mother’s Day is just another Sunday on the calendar now. No, I don’t feel the urge to get on the phone and ring up the woman who gave birth to me. I have no desire to engage in a tearful reunion. Besides, how it would play out in my mind would be less than ideal. Think yelling, screaming, and recriminations. But what I am not is bitter. I realize that there are people out there who have given birth to children but in no way, shape, or form deserve the title of “Mother”. I just happen to be one of those children. Yes I do realize that the Mother-Daughter bond is probably one of the most significant in human existence. It doesn’t mean that one can’t survive without it. I do it everyday. As hard as it is sometimes, I do it and do it well.

Besides, I consider myself fortunate to have had “surrogate” mothers. These awesome women who have stepped in at different times of my life to provide support when I needed it. For Mrs. Roberta Judd, My aunt LaJoie, Mrs. Edna Shoffner, Dr. Charlotte Alston, Mrs. Mary Scarlette, and Mrs. Barbara Morrow Williams, Mother’s Day is really for them. Actually, it’s for any woman who has filled a void for a child who has missed out on the enduring love of a mother.

Cheers to them. Now as for Father’s Day, that’s a whole different story.

who dat? superbowl champions

As New Orléans cheers on the Superbowl Champs tonight, let me offer my congratulations to the team. It was a great game and the victory was richly deserved. No offense to the Colts, but  people were obviously rooting for the Saints. They were the feel good team of the year, in a year that could hardly be seen as good for a lot of folks. Most of the folks being from New Orléans. Sure, a Superbowl Trophy can’t rebuild a city, it can’t bring people home, and it can’t repair a levee. It can however bring people together in joy.

Joy is something that’s been a long time coming for the residents of the city. It’s great to see.

Go Saints!

doing my part

It’s been awhile since I’ve written and yes I’m still in the midst of my blogging blahs, but the events in Haiti were too sad, too exasperating, and too heartbreaking not to mention. I struggled mightily about how I could contribute, but I finally found an organization that I could donate to and support.

http://www.shelterboxusa.org/

Donations start at $10.00 and believe me, it’s worth it. Since 2000, Shelterbox has aided thousands of victims of disasters by providing THE most basic need: Shelter. If you can, hit the site and drop a dime. If you can’t, tell someone else about it.

condolences

Eunice Walker Johnson, widow of publishing magnate and entrepreneur John H. Johnson passed away today. Ebony and Jet magazine could be found in nearly every African-American home in the country, and the Ebony Fashion Fair was THE society event for decades.

Her enormous influence was equally matched by her generosity. Mrs. Johnson donated millions of dollars to various charitable organizations throughout the years and she inspired generations of authors, fashionistas, business owners, and educators.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family today.

Player of the Year-WTA

Her career has been made of equal parts overwhelming success and controversy. She is either loved or hated, but in 2009, Serena did the damn thing. She won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the WTA Year End Championships. She earned more money than any other woman on tour this year. She was also fined more than anyone on either the WTA and ATP as well. She’s a mixed bag of genius and “teh crazy”, and she’s the Number 1 tennis player in the world.

Next year the tennis establishment and the haters will be welcoming back a couple of Belgians. The Powers That Be will be keeping a close eye on her because she’s on probation now-like she boosted some bras from Victoria’s Secret or something. Never mind all that. Serena puts butts in the seats. Serena brings ratings. Serena loves to win. This past year, she has done more to lift the profile of women’s tennis than anyone else. No one can deny that.

While others faded and faltered, Serena kept her focus on winning the big ones.  She the victim of bullshit calls and politics. She was the best and that’s all there is to it.

The Laureates of WTF?

Harvard Law Graduate, best selling author, United States Senator, President, Nobel Laureate for Peace. Barack Obama has accomplished more in his 48 years than many. Why is it so damn hard for some folks to acknowledge those accomplishments? The amount of hate is sickening. He is the 3rd African American and the first American sitting President since Woodrow Wilson to win the Nobel Prize. Where’s the pride? Seriously.

The Republican’s response included trotting out Chairman Michael Steele who declared that Obama didn’t deserve the award. The Right’s reaction sank to even lower levels with various pundits and internet warriors stating that they agreed with the Taliban and that Obama should give the award back. The most egregious statement was that Obama’s win was the result of an affirmative action quota. This, from the people who claim to love America so much?

My God, what is wrong with these people? Once again, folks from other countries are showing more love towards our President than people living right here. Even those on The Left were sniping. I’m just so done. If it matters, I’m proud and happy. Even though I have disagreed with some of PBO’s policies, I think his winning the Nobel Prize is freakin’ awesome. I’m encouraged to follow the President’s call for action for peace. Lord knows we need it–especially right here in the good ol’ U.S.A.

don’t stop believing

The amazing run has ended. Stopped by a 19 year old Danish player who is enjoying her best showing at a Grand Slam Championship. Melanie Oudin’s time at the U.S Open was a real breath of fresh air. Even though she singlehandedly destroyed the top half of the ladies draw (thus ruining my chance of winning a Tennis Channel Racket Bracket T-shirt), it was great to see someone so young completely seize the moment. Her incredible match play gave the WTA a much needed spark. Without her we would have been subjected to mopey slamless #1′s, struggling gazillionaireses, and all around inconsistency.

But now it’s over. Much of it had to be blamed on the solid play of Caroline Wozniacki. Some of it had to do with the heavy burden of expectation, some of it can be attributed by the tasteless reporting of her parent’s ugly divorce proceedings. She lost in straight sets 2-6, 2-6. Let’s hope she doesn’t lose the belief that she can get back to that stage of competition again. Let us hope that belief doesn’t get muddled with celebrity or complacency. Let us believe that there are more Melanie Oudins out there in America waiting for their chance to their hearts out on Ashe Stadium.

Now with that, I gotta call out the pundits and the more irresponsible reporters. They know who they are. All of this excitement over Oudin wasn’t completely rooted in the love for American tennis. No, some of it was bred from a desire to see the next blonde, all American, tennis star: Chrisse/Tracey redux if you will. So caught up were some that they almost forgot that another American player has been ripping up the bottom half of the draw. This player along with her sister have carried the mantle of American Tennis on their shoulders for nearly 15 years. However, Serena and Venus will never get that kind of love and adoration. Their faces will never be the ones highlighted as the future and the promise of Women’s tennis. Good thing is, they realize that and they just go about the business of winning. If these lint lickers ever tried to pay attention to history, then they would realize that hype is the number one killer of promising tennis careers. If I could make an appeal, I would ask them to just leave Melanie alone and let her develop into the great player she can be.

What else?

Ah yes, Novak Djokovic defeated Fernando Verdasco to reach the semi finals for the 3rd straight year. I gotta hand it to Novak, he seems to thrive in New York. It must be something about the noise, or wind,  or rowdy fans, that stirs up his best. Verdasco has obviously hampered by a slight injury but credit Novak for keeping his head and doing the damn thing. His opponent is the wearer of multiple Monograms. He survived a late night match against the Swede Who Shall Not Be Named. What can I say about the match other than I think I detected some drops of sweat from Sir Jacket. Can’t be sure though, I’ll have to check the replay.

here and now

I know I’ve skipped a day of U. S. Open Coverage but WordPress was on some bullshit so I couldn’t update. Plus, I has a funeral to go to. I haven’t been to one since 1992 when the center of my life, my grandmother passed away. It was sad, sometimes painful, often times inspiring. I’m glad I went to say goodbye to Marjorie. She was a special lady. She wasn’t famous ( I noticed that some readers tried to Google her). She’s was just a regular person who loved her Alma Mater, loved teaching children, loved music and singing, but most importantly-loved her family. The lives she touched were no doubt made better in some way. I just wish there were more like her.

I’m still a little sad so I’ll make this brief.

Serena won a tough match against Panetta. As always, her serve got her out of trouble and when it mattered she hunkered down and got to business. I watched the replay on ESPN 360 and it was a thoroughly enjoyable match.

Rafa Nadal brushed aside Galloping Gael in 4 sets. I’ll admit, I was very nervous before the match. When he’s not in La La Land, Monfils can really bring the rain. Up until last night’s match, Monfils was literally cruising and if I’m not mistaken, he hadn’t even dropped a set. I felt my nervousness was justified considering the last time we all saw Rafa, he was laid out on the court getting his tummy taped. The thing is if everyone was nervous, Rafa was oblivious to it. True to form, Gael started the match on fire. He was serving well and scurrying to and fro and was generally make life very uncomfortable for Rafa. However, like a boxer Rafa absorbed those first set body blows and started to wear Gael down with his consistency. By set three, Gael was huffing and puffing and only won 1 game. By the time the 4th set came to a close, he was shanking and spraying. Rafa seized the win and for all of his trouble he gets a kiss on the cheek by a loony fan who snuck by security.

Can enough be said regarding the utter fuckery of that situation? USTA security gots some ‘spalining to do.

There could be a very good reason as to why Rafa got himself together and took out Monfils is such splendid fashion. According to the rankings, if Rafa managed to go one round better than Andy Murray he would once again be ranked number 2. That’s exactly what happened. Murray was booted out of the tournament earlier that day by Marin Cillic of Croatia. BIG HUGE UPSET. Not only had Cillic never beaten Murray in the four previous times they played but Murray was the pick of a lot of tennis insiders to win the tournament. But now, he leaves New York with no trophy and no number 2 ranking. He just wasn’t ready ya’ll. Deal with it.

number one and done

As Day 5 of the Open closed, the upsets seemed to get bigger and bigger. First, Melanie Oudin and her magic shoes took out Maria Sharapova. John Isner then beat number 5 seed Andy Roddick. After that Petra Kvitova defeated the number 1 women’s player.

First, Ms. Oudin vs. Ms. Sharapova or the lightwight vs. the glamazon. If one went by history only, all bets would have been on Sharapova. She’s a former champion, she’s mentally tough, she’s got the big forehand, the serve…okay, maybe not the serve. Since her shoulder surgery last year, Sharapova has changed her serve motion in order to relieve the strain on it. Unfortunately, she hasn’t adapted well and her service games are plauged with double faults. Sharapova is a player whose game revolves around the serve. If it isn’t effective, the rest of her play tends to suffer. During the match with Oudin, Sharapova served a staggering 21 double faults. Oudin had her own serving woes and the match became more of test to see who could hold serve consistently. It was definitely an error filled affair of the running wounded.  Oudin was sporting a heavily bandaged thigh and Sharapova calling the trainer to get some relief for a sore shoulder. Regardless, Oudin played gutsy and fearless tennis. Her march through the Championships is one of the best stories so far. Go USA!

In the battle of to big serving Americans, the biggest managed to pull out a tough 5 set victory. John Isner is 6’6, all arms and legs and rocket serves. Not known to be the fittest player on the tour, Isner shocked everyone-including Andy Roddick by hanging tough and fighting through that last set tie-breaker. It’s often been speculated that Roddick is still haunted by his Wimbledon loss. That could very well be the case as to why he’s lost so many close contests afterwards, but give credit to Isner for showing no fear and sticking to his guns. Go USA..again!

And the third upset of the night..Well, what more needs to be said? The top ranked woman, playing craptacular tennis finally gets bounced consequently ending her misery and ours. Apparently, she was pissed because her match was moved from Ashe Stadium to Louis Armstrong so that the fans could see James Blake stumble out of the Championships. That sucks, the USTA sucks, that much is known. Champions however, roll with the punches and do what they have to do. Being pissed is no excuse for losing, especially when you had 3 match points. Shit is tough: The USTA screws up your court assignment, everyone is on your back about losing a major, your knee hurts, your retired brother gets more respect than you do…cry me a river, heifer and play better.

Moving right along…

Federer dismissed Hewitt in 4. Even with some really scratchy play, he was never really in an danger of losing. Hewitt showed moments of his old brilliance but time and the evolution of the game proved to be too much to overcome. Novak Djokovic put out Jesse Witten’s flame but not without a few racket tosses and chest bumps. Witten was up to the challenge and Novak seemed very tentative. Of the big big 4, he might be the most vulnerable right now. That could change with the next match, but right now I don’t see that his heart is really into trying to this tournament. Verdasco vs. Hass, or as I called it, “the hottie match” was a 5 set exercise in torture, but Verdasco moves on. Sam Querry, the men’s U.S Open series winner falls to the Swede who shall not be named…no bonus for him.

Two ladies who haven’t gotten a great deal of attention but who have been playing well are Caroline Wozniacki and Sveltana Kuznetsova. They are quietly making their way through the draw in dominating fashion. But in week two, either one or both could be make some real noise. Since the number 1 is gone, that entire section has been busted wide open.

So that’s it. Next up is Rafa, Ree, and Vee. Vee’s match with Kim Clijsters could be really interesting.