Also I think the fact that Venus worked to improve the money for women’s tennis is not appreciated in some circles
SERENA
- Thread starter jsb
- Start date
I saw the open letter as nothing but some honest questions and real criticism from one of the few people on earth who, at the time, could actually criticize Serena.
If you read the letter and look at Serena's on and off court actions at the time, it's hard to disagree. On that note, Serena was also at a point in her life where she was trying to find herself, especially outside of tennis. You really can't blame a 24 year old who's whole life had been so focused on one thing to stray a little.
Huh? Guess I don't follow enough tennis. How were they living their lives? Venus is almost entirely responsible for showing, with data, that men's and women's tennis draw the same, which helped equalize the prize money. Evert is likely just jealous that this wasn't the case when she played.
The letter came at a period when Serena was trying to recover from a knee injury. Serena herself described the criticism as “unfair.” She dabbled in fashion, although not to the degree Venus did with her company, did some acting, dated some celebrities. Took off some minor tournaments. Came back and won an Australian during which Evert repeatedly referred to her as fat.
Serena almost died of a pulmonary embolism at one point and perhaps would have if someone employed by Venus had not recognized her symptoms. She also had many dangerous pregnancy complications. And took a while to recover from slicing her foot on a broken glass in a restaurant. Not sure what Chrissie expected her to do about such things, twiddle her thumbs during recovery?
I think exploring these other interests is exactly why she and Venus still love tennis decades later. They did not burn out on tennis, but did other things with their lives. But the entire vibe of her calling out Serena was that she was lazy and wasting her great physical abilities.
I think this is overdone. I've read the letter and to me it was more about Everet realizing that Serena was a generational talent and hoping that she'd focus on tennis enough to fully realize that talent. With the benefit of hindsight we now know that she was able to stay dominant while also exploring other areas that interested in her. But in 2006, I think it was a legitimate question for someone whose job it was to comment on tennis to question her on-going investment to being elite.
On top of that Chris Evert is one of few people qualified to criticize Serena, as she clearly knew what was required to have sustained excellence.
Maybe somewhat regrettable now knowing what she knows, but not something that should preclude her being in the booth for the US Open.
GOAT list:
1. Serena
.
.
*Huge gap*
.
.
2. Steffi Graf
.
.
*Huge gap*
.
.
then everyone else.
1. Serena
.
.
*Huge gap*
.
.
2. Steffi Graf
.
.
*Huge gap*
.
.
then everyone else.
Do you think the different styles has anything to do with Evert's dislike of Serena? Reading the Wiki page on serena, I didn't know about all the tantrums she had thrown on the court. I always thought Evert seemed to not care about whether she won or lost when playing. I followed tennis a little when I was younger (when all you have is 3 channels on the farm, you watched what was on) and she always appeared to not care if she lost.
impressive stuff for sure- especially for a 41 year old doing it in a sport that considers 28 year olds "old"
can we stop with the "she had a kid" stuff, though?
there at TONS of great women athletes that have had children.
one of those espn announcers had to of said that about 25 times last night as it's some huge feat. I get it, it is a big deal for an athlete but it's not like she is the only great woman athlete to ever do that.
can we stop with the "she had a kid" stuff, though?
there at TONS of great women athletes that have had children.
one of those espn announcers had to of said that about 25 times last night as it's some huge feat. I get it, it is a big deal for an athlete but it's not like she is the only great woman athlete to ever do that.
Makes me feel old. I still remember the Williams sisters as children.
If it's a big deal for an athlete then why shouldn't they mention it?
sure once is cool
you don't need to continually mention it like it was some huge feat that only she has ever accomplished.
She did have her kid at like 36 or something. Trying to come back after child birth when getting to that age is a lot more difficult than when you are 25, though.
Potentially, although she never has a decent word to say about Venus and she is so reserved on the court that she didn’t say anything when she exited Wimbledon on a match where they actually lost keeping track of one of her points in the tiebreak.
Wimbledon of course was outed for wanting to put only cute blondes on the best courts so Venus, a five time champ there, has often been relegated to outer courts without complaining. But she has been a prominent voice for women in her sport in general.
I am not the only one who sees the passive aggressive nature when Evert calls Serena’s matches, that is why she was trending on Twitter last night.
I think the lazy criticism and wasting physical abilities stuff has an obvious undertone. The Williams sisters paved the way for the Coco Gauff and Sloan Stephens players of this generation to compete in a sport that before their time was reserved for white women who could afford to play in the club circuits. They opened doors.
i said it was a big deal
but there are thousands of other women who have done the same thing and its not mentioned even once.
they were playing it up for the storyline and its not needed is all.
I mostly agree with you. They made a big deal of it with Clisters too. And they do shove you out of a hospital now as fast as they can.
And we do have the highest maternal death rate in the developed world.
The important part with Serena though and I doubt they mentioned (I refuse to listen to Chris Evert and only know her crap last night from her subsequent Twitter trend), is due to her previous clotting problem with her pulmonary embolism, she tends to have clotting issues and had them during childbirth. They had to do emergency surgery afterwards to save her life.
But are the thousands of other women performing at her level? She's arguably the greatest female athlete of all time.
I know you're not sexist or a **** poster but that's probably the difference: how good she still is.
Don't forget everyone, she's also playing doubles with Venus.
They may be, they just aren't getting the spot light that she is. Is a marathon runner, professional body builder, even an everyday manual laborer performing at high levels but just don't get the attention that she does? I was talking to a woman during a break in interviews where a company was doing mass interviews for several jobs, she had induced labor on a friday night, so she could return to classes on Monday. She never skipped a beat, she seemed nuts, but still did it. That is a crazy level, while not performing on a court in front of thousands of people, she was walking around ISU's campus in the days when they always made you criss cross campus for every class.
