The Future of Tennis…
I don’t know if any of you are interested in or follow tennis, but there is a serious changing of the guard happening right now. I personally started playing tennis over 50 years ago and still play today. I follow professional tennis closely and love the grand slam events. This year is a seismic shift in the sport with both young women and men rising and challenging the pillars of the sport. The new guard in women’s tennis burst onto the scene last year when 20 year old Naomi Osaka defeated Serena Williams last year for the US Open championship. It continued this year when 15 year old Coco Gauff defeated Venus Williams in the first round of Wimbledon, reaching the third round before she was defeated by eventual tournament champion, Simona Halep.
Tonight, Coco and Naomi met in the third round of the US Open in NY, and Naomi won decisively in straight sets to move on to the round of 16; while important, that was not as significant as what happened after the match was over. I let you see it for yourself first:
What we are seeing is a changing of the guard in tennis, and it seems it is in good hands. This new generation is setting an example for all, and this old tennis player loves it.
It’s nice to see such understanding and empathy among women tennis players. The young women I’ve seen playing at this US Open are very good and very aware!
1Video blocked by the US Tennis Association.
2Wonderful. Thanks for this.
3Sadly, for me it says:
“Video unavailable
This video contains content from US Tennis Association, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
🙁
4I’ve never played tennis but am a fan, especially the Grand Slams. I made sure to watch the Naomi-Coco match as I became a fan of Naomi’s last year and Coco this year. What happened after the match made me an even bigger fan of Naomi. Pure class and sportsmanship. And such a humble person. I hope she wins the tournament. And Coco will continue to learn and improve. She’s made her mark this year.
5Hannah, have a care, Ma’am, in this, er, ‘woke’ age surely “sportsmanship” should, nay must, be ‘sportswomanship’!
By the way, can anyone tell me what “woke” means?
6Can’t watch the video. Blocked by USTA.
What am I missing?
7Video link fixed.
8Here’s what the Washington Post had to say:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/naomi-osaka-ends-coco-gauffs-us-open-run-with-a-win-that-showcased-more-than-just-her-skill/2019/08/31/65215686-cc26-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html
9Keep an eye out for Canadian Bianca Andreescu, you will be seeing and hearing a lot about her soon.
10So beautiful……maybe our government will take a hint…..ha ha. We can hope.
11These are highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8dugcpcv84
12Saw that on TV and I was elated. But, hey! This how we females do things, such as the time I got bumped in the back end of my car by a woman who was trying to get to a funeral home to make arrangements for her daughter’s funeral. We had a prayer meeting in the middle of the intersection. Not one single male in my family could understand that!
13They both made me proud to be an American – shining examples of a very gracious loser and a very gracious winner. tRump could learn a lesson from these young ladies – but he won’t.
14A beautiful moment.
I quit watching tennis when I saw players throwing their rackets on the ground and stomping on them [yeah, like that missed shot was the racket’s fault] or worse, throwing them at other players.
I just may have to start watching the sport again now that a more woke generation is playing.
15These young ladies showed us that competitors do not have to have an adversarial relationship off the court. I look forward to watching them play HARD for many years. Hopefully every contest is close (more exciting than a blowout!!) and they win and lose as gracefully as they have done so far.
16That was SO beautiful. Onion ninjas.
17More on this: Naomi Osaka met with TV commentators for an interview afterwards. She was asked why she decided to invite Coco Gauff into the post match court interview. She said, paraphrasing, that we don’t see the players after the match, they go back to the locker room and cry (awwwww), then do a presser (usually not televised) that most people don’t see or don’t read the transcript. Since the crowd was so supportive of Coco, she thought it would be good for them to hear from her right there and then.
Naomi is an interesting person. Her father is Haitian, her mother Japanese. Naomi was born in Japan, but moved to the US at age 2. Coco’s parents were college athletes – her dad basketball, her mom track. Good genes. Both sets of parents have raised amazing kids.
18If I might add one more story, about another player, the great Rafael Nadal, winner of 18 Grand Slams (these are the 4 major tournaments, for those of you who don’t know). In a tv interview yesterday he was asked about something that happened a couple of days previous at a free kids’ event the US Open puts on. A huge crowd of kids was excitedly stacked up behind a 3+’ fence/barrier to get autographs from the players. A small child – maybe 4 or 5 -was at the front of the fence, being sort of crushed by bigger kids – and was overwhelmed and crying uncontrollably. Rafa saw/heard the kiddo, picked him up, and set him down on his side of the fence, bending down to talk to him while stroking his hair and cheek. This was what was shown in a video of the scene. The interviewer said, surely that kiddo would someday recall that Rafa Nadal had been so kind, and Rafa brushed that off, saying he doubted he would remember.
Maybe it’s a sign of the times that we are more drawn into stories of kindness, humility, maybe especially from those who are rich, are stars, but really,from simply everyday people.
Ah, I almost forgot: Coco and Katie McNally, her doubles partner won their match yesterday, beating the #9 seed team. Coco and Katie are just up from the junior ranks – where they were very successful. They play the #8 seeded team today.
19If that’s not shine theory in action, I don’t know what is.
20Told you!
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