You are not logged in.
*Adrian, delete this if you don't want it in this forum.
I'm not interested in starting any flame wars, btw. As I feel I know most folks here pretty well by now, I'm curious for their input.
Serena Williams lost the tennis match (sorry, forget the name of this match; I'm not much of a sports fan) in Europe earlier this week. Various news sources say she faced a hostile crowd who ignored regular tennis etiquette with loud yelling, applauding when she made a goof, etc., etc. I don't watch tennis and know next to nothing about it's "etiquette," but on seeing the press clips on TV it did seem the crowd was much more lively, loud and rambunctious than what I've seen previously, regarding other tennis news clips or bits of live matches I may have seen before.
Bill O'Reilly (who I don't watch every evening, but often enough) seems to think the hostility of the crowd towards Ms. Williams is because she's an American; a "get even" type of mentality for the Iraq war. -->I'm -NOT- saying or implying I agree with him; I'm simply relating what he said.<--
To be honest, that never crossed my mind. If the crowd were hostile toward her, I figured it ::MIGHT:: be a combination of her being a champion tennis player with a huge winning streak, coupled perhaps with the fact that she's black...and perhaps also because her father has, in the past, been something of a poor sport with his wild gesticulating gloating when his daughters have won tennis matches, and his outspoken antagonism toward whites. But I don't know, of course; I'm just speculating.
Okay, so what do you think? Was the crowd over there hostile to Ms. Williams? If so, why?
I'd like to think Bill O'Reilly is wrong, and is trying to put his own spin (whoops!) on this matter. Maybe the crowd was just glad to see a longstanding champ defeated, regardless of nationality or skin color.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
Offline
Bill O'Reilly (who I don't watch every evening, but often enough) seems to think the hostility of the crowd towards Ms. Williams is because she's an American;
That I am sure, O'Reilly can see anti americanism everywhere. Look, don't be paranoid, but sport is NOT a fair game. Always the crowd has a favorite. I am not watching tennis anymore but I did at the time of McEnroe and Lendl, there were no good french players at that time execpt the average Lecompte and Noah. Noah had the oportunity to fight at Rolland Garros against the icy, emotionless, Lendl, I think (I am not sure if its Lendl). Noah is black, but he was french, so the crowd heavily supported him and the other guy didn't like that. But Noah was just the favorite. Mc Enroe was also a big favorite, even with his naughty behavior on the court. I liked that guy so much. You have to be charismatic in tennis. I think the Williams are powerfull players, too powerfull maybe, because they rely on force rather than astuce to win.
I've seen once the 6.5 feet tall bodybuilded Williams, fighting and winning too easily against a 5 feet something tinny young french player at a finale. The crowd said nothing. But you could smell for who their heart go. So maybe this time Williams lost, and their is no pity for the loosers if their are not favorites.
Offline
Cindy, I believe you're talking about the French open.
Here's a thing, though... I think US media sensationalism has really gotten out of hand. I can just smell the producers or news directors telling the guys to ?Catch the emotions of the audience at all times so that we don't ?miss anything.??
This has been going on for awhlie now. How often does one in the US see a protest, but only the parts where people get maced and so on?
Personally, I couldn't say whether or not Williams got an unnecessary level of heckling, I didn't watch that game. But even if she did, and I thought it was excessive, I couldn't see myself getting upset about it. That sort of thing happens in sport.
So yeah, I agree with dickbill on this one.
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
Offline
Personally, I couldn't say whether or not Williams got an unnecessary level of heckling, I didn't watch that game. But even if she did, and I thought it was excessive, I couldn't see myself getting upset about it. That sort of thing happens in sport.
So yeah, I agree with dickbill on this one.
Yes, don't focus too much on the sport things. These are games, and not fair. Sometimes that has nothing to do with sport. I don't mean there has been no anti-americanism at the Williams match. I havn't seen it and it's always possible. But everybody, don't forget that at Rolland Garros for examle, the public is the third player and express itself loudly when it disagrees with one player. Usually it's because the public thinks the player is unfair, irrespectuous with the arbitre, treacherous or unfairly too strong (like in different boxers weight categories), and in these cases, the bad player can be heavily whistled. It happened to McEnroe a lot, (well McEnroe was special, he could afford to be the bad guy, everybody was waiting for it). Not only that, but the public also applauds when the bad player makes a fault or a bad shot. It is very destabilising mentally to be applauded on a fault, much more than to be whistled if you insult the arbitre. You can easily loose a game if you loose your concentration and you need to be mentally strong to win against the public. Maybe that's what happened to Williams. Nothing to do with politic. I don't know...
Offline