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| MARY CARILLO |
Just finished watching the Sharapova-Murugula match and after enduring the screeching by both players on every point, I also had to listen to the oft-biased commenting by the illustrious Martina Navratilova and Mary Carillo. Here are some of the examples:
* Martina kept harping on the fact that Sharapova was taking too long between serves. Then she so aptly pointed out that "the men go over the limit all of the time and its never called on them." Not to let a sleeping dog lie, she then said, "if they are going to enforce on the women all the time, then they need to enforce it on the men too." Of course, Mary Carillo was quick to point out that Sharapova had been going 30 seconds between every point when she was serving in that game. Thankfully there was total silence from Navratilova at that point.
* After a change over and the players came back on the court, Mary Carillo said "welcome back to our match where Maria Sharapova, just like Rafael Nadal, is being illegally coached and taking too long between points." At least the tv crews showed Sharapova's coaches coaching her between points so that helped Carillo's credibility.
* Both Carillo and Navratilova said that if the chair umpire called a time violation after the warning on a first serve that Sharapova would only lose the first serve and could then serve the second serve. Perhaps in pro tournaments (where players basically get away with everything) this is true, but not in USTA nor ITA is that true. It would be a point penalty on the second time violation.
* Navratilova was interrupting her rant about female players being over-penalized to say that Sharapova was taking too long between serves and that is a "code violation." Interesting interpretation but wrong.
At least watching a match with these two commentators is interesting. Maybe we should mail a Friend at Court to Martina this week...
The saddest part of it all is that if the players are taking too long and receiving illegal coaching, then it is the fault of the OFFICIALS and not the players. The players will do what we let them get away with and everyone knows they aren't going to penalize their stars.
11 comments:
The tone of all the commentators seems to be that the officials are the foils of the players, and are to be challenged at almost every opportunity. You can see this carries over to the players because they are always questioning out calls that are completely obvious, that they could not see, because they were often 70 feet away!
While I like what John McEnroe's commentary adds to matches as a whole, he is the worst offender when it comes to matters involving officiating and rules. He will always question anything a chair official does or says in carrying out their duties. After a time warning, he went on incessantly as to how they should not interfere with the match!
Interesting how the US commentators were talking about how great the top junior seed Tiafoe is. Lets see, he LOST second round. Oh well. Funny, they aren't saying the same thing about the other non-diverse players still in the tournament. Makes you wonder what the USTA agenda is. I think we all know without a doubt what that would be, now wouldn't we. Sure is makes Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson prouder than a fly on a pile of dog excrement.
Looks like Martina had work done on her face. I wonder if she is trying to find a new lover among the young women in the French Open singles draw.
If Brett Musburger would undergo a sex change operation, he (or it) would become Martina!
Does anyone really think the commentators are spokesman for the USTA? I really doubt they even know much about it, or it's agenda. I do think they are briefed on who the USA players are, but that's about it.
Pat McEnroe is the head of Player Development so YES, he does speak for the USTA. To make matters worse, he's paid an exorbitant amount of money by the USTA to watch his players in action and then also gets subsidized by the networks for his off-cuff commentary.
So Randy, where's the outrage against the 7 minute recovery break that Queen Maria took after losing the second set yesterday? And where's the outrage about that interminable break between points at a crucial juncture in the 3rd set? Sure enough, there were the announcers justifying why Her Cuteness should be allowed to take her time when her butt was on the line. No concern at all for her opponent, that unattractive little troll from Romania. Could you imagine her being the face of women's tennis? The sponsors and TV audiences would never approve. Better to give Cutie as much time as she needs to recover and win.
And again, how about that equal pay for equal work horse crap? Cuteness couldn't have done a 4th set, ;et alone 5.
Signed,
Disgusted, but not surprised, in the metroplex.
WOW, What the Devil!!
@Anonymous June 8 11:13am
Sometimes I'm embarrassed to call myself an umpire after reading things like what you posted. That was truly hateful and you should be ashamed. It brings us all down, as umpires, and as people.
Hey, this morning's anonymous....Based on what happens in the pro tournaments, you should be embarrassed to be an official. Unless, of course, you are a pro official and then you have no shame whatsoever. Does the revised post below make you feel better? Are you feeling the "PC Glow" after reading it? How about addressing the real issues in the email and get past the rest? BTW, you must be pretty new to the blog.....
Anonymous said...
So Randy, where's the outrage against the 7 minute recovery break Maria took after losing the second set yesterday? And where's the outrage about that interminable break between points at a crucial juncture in the 3rd set? Sure enough, there were the announcers justifying why she should be allowed to take her time when the match was on the line. No concern at all for her opponent. Could you imagine her (Halep) being the face of women's tennis? The sponsors and TV audiences would never approve. Better to give Cutie as much time as she needs to recover and win.
And again, how about that equal pay for equal work question? Cuteness couldn't have done a 4th set, let alone 5.
Signed,
not surprised, in the metroplex.
My outrage has turned into disgust and I just change the channel.
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