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Serena Williams (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)
Billie Jean King, the tennis legend, has played tennis all her life and fought for the course of women in the tennis world in between.
But there is a problem with that kind of extraordinary focus and obsession on a simple thing like chasing down a little green ball and returning it to sender. You tend to see things as you wish them to be, not as they actually are.
This is not exactly making things up – just that you mind begins to magnify things and you make football out of ping pong and deceive yourself.
The other day, the living legend said at the Australian Open that Serena Williams was doing for women tennis what Roger Federer was doing for tennis generally.
It was curious thing to say, not least because tennis is tennis, and whatever Federer is doing for tennis, he is also doing for women tennis, but because Serena is not Federer and both are completely different in comportment and behavior.
Roger Federer is a phenom and King, in her normal women rights agitation, must look for someone to cast also as a phenom in the women game. And who else but Serena who stood closest to equaling her 12 grand slams record?
It is always a hazardous enterprise to compare the Women Tennis Association (WTA) with the Association of Professional Tennis (ATP).
Women play best of three sets in the slams, while men play best of five. Women tennis lacks the speed and competitiveness in men’s tennis, though it is always equally a delight to watch – like watching the slow-motion replay of your favorite football match.
But that is where the similarity ends.
Did we say that female tennis is not competitive? Now do not tell Billie Jean King, she may threaten to shove a tennis ball down the throat of yours truly.
But pray, why did the female tennis world go on a celebration over the achievements of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin?
This was clearly the worst misfortune to occur to the WTA and called for sober and solemn reflection not celebration. Two top players storm back after a two-year hiatus and guess what?
One dusts the reigning female number one player, Serena Williams, so thoroughly that she took out her frustration on a hapless lineswoman.
And the other took the same world number to three sets in Australia. I mean these women lay off (one to have a baby and the other to pursue other interests) and the rest of the pack (including Serena) were still on active service and yet see what happened!
Contrast that with Rafael Nadal’s absence for a couple of months because of injury while he was still the world number one.
On resumption, he has discovered that a lot of ground has been covered by those who were seeded below him and about six months later, he is yet to find his rhythm and compete with the boys he used to beat before he took the break.
Do you think that anyone of the top ten players in the ATP can take a one year break (do not even think of two years) and come back and beat Roger Federer or even have a single set with him? (I see you are shaking your head vigorously – I understand).
In the ATP, you cannot afford to skip training for a month without paying seriously for it, because your colleagues would leapfrog you.
But where is the women’s game?
Kim, dear Kim, comes out of retirement after having a baby and bringing the baby up. She takes the court by storm and drills her way like red hot knife going through butter to the bottom of the pack where Serena lurks like a panther.
She draws her and dusts her.
Then she squares off with another top ten player, the pretty, delectable ever-smiling Wozniacki and dusts her and lifts the US Open Title. One great leap for a tennis genius, but one sad commentary for women tennis and the top seeds.
While this was going, Justine Henin watched on television and comes to the conclusion that the women game has not moved significantly from where she let go. In fact the women game rolls on so slowly that you can get off it, take a stroll and come back and join the “train” where you hopped down.
She put a call through to her coach and enters the first tournament where she ends up playing the final with the comeback colleague, Kim Clijsters. Where were the other top seeds that had all the while been playing?
The women’s game is all about motion without movement.
Not done, she registers next for the Australian Open and storms through a tough draw to play Serena Williams, the world number one. She levels the game at one all before losing the deciding set.
I would have expected Billie Jean King to weep for women tennis after this embarrassment, but she is obviously still the “playing tennis of hope.”
I have a suspicion that Billie Jean King, Martina Nartilova, Steffi Graf, et al should all be contemplating whether to come out of retirement because nothing has changed much in women tennis from their days.
If Kim and Justine could do this, think of what Martina Nartilova could do – if she makes up her mind to thump the girls out there.
I watched the Australian Open spectacle on television and hung my head in shame. Commenting on Justine Henin, Serena Williams said she was better than she was before she quit the game and that it was like she never left.
Sweet Serena was partially right, based on her perspective.
Well the truth of the matter is that Henin moved, but women tennis did not move while she was away. So she came back and found it where she left it, and continued from there.
One would not have considered it necessary to hold up such decent and wonderful ladies like Clijsters and Henin as proof that women tennis is in a sorry state.
But after Serena Williams attempted to cash in on Billie Jean King’s comparison of her with Roger Federer and reinforced the warped thinking that she is the Roger Federer of the women circuit by saying that she wanted to equal Roger Federer’s record, one decided to watch the line and call “out.”
Roger Federer is riding fierce storms of competition, while Serena is surfing in wavy waters. Women Tennis is as different from men’s tennis, as American Football is different from Rugby.
Federer plays best of five sets, women play best of three.
Serena has serve advantage over the women, whereas no one has such advantage in the men’s game.
Even the suave and dapper Andy Roddick, who holds the world record in service at 157 mph, does not enjoy much advantage in the men’s game and is not in the top four right now. But Serena’s 120 mph service is usually too hot for the other girls to handle.
The guys return everything above that with ease and a smile.
I say both games are miles apart.
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