SUNFEAST R1 EXIT
On the face of it yesterdays result is a real coupon-buster. Vania King is ranked some 70 places below Marion. This is the biggest scalp of King's career since turning pro last season.
The disparity in ranking belies the fact that King is a decent young player on her day. One who has a habit of hitting form when touring the Asian circuit. She also has a good doubles pedigree.
Nevertheless, many had taken this result for granted as a Marion win. It wasnt to be.
THE MATCH
The diminutive Ms. King was more adept at negotiating the speed of Netaji court than Marion. The first set literally ran away from a lethargic Marion.
She steadied the ship in the 2nd set, until King broke in the 9th game. Marion fought, and got the break back for 5-5. But once again she couldn't hold her serve, lost the set 7-5, and thus the match.
King was the more affirmative player on court, pushing Marion to hard fought deuces and breaking Marion's serve from game point down. Marion had only one break point in the match.
I have come to learn that when Marion plays there are few hard opponents, and few easy opponents, just.. opponents. She is capable of beating the best, and losing to the least.. For a fan, this means there's never a dull moment. For Kolkata, this means the tournament has lost another seed. So the door is open for the likes of Hantuchova or Kirilenko to take the title.
FASHION SHOW
The prelude to the tournament featured a fashion show. The players themselves actually playing the role of catwalk models.
India has always been a more traditional society, sensitive to any overt parading of western sexuality on the one hand, yet a country with it's own sophisticated culture of feminine mystique and popular romantic fiction on the other hand.
A schizophrenic attidude to females in general, nevermind females who are professional athletes.
I clocked from the Kolkata tournament photos at least one Bollywood star enjoying a photo opportunity with Sania Mirza. A players who's run-in's with Indian patriarchy are well known.
Things in mother India are changing fast however. A new upwardly mobile populace emerging. The pungent wiff of aspiration and desire intermingle with the urban stench of poverty... Coco Chanel and bad sanitation work out their Karma cheek by jowl. The nouveau riche consciously flaunt their wealth and status as a badge of honor and eligibility.
And tennis? The days of badly organised tournaments held in decrepit third-world conditions are diminishing by the day, in fact sometimes by the hour, with a little help from that last minute lick of paint! The gated-urban-elite have taken to the tennis court as yet another means of socialising.
Despite the horrors of partition, India has always been a multi-faceted rainbow nation. Vibrant, diverse, colorful, and intensely expressive. Now this cultural-DNA transmits in
the needle of western capitalism. Asceticism is out of fashion, and the camel is milked through the eye of a needle with corporate efficiency. A whole new being, weaned on the breast of the beast. The number of the beast is $$$... or any sexy figure you care name, with a fashion label stuck to her back.
Where there is money there is of course sex. Yet previous attempts to export Western beauty contests and fashion parades have been met with highly publicised moral outrage in countries such as India, Pakistan, and Nigeria. So what we are seeing now is a compromise. The need to incite desire for western brands and concepts of fufillment, without falling foul of local moral sensitivity.
Hence we have a tennis tournament with a fashion show attached.. sport-sexy!
Is it all implicitly sexist? Are these young women primarily admired for their ability, or their appearance? These are the kind of questions which it raises in my mind.
Personally, my ethical concern isn't whether it's sexy or not, but that the organisers ensure the informed agreement of each individual player. I don't personally have any moral angst about fashion shows, Only a concern that the players contractual rights are upheld, and no coercion employed.
Some players may find a fashion parade uncomfortable. Other players may find it fun. Indeed some players on the tour operate a modelling career beside their tennis career. That's cool, no problem. Just as long as the WTA etc remember that these women are individuals, not a collective with some unwritten obligation to the WTA to give freely of their, umm, assets. After all, tennis is a highly individualistic game, and indivdualism itself is supposed to be one of the defining characteristics of liberty and capitalism.
These girls do not arrive to India pre-packed. The tour is essentially a collection of solitaries and nomads, They are not mindless commodities, but strong independent positive role-models - The kind of young women that kids of the new middle classes in India aspire to emulate.. Well, at least that's the glossy spin anyway.
Maria Kirilenko l, Marion Bartoli r,
Looking a little unimpressed by it all, but for what it's worth, doesn't Marion look beautiful. James Bond would be proud to have her on his arm i'm sure.
EDITED: August 28 2008
"Are these young women primarily admired for their
ability, or their appearance? These are the kind of questions which it raises in my mind."
Its been in mines and Norms for years Alice, and its all about money today not skill. If they have poster girl looks they get endorsment/sponsors.
Young Agniszka Radwanska (God bless her) has already shown she is the real deal vis a viz Tennis. Yet at the US Open she was wearing a no-name dress and a US Open cap. Perhaps that what her parents want, nobody telling where and when to play. We all knowonce they sign on the dotted line they are leagally bound. And play even when injured.
If the $£ people cant see Aga for what she is, a tremendous prospect for tennis,then I hope it hurts them where ithurts them most. Their bank accounts.
Sorry for the long waffle
Jim