I’m angry.
Q. Let me ask you a little question about male draw. You think that anybody could beat Nadal here? And what is your favorite player, male player?
JELENA JANKOVIC: There are so many great players, and to be honest, I’m watching only men’s tennis on TV. I don’t really watch too much women’s. That’s why many times when I play against them, you know, many times I don’t know my opponent. Like today, I didn’t know who I was playing, and I didn’t know that was Gajdosova and her name was Groth, you know?
I try to see the way they play. I think men’s tennis is much more advanced than woman’s, and if I can try to learn some things and try to add that to my game would be a good advantage.
Source: Roland Garros
I love glittergal JJ. I really do. But sometimes she just astounds me with some of her silliness. Sure she destroyed Jarmilla Groth yesterday at Roland Garros, but I find it so hard to believe that she had no idea Groth used to be Gajdosova before she played her. Don’t tell me that a girl who is still chasing her first slam did not even bother to find out about potential opponents in her part of the draw. I don’t want to believe it.
Moreover, I take offense to the statement that men’s tennis is “much more advanced than women’s“. Is it the cold hard truth? Debatable. Men’s and women’s tennis span out in crests and troughs. There was a time when the women’s tour excited me a lot more than the duds on the ATP tour. Same thing can be said now that the current “trough” of WTA tennis can only be attributed to the incompetence of JJ’s entire generation, not to the legends of the women’s game whose heritage they’ve failed to live up to.
I might be dramatically genderising the issue, but you only need to compare the average earning for a top 50 female player to the earning for a top 50 male player to realise that the issue is inherently genderised.
JJ isn’t even the only one on the WTA tour who feels this way, I’m sure I’ve heard Ana say similar things before. At the end of the day, I have no problem with any of them enjoying men’s tennis. I do myself. I take an issue when they admit their own inferiority, the need to ‘learn from the men‘. You would never catch Venus Williams saying this.
There are many fans, bloggers and media out there supporting women’s tennis, just look in my sidebar blogroll for an example. Previous generations of players have fought hard for gender equality in tennis and sport in general. When I hear JJ speak like this, it makes me wonder if these silly girls are worthy of equality at all. Believe you are lesser, and you will play lesser.
How do these ladies expect the general public to watch their matches if they don’t themselves? How is it that they expect people to pay for their matches, buy their cosmetics, perfumes or FHM covers, if they themselves don’t support the hand that feeds? How can young girls out there point to the likes of Jelena Jankovic and say “I want to play like her” if she’s standing there saying “I want to play like him“?
It would pay to think before you speak.
End of rant.
Filed under: WTA | Tagged: Jelena Jankovic
Oh yes! Dootsiez this is exactly how I feel: “How do these ladies expect the general public to watch their matches if they don’t themselves?”
It makes me want to SCREAM! URGH! Still don’t feel better. . .
The WTA has to take these girls aside and say STFU about how you suck and how bad your tennis is and how no one should watch you play because the men are so much better.
Still don’t feel better. . .now I know why you did a whole rant about this.
^ hi freakyfrites! Must say this rant became slightly insignificant in comparison to Rafa’s loss!
I agree the WTA needs to sit down and have a chat with these girls. Not only is it “politically incorrect”, but even at a normal workplace, you’d get into trouble if you started shooting your mouths off to the media about your own employer and, say, a rival company.
At the end of the day, JJ’s just shooting herself in the foot really by dissing her own sport. why are these girls so clueless?
[...] Quotable Rant: Oh JJ! [...]