Picspam: It must be love.
So it’s time to say goodbye to Ai Sugiyama.
The reaction of her fellow players speaks volumes about Ai as a player and as a person. Like Fabrice Santoro, she combined the talent she had with excellent work ethic, making a record 62 grand slam main draw appearances in a career that spanned 17 years. As we’re so often reminded by the US Open publicity machine: it must be love.
Given her impeccable grand slam record over the years, it’s ironic that Sugiyama’s swansong came in the form of a retirement, as she pulled out of her match against Nadia Petrova trailing 6-0 2-1.
Meanwhile, Nads continues to entertain in her cheerleading costumes from the 80s.
For Marat Safin’s last tournament, can we get all the ATP players to line up, make tearful speeches and give him little bouquets of flowers?
Marat would immediately unretire in protest against such indignity. And somehow, that would be awesome.
6 responses to “Picspam: It must be love.”
Leave a Reply
Who the hell is dootsiez?
Melbournian lawyer. Blogger. Unapologetic Federer tragic.
Need to contact me? Pop me a comment here, or find me on twitter or through the contact form above the header.
Go on, I don't bite. =)
All I need is a picket fence ... 
Hats off – I have fond memories of Ai, from way back when I first began watching this tennis thing more seriously.
I just read that she beat both Clijsters and Davenport back in 2003 en route to a title in Scottsdale, also winnign the doubles the very same day!. She also beat Henin at the SEC that year.
But even before that I remember what stood out for me most about this remarkable sportswoman, was how uniformly she dealt with those imposters of ‘triumph and disaster’.
Anyone that centered and consistently effective over such a long period should arguably get an even more lavish send off – if only to highlight the importance of patience and discipline to many of the younger players.
Which frankly they could do with a lot more of.
Touche Topspin, touche.
Ai = one of the most tireless, committed players on tour. 17 years of steadfast tennis from her is a lot more than what we can say about flashier more glamorous players. Yet no one doubts the sort of passion she feels for the sport. It’s amazing the way she dealt with the work and passion dichotomy of tennis.
Talk about setting an example….
Marat would not unretire, he will probaby improvise a very postmodern poem about love coming too late to his life and them gift the flowers to the journos he hates most.
The only indignity he ever suffered was having to actually play tennis instead of being able to just being his awesome self, waxing lyrical about the meaninglessness of it all, while looking very, very good. The only reason he lingered around so long was his hope to get a job sitting near the umpire in important matches, groaning into the mike from time to time, and smashing something whenever people on the court seem to take themselves seriously.
Yeah, I am in a nasty mood. Never liked the guy, and now that he is about to leave the tennis scence I am tempted to find him somewhat endearing. THIS MUSTN’T HAPPPEN!
woah you never liked SAFIN?! Didn’t think that was possible :O
Yeah, for the longest time I couldn’t understand why everybody swoon over him. Besides I was too busy being a Roger girl to grant hotness to anybody else 🙂 And I hate seeing people waste their gifts, whatever they happen to be.
Still flabbergasted that you didn’t love Safin. He’s so insanely charismatic that you’re almost prepared to forgive him for all his nonsense, and trust me, Safin is just full of pure nonsense.