Ana Ivanovic Is Overrated Still Not A Champion
I watched the Australian Open women’s final and Maria Sharapova played well. I cringed when the ESPN commentator Dick Enberg got all horny about Ivanovic and Sharapova’s so called “appearances.” Yes, this dirty old man Dick Enberg doesn’t view women tennis players as athletes just objects for his sexual gratification and masturbation fantasies. I guess in the western culture Maria Sharapova is considered attractive I disagree. I think Ana Ivanovic is clearly more beautiful then Sharapova. When I think about it why does the media place so much emphasis on Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic’s looks? People on the internet called the final “the battle of the beauties”. Can’t women tennis players just be professional athletes? Why the emphasis on physical appearance? When Roger Federer or Andy Roddick plays tennis matches nobody makes a big deal about their looks so why are women tennis players treated differently?
Aren’t Sharapova and Ivanovic athletes? Or are women supposed to be beautiful while they are sweating on a tennis court and never sweat? Naomi Wolf wrote in her book “The Beauty Myth” over eighteen years ago that women are judged based on appearance in society first. Next,other characteristics such as intelligence, personality are considered secondary. I do think it was kind of sexist of Dick Enberg to go over on and on about how pretty Sharapova and Ivanovic are. I also was tired of the ESPN commentators repeating the same story about Ana Ivanovic’s tough childhood in Belgrade Serbia. We have all heard the story ten million times. Why can’t the commentators concentrate on the tennis and be quiet between the points? The BBC tennis commentators and the Tennis Channel tennis commentators are much more professional then ESPN television that’s for sure.
However, Ivanovic started to connect with the ball when she down 4-2 in the first set won the next three games to get it to 5-4 0-30 on Sharapova’s serve. Next, Ivanovic choked and the match was over. Sharapova swept right past Ivanovic winning the match.
The second set was easy Maria won the match 7-5 6-3. I was impressed with Maria Sharapova’s serve and nerve despite getting a bit tight losing the 4-2 lead in the first set. Maria fought back hard. In the second set Sharapova served well and Ivanovic just didn’t have a plan B. I was disappointed in Ivanovic she didn’t have the conviction and she choked under the pressure. Also, I can see Ivanovic has game but she needs to add more variety to her game why did she continue to slug it out with Sharapova when her forehand was off? Ivanovic has skills but she needs to get tougher mentally or else she’s not going to reach the top of the women’s game.
One of my complaints about tennis is there is too much ball bashing and not enough thought process in constructing points. Why didn’t Ana use some slice backhands low to Sharapova’s forehand or backhand? Why didn’t Ana moon ball Sharapova a bit? Change the pace? Sharapova won the match fair and square. I am no fan of Maria but she did an excellent job winning all seven matches at the Australian Open and destroying Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin easily.
Maria Sharapova is for real nobody can say she’s not anymore. Maria is a multiple slam champion she has now won three out of the four grand slams. Maria is only twenty and she already has three grand slam singles titles. Unlike former “glamour girls” such as Gabriela Sabatini or Anna Kournikova they just didn’t have the mental toughness or the drive that Maria Sharapova has. Maria wants to be a champion and now she has elevated herself to the next level. I can see Maria Sharapova winning more grand slams. I don’t understand the WTA computer though. According to the WTA Ana Ivanovic is going to be number two in the world next week. In my mind, the four elite players on the WTA are the Williams Sisters, Justine Henin, and Maria Sharapova they are the ones winning the slams.
The Serbs Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic are solid players but I still do not consider either Serbian women as real grand slam contenders yet. Jankovic shocked Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and then played poorly against Sharapova in the semifinals. It looks like Jankovic can’t seem to get past a grand slam semifinal. Ivanovic played better in the Australian Open final compared to the 2007 French Open final against Justine Henin. However, where is the mental toughness from Ana Ivanovic? I just am not impressed with her mental frailty at the moment.
I know Ivanovic will become a champion but I am tired of the media hyping up players that have not had the breakthrough. Maria Sharapova is the only young female tennis player that is a multiple grand slam champion. Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, have all failed to deliver. The WTA rankings may say Jankovic is number four next week and Kuzentsova will be ranked number three. In my mind I know the elite tennis players are simply better then the rest. Maria Sharapova is not number five in the world but the WTA computer rankings will say she is number five on Monday. Maria is better then number five and the Williams Sisters are also better then their rankings. Venus Williams had two slams at the age of twenty, Serena had won one by age twenty, Maria has three, Martina Hingis won five grand slams by age twenty. Ana Ivanovic has zero.
Gayblackcanada 
I don’t know what it is but I don’t like Sharapova. Maybe it’s the fact that she seems so arrogant every time I watch her play. I know athletes are allowed to be arrogant when they prove that they can back it up, but still…arrogance almost always loses me as a fan. But who knows…maybe she isn’t really arrogant and I’m just jumping to conclusions. She certainly is the real deal though as far as her tennis skills are concerned.
As for the overwhelming focus on the appearance of women athletes? I don’t think we can expect that to ever end….at least anytime soon. Women are evaluated and, present themselves, in relation to their looks in society right? And as long as there are women swimmers and soccer players posing for playboy or other men’s magazines, the physical appearance is going to remain a big aspect of how a female athlete is viewed.
So….”Can’t women tennis players just be professional athletes?”
I don’t think so. Maybe it’s sexist…but your quote from Wolf pointed out, it’s more a product of society than anything else.
Well Naomi Wolf wrote the “Beauty Myth” eighteen years ago and a lot what she says about North American culture is true. Women are still judged based on physical appearance then compared to their intelligence or other personal characteristics. Sharapova is a good athlete but not a great one. I am no fan of Sharapova either but she definitely has a lot of game. I don’t understand the hype about Maria’s looks either. Maria looks plain to me she’s just tall, white, and blonde. I guess in North America if you are tall, white female, thin, and blonde you will get a lot of press or something? Sharapova is a champion but I don’t like her personality she definitely doesn’t come across as friendly at all.
I just get tired of old Dick Enberg getting all horny while I am trying to watch tennis on ESPN that I have to turn the volume down. The media go overboard about Sharapova’s looks she’s not that attractive. Just my opinion. Although unlike Gabriela Sabatini and Anna Kournikova at least she is a multiple grand slam champion and she is for real in terms of her game.
I’ve just bumped into your blog and I’m not sure if your questioning the WTA rankings is just rhetoric, but if it isn’t you might wanna check how it works. Players compete during a given period of time (of 52 weeks, or 1 year) and points are distributed according to the results achieved on these tournaments. Grand Slams are granted a higher status and are also mandatory, along with the the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in Miami, plus the best 12 results from different tournaments. They all add up to the player’s score and that is how the positions are defiined, so to put it simply the rankings favor consistency throughout the season, and how many the player needs to compete is up to each one of them. It is true Grand Slams are regarded as the most important tournaments, and in the long run they are the ones that separate the players who are gonna go down in history and the ones who won’t, but technically speaking the rankings are solely a reflection of what players are having the best results during that specific period, an objective criterium for tennis as objective as tennis can possibly get. So while I agree the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin are the most accomplished tennis players in activity (and technically Lindsay Davenport), it doesn’t make any sense that these players should be on higher positions if their results on the season taken into account don’t support that The rankings are NOT an indication of which players are historically “better” than others.
I also believe the Ivanovic/ Sharapova comparison, albeit obvious and tempting, doesn’t have deep implications. You are talking of two ongoing careers, and tennis players evolve differently, according to their very own timing. Martina Hingis was a champion at 16, but finished her career with 5 titles, while Chris Evert, for instance, only claimed her first at 19, to win a total of 18. Had they been born on the same year, this kind of analysis would have led to an erroneous assertion Martina would have been a more accomplished player than Evert, when she was only a more accomplished player at that moment in time. Both Justine Henin and Roger Federer only won their first GS title at 21, and they are currently the top tennis players in the world.
As far as the hype goes, she is an overhyped player – like most players are, except those who have already backed it up with results. For better or worse, by the end of the day the media needs to find a story. I will agree Maria is one of the best competitors out there while Ana still needs to improve a lot on that sense. I won’t, however, make any predictions about the future. I think Ana has the tools to be a top player in the upcoming years, it’ll be a matter of whether she learns how to use them or not.
Last but not least, tennis is a sport prone to cashing in on its stars’ images, a machinery where money and product keep feeding each the other, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – until they feed you up with unprofessional commentators’ turn-ons you have not bargained for. Unfortunately I don’t think this will come to an end anytime soon either, what I do hope is that with the democratization of technology we’ll have the option to watch it without these people soon enough.
I am just tired of the media hyping up players that haven’t won grand slams. If you can’t win a slam you are a pretender and not a contender.