If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I stan pretty hard for Rafael Nadal and especially for his sexy ass. His record at the French Open is nearly unblemished and it's crazy, because every year, he shows up at Roland Garros acting like it's just not gonna happen this year, friends.
This year, he showed up having lost in the final of a warm-up tournament to Diego Schwartzmann, who is a problem on clay to say the least. Then, because of the pandemic, the French Open was held a good four months later than usual and in colder temperatures. So Rafa showed up to the Open, with Schwartzmann in his piece of the draw, and says, in essence: 'This year is gonna be tough -- these tennis balls are trash and it's cold.'
The other person I stan hard for is Venus Williams, so I don't have a lot of hope left in my wishing well, in this the 3,854th day of 2020. So it was hard to watch Rafa at first for this tournament, because I was thinking he was going to struggle. But I forgot that Rafa is always most down about himself and it's usually for no reason at all. But, my goodness, what can you say about Nadal's play during this tournament that hasn't been said? Who does that to Novak Djokovic in a major final? And who didn't half expect one of those moments that Djokovic produced that return when he was on the robes against Roger Federer in the 2011 U.S. Open final that turned the whole match around? Because it wasn't even that Djokovic looked that bad.
I'm just saying, I saw it and I was more than impressed with Rafa, the least likely to have a long, prosperous career, according to all the tennis pundits in the early 2000s. To be fair, many of them were looking at Federer when they said this.
And I've said this before, but I am looking forward to all hands being back on the tennis deck, especially for the women. The WTA is building quite the stable of players who will be mixing it up for at least a decade to come. Where does Iga Swiatek fit in there? I mean, based on the way she spanked Simona Halep in the first week, I'm going to say pretty high up there? I would say between Naomi Osaka/Bianca Andreescu and Elina Svitolina. So, anyway, the French Open was good. I'm glad there were no major outbreaks. Maybe if everyone acts right, we can get a full Slam with all healthy hands on deck in 2021. Don't laugh. It could happen ...?
Podgey
In my corner of the world, rec tennis has resumed. I'm playing some league matches and, well, the rust is obvious. I've also found my way back onto the ball machine at my local courts, so it's just a matter of time. I hope.
My Martina dress project is still on and I thought that creating the pattern from scratch would be the hardest part. Once that was done, all I had to do was cut it into fabric and voila! Right?! Right?? So to do this, I held the bodice up to my body. I knew I didn't want it as short as Martina's dress, but flattering still. So I added two inches to the skirt, marked my fabric and began cutting.
I didn't even notice it at first. Instead, I held up my handiwork like that monkey holding Simba in The Lion King. I was just as proud of myself, too. Then I began translating the darts onto the fabric. I was about to cut the back piece out when I took another look at the front.
Then I sized it up against my own body again.
So my measurements were a bit off. As I've said before, anything involving numbers is going to be a situation for me. I thought I'd have a lot of time to get through this draft dress before tackling the real one (if you are reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about, refer here, please), but it looks like I'm going to have to *gulp* set a goal. I think I'll try to finish this before Election Day here in the States, because I have no idea the sort of condition I'll be in when that's over. Best to do something positive in that time.
More hodge than podge
I've been writing some articles about tennis for STACK.com, which is aimed at young people trying to become better at their sport and older athletes trying to expand their game. My first article (read here!) is about mindfulness and tennis and I have a quick real-life story about it. So I was playing a match a couple of weeks ago against a really annoying opponent. The person who wants to swap recipes and family trees on changeovers. The one who repeats your serve score -- and gets it wrong, then argues with you about it. The one who, as your game gradually deteriorates, says things like, "That was a nice try, though." Also, she had a good, solid game. Anyway, I was down a set and significantly down in the second and a pattern began to play out where I went up at least 30-love on my serve, and then lost the game. I'm at 40-0, and in about a minute, it's deuce, and I thought to myself, "I'm about to do this again! Why can't I hold my serve?!" Then I stopped and reminded myself that what happened earlier in the match was the past and how I perform for the rest of this game is up to me -- it's not written in the stars. I needed to remember to play the one game before me at that moment.
The crazy part is that it worked. Mostly. I won that game and ended up in a second-set tiebreaker, and things didn't go great there. But what I did to get out of that hole is a form of mindfulness. I'm just sharing that so you understand that even if your match is going by quickly, you still have the time to exercise mindfulness in a meaningful way when you're on court.
All right, I've got some fabric-measuring to do. Whoop!
My enthusiasm well for pro tennis is back at sub-zero, so.
Part of this is because I'm watching this Venus Williams/Anna Schmeidlova match, a match in which Venus started out 4-2 up. Now she's a set down and also a break. Venus still has game and it's too bad that she's not connecting at the right times. I mean, she could still come back, but she's 1-7 this year. Not that records mean much in a year like this.
There are a few fans scattered in the stands and their scattered applause is a sight better than the piped noise at the U.S. Open and other sporting events. There's something to be said for silence, especially in tennis. You can hear the way the ball is hitting the strings, the sheer effort from the athletes. Music and piped noise was always a bad idea and needs to go. Even small crowds are better, but they don't capture the suspense of that second match point Venus just saved. And if the regular French crowd had been there to watch Venus argue this line call with the umpire, they'd be raining boos on her. So, again, maybe this is good.
Welp, Venus just lost. The Carolina Garcia/Anett Kontaveit match has a lot more people in it. Kei Nishikori is back in action. Victoria Azarenka's continuing her run. I'm trying here. Give me a few days?
Before this tournament began, I questioned the wisdom of holding this tournament in one of the few countries that do not yet have this pandemic under control. I wasn't sure if I'd watch it with the same vigor as I would in normal times and I wasn't convinced it would last the full two weeks, especially with the early hullabaloo with Benoit Paire.
My willingness to watch started slowly, even with Venus Williams losing at the first hurdle (I mean, gurl). But as the draw shook out, there were some great match-ups and before I knew it, I was in -- checking scoreboards at work, firing up the laptop at home (including once eschewing a writer's group Zoom call that I still kinda feel guilty about) and genuinely entertained by the few late-night matches this tournament had to offer.
I wondered, and still do, what this tournament would have looked like with the full and capable cast -- Nadal, Halep, Andreescu, Federer. I thought that whoever won would have an asterisk next to their name. I don't think that's true now and it was actually unfair to suggest this.
Those who sat this one out did it for good reason and those who chose to negotiate the risks to play the U.S. Open did it for good reason. These decisions really are reflective of what we're all navigating every day, right? We're trying to protect ourselves and our loved ones and trying to be responsible and also trying not to go insane in our living quarters. That good reason looks different to all of us and nowhere was that more clear than the draws we got at the U.S. Open. This is as true-to-life a scenario we'll see in professional tennis, where even millionaires are left making the same choices as you and me -- do I go back to work? How? Is it safe? Is everyone else being safe? It's kind of wild when you think about it.
Anyway, sorry. About the tennis. It was good! It was great for young Americans. I once saw Shelby Rogers play live at a Fed Cup match (warning: if you're missing crowds, don't click this link) and I was underwhelmed. Well, she has completely revamped her game, cracking the hell out of her groundstrokes and mixing up her shots. I always thought her forehand swing looked a little funky, but as with any tennis swing, you do it long enough and it will begin to work for you. I actually missed that she'd beaten Serena Williams this summer already as well. And there was Jennifer Brady who seemed to me to always be on the precipice of a breakthrough in Slams. I mean, she beat the sauce out of Angelique Kerber and I was really concerned for Naomi Osaka during their semifinal for a minute.
That Victoria Azarenka v. Serena match? Did not see that result coming, but this is 2020 and we can say that about everything at this point. Seriously, that was some great tennis, and I'm not 100 percent convinced it was an injury to Serena that lost her that match. I really think she's got a mental block around this 24th slam title. Because I didn't think Azarenka did anything much different to turn the match around -- Serena gave an inch and Azarenka took a mile. It's not like she doesn't remember how to win.
(MINI RANT COMING) I would like everyone to stop talking about women who are mothers playing each other now, please, NOW. Neither of these amazing athletes referenced about, and not Tsvetana Pironkova, either. I have never heard any commentator on any channel anywhere ever say that a Federer vs. Djokovic match was a battle of the dads. And I wouldn't care. Listen, I'm a mother. I get that we do it all. This isn't news. We are not gathered around our computer screens to observe them giving out tips for diaper rash. They are there to work and we are watching them work. So stop it. Just NO MORE (end of MINI RANT)
Whew. I feel better. Anyway, Naomi Osaka is the bomb and is still socially super awkward and I love it. I know I just mentioned Serena giving an inch, and I think the same happened with Azarenka in the final against Osaka, but the difference in the final was that Osaka's level went way up. Azarenka didn't tank, she just leveled out. She wasn't this solid when she won the U.S. Open in 2018 and she was never even really in trouble in that final. She has matured and what I personally am waiting for is to see her at her best against Bianca Andreescu at hers because that rivalry is the future of women's tennis and it's going to be amaze-balls.
Speaking of the future of tennis and why that phrase is overused, let's move on to the men's final, in which one of the participants, Alexander Zverev, noted that it would be a great match because it would be a showdown of the two best players in the world.
So Zverev has a history of his mouth writing checks that he can't cash. But. He came out on Sunday and quickly took two sets off Dominic Thiem, who I was rooting for, but I wasn't feeling invested. (I mean, if we're speaking freely, it has been a while since I've seen a legitimate ass on a white guy. Thiem's ass is, like, solid.) The thing is, I was watching and thinking, what is Zverev really doing here that is so special? I felt like I've seen Thiem play that well, and even better, before. Sure, a lot of it can be the heaviness of the moment -- both were playing for their first major title. Well, that question got answered when Thiem came back and forced a fifth set.
OK, so, if you're a tennis player or are playing league tennis, this fifth set might have been particularly gratifying. You know how you start decelerating through your shots as you approach the end of a close match? How your legs stop moving and you're mentally shouting at yourself to come on, just get the second serve anywhere, anywhere in the box? That was the fifth set of the men's final and it's just good to know that even when you become a professional, you are still prone to figuring out how to finish a match with your racquet wrapped around your neck. So, in that sense, knowing that anyone can and will choke makes me feel better in general.
But really, Thiem did come back and earned that win. He got a lot of help from Zverev, but he did it. And I did not expect to feel bad for Zverev, but when he gave his speech, I may have teared up.
Having said all of this, yes, this is a nice preview of the future of men's tennis and once both of them have mastered their nerves, we'll be in for treats. However, I could not believe my ears listening to commentators actually talking about the future being now and openly asking if this is the beginning of a shift. Hi. Two-thirds of the most dominant men in tennis right now did not play this tournament. When they do play tournaments, they usually win them. One of those men won this same tournament last year! What? No, it's not a shift yet. It'll be a shift when Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are legitimately standing in their way of a Slam -- and they bypass them. Just to clear that up because there appears to have been some amnesia happening.
OK, so that was more than I expected to have to say. It was good. I'm glad the players who came were able to bring back some semblance of normalcy to their lives. (Except for Kristina Mladenovic. Is she ... still sheltered in place?)
I should have known my lack of enthusiasm wouldn't last during the U.S. Open. There's always something coming down the pike that sucks you in. I'm not sure which storyline is the most intriguing, so please, help me decide.
It's Like, a Pandemic
Obviously, it was risky to continue on with the Open given the circumstances, and it was too risky for the likes of Rafa Nadal, Ash Barty, Simona Halep and Bianca Andreescu and a bunch of others. Maybe they saw something others didn't. Like this situation with Benoit Paire testing positive for coronavirus shortly before play was to begin. These tennis players had been together in a bubble already for two weeks, playing the Cincinnati tournament in New York just as a precaution. Of course, the new problem with someone suddenly testing positive is figuring out who they've been in contact with.
So here's, in a nutshell, what happened: Kristina Mladenovic was determined to have close contact with Paire, and although she was allowed to play singles, she and her doubles partner Timea Babos -- the top-ranked team -- were pulled from the draw and Mladenovic was made to quarantine. It is worth noting that Babos left the country before anyone could tell her she had to quarantine in place. Adrian Mannarino, also shown to be exposed to Paire, was allowed to play his match the day before Mladenovic was taken out of the doubles draw. Daniil Medvedev is still in this tournament and was shown to have been exposed to Paire. So I don't get it. But this New York Times story lays it out pretty well.
It would seem, then, that there is some inconsistence in how these decisions are made and when. Apparently, the USTA worked with NYC and state health officials before working with the county in which the players are staying. And then, the other day, I read that the French Open is wanting to have a similar player bubble AND spectators in the stands. So yeah. Should go GREAT.
Conspiracy Theory Tennis Twitter
Novak Djokovic had one job. And it was a pretty easy one, because (and I am not trying to be rude) there were zero Grand Slam winners in the top five seeds of this tournament. All he had to do was go out there and be Novak Djokovic against players who definitely are not him. And then he hit a lineswoman in the throat with an errant ball struck in frustration.
I mean, that expression? That's most tennis fans about Novak Djokovic, who talks constantly of wanting to be liked, but then creates a super-spreader tour event and then tried to talk his way out of consequences by saying, "hey, she didn't go to the hospital ..."
He did apologize. This is true, and it was a full apology. He accepted his punishment and left. But then tennis' version of Q-Anon decided that this incident needed further examination. Some theorized that the lineswoman hit the deck intentionally and overreacted to get Djokovic in trouble. Have you ever been hit in the throat without having the opportunity to protect yourself from impact? Me neither, but it probably hurts. What can I say? Twitter is a cesspool.
Also disappointing were some commentators suggesting that the problem was the presence of linespeople in the first place, because they aren't on all courts.
Had to be Brad Gilbert.
How to Talk About Racism
The shooting of Jacob Blake may have rendered our lawmakers into a malaise, but at least athletes had something to say about it. This is a crazy thing to be typing, by the way. It's not normal to understand, as we all do, that something is deeply wrong with policing in America and to do nothing about it, especially when you are among the people who can do something about it.
When the Milwaukee Bucks said, "aw, hell naw, Karen" and refused to play until someone did something, it started an unbelievable cascade of players sitting in protest, from men's and women's basketball, to BASEball (emphasis mine, because, like, what?), to tennis. In the bubble, Naomi Osaka refused to play her semifinal, prompting the entire Cincinnati tournament to pause.
Osaka showed up to the U.S. Open with the goal of highlighting the stories of black people who died at the hands of police, or people playing police, as was the case with Trayvon Martin. She did this by displaying their names on her mask. Where her mouth is. And of course, what she's doing is just powerful, but it's clear that some white people don't know how to talk about it. During her match against Shelby Rogers, Chris Evert noted that perhaps Osaka's renewed resolve in highlighting racial injustice was translating into her game. This made my head hurt for a moment, but then at least Cliff Drysdale immediately said, "I don't know about that," and the swelling went down. Then after Osaka won, she had a post-match interview with Rennae Stubbs, who is an astute observer of the game. After some talk about the game, she noted, in a rather light and casual tone, that she had incorrectly guessed which name would be highlighted on Osaka's mask on this night, like she had missed a question in JEOPARDY! during a bar's game's night, and I don't remember what happened next, because my head came off my body in an explosion. This isn't a game. These are dead black people who didn't have to die and my god, woman, ask about the person if you want to do this right! Gah!
I stayed with the match long enough for another interview with Osaka, who was presented with a video of Martin's mother and Ahmaud Arbery's dad thanking her for using her platform to highlight their children, and just like that, I was bawling. It was a beautiful moment and opened the door for a conversation about why she was doing what she was doing.
That's when I had a mini-revelation (well, after I roasted Stubbs and Evert on Twitter). This is literally new for a lot of white people. They are only now coming to understand what it's like to be black in America. Sure, you can ask why this is new to people and that's a different and longer conversation, but there are many who really don't know how to have this conversation. They want to help, and learn, and grow, and they have empathy for others. But when it comes to talking about race and racism, it can get awkward, I think. And sometimes, they'll say the wrong thing because they don't know how to say something substantial, or what's acceptable or they're nervous about saying the wrong thing. And then they imply that taking a stand against racism is good for a tennis game, or they maybe don't want to ignore the mask on your face but aren't sure how to address it. I'm just saying that we've (I've) gotta show some grace here, I think. There's going to be a lot of stumbling and fumbling around white people talking about racism and yeah, it's past time they did it. They're obviously not going to get it right.
But at least they're not ignoring the issue. Which is better than our own government.
This is supposed to be my last-minute U.S. Open preview post. But true-confession time: It's been hard to watch tennis and I sure as hell have not seen the draws yet. This disinterest isn't just for the obvious reasons, I'm starting to realize.
Chadwick Boseman died the other day, on top of this dumpster fire that is 2020. It's hard to watch this country tear itself from the inside because that's a better option for some than properly valuing the lives of black people. It's also hard to look away. And it makes sense to look at something else, and I thought that thing would be tennis for me. But I've not been able to watch more than five minutes of this rebooted season. Not even Venus v. Serena XXXXXVIII or whichever one this was. As I watch athletes do the work that our government won't in demanding justice and fairness, I realized why sports isn't doing it for me right now.
It's because we're asking athletes to put their safety on the line for our amusement/distraction when we know it isn't necessarily safe. It's not just that -- it's that other countries are well underway living their best post-pandemic-wave-1 lives, while so many Americans were willing to ignore facts and get mad about masks, yet many of those same people demand that these athletes come to New York and entertain them. Or suit up in Alabama for college football. No one should be in this position, and most importantly, I should be in New York enjoying my rainy day make-up ticket from last year.
That was a joke. I used to have a ton of them.
The fact is that they're there now, ready to play and I have almost no interest in tuning in. I want to try, though. This is mainly because I've finished binging Schitt's Creek. Also, theoe players are there, doing their jobs, for better or for worse, and if they're OK with it, then I guess I'll get OK with it, too.
I don't think, however, I'll be OK with this Novak Djokovic-led union for men only. Sounds ... er, promising. Just about as promising as anything involving John Isner would. (I'm including that whack-ass Wimbledon match.)
When Nick Kyrgios is the adult in the room, you know we have really lost the plot.
While Novak Djokovic was hosting the Corona Open and Alexander Zverev, Borna Coric and Grigor Dimitrov then got infected with the virus, there was one person saying that playing tennis tournaments was a bad idea at the moment. We got Danielle Collins leaving the World Team Tennis bubble to go into West Virginia of all places and getting kicked out of the tournament. The baseball season started like 10 minutes ago and half a team has coronavirus already. And it wasn't even unexpected. Playing any big-scale event in a country where folks are actually debating whether masks are a violation of their rights (spoiler: um, no) is not going to work. No one really wanted to say it -- to say that professional tennis right now is a bad idea. No one except Nick Kyrgios. He announced his plan to skip the U.S. Open in what felt like a hostage video, but it was actually a sensible message.
I think we have to give him a pass now for his next tantrum. Sorry, new rule.
No one wants to be cooped up all day in their homes, even those of us who thought it might be kind of nice before. It's not nice. I want to play tennis and it's possible to play tennis safely while practicing social distancing, but that's like playing with a friend, not going to a major. It's so crazy right now to see people just pretending this virus is over. It's stupid to play a Grand Slam right now, even though I need to see a Grand Slam right now. Let's bypass the logistics of keeping everyone safe for now (which includes electronic line-calling and at some point, I'm going to need to know why this wasn't the standard if it's a thing that works), and consider the value of winning the 2020 U.S. Open* held in the country that's the most overrun by this virus. Most countries won't let Americans in because it's clearly out of control here. We're asking Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Garbine Muguruza to come here for a tennis tournament? Ash Barty, who already said heck no? Do you really want a player who lives and trains in Florida coming to New York right now? I live here, and you don't. We still have cities thinking about mask ordinances.
OK, let's assume the answer is no. What if you're Serena Williams and you win this gutted tournament? What does it mean? Serena's a bad example because she has nothing left to prove. I only use her because as far as I know, she is the first big-name player to commit. Whoever "wins" this tournament will have that asterisk next to it, which will suck if the person is a first-time winner.
Tennis With Notions
The dress is going well, although I've not cut the pattern yet. I made the bodice template and am on to the skirt. Then I merge and cut and poof? I don't know. Despite my earlier ranting, I'm playing a league match this week but we have a uniform of sorts, which means I'll have time to debut the dress. I might finish the skirt template today. I'll post if I do. Otherwise, here's the front and back bodice pieces:
Pretty right? Well, it will be is what I'm saying.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
About a month ago, it all got to be too much.
It was the fears over the coronavirus. It was the pressures from my full-time job. It was my husband getting on my nerves. My kids asking all the questions. And then George Floyd was killed.
About four years ago, I published a post about sports fans getting their jockey straps in a bunch over Colin Kaepernick and Serena Williams talking about police violence. I remember when I tweeted out the post and one of my favorite followers replied, in essence, "Yeah, but you should keep sports and politics separate."
But here is the thing. If you are black in America, it is not so easy to focus on your job. Because your skin color informs the way you are treated everywhere. Even at work. If you spend your entire life watching police do terrible things to black people, then explain it away with shady-ass police reports, it's hard to stay focused on your job. But you have to, right? It's like every black parent has said to their child: You have to be twice as good to get anywhere. That's also true. So there is this additional burden that you always carry. And Floyd's death really brought that into sharp relief. At least for me.
Kaepernick hasn't been able to get a job in football in those four years because he silently protested racism every week on the field. And I've been thinking a lot about what would have happened if people had listened. Because it wasn't just Kaepernick eloquently stating his cause -- there was case evidence happening around him and around us the whole time. What if the NFL had chosen to get behind Kaepernick when he first started talking about police brutality and racism? That was in 2016, before George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, before Sandra Bland, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Elijah McClain, the list, this tragic list goes on. Now, when even the NFL is trying to make amends, everyone is catching up to this ongoing problem of police brutality. You want to be grateful that people are finally starting to understand what it means when you say "Black Lives Matter." At the same time, it took an awful lot of terrible things to happen before people realized that racism was a thing. And there's progress happening in important places, like newsrooms. But the president is retweeting people who are shouting "white power" in golf carts.
I don't really have a point. I guess I'm saying these weeks have been a lot for me. And it's been hard to think about tennis. Our league coordinator says it's safe to start league play again. Sure. Florida's down to over 5,000 cases a day from 8,000-9,000 a day. I don't know. I'm still working on my dress and I'll have plenty of time before I get to debut it at this point. And I did play for the first time since March a couple weeks ago. I was actually much worse than I thought I'd be. What do you call it when you don't have rust to knock off your game, but your racquet is a complete block of rust?
OK, one more thing. We are really having the U.S. Open this summer? And are we really inviting Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev? So Zverev tested positive for virus that has caused a global pandemic after playing in an ill-advised tournament that Djokovic put on, no masks, everyone all up in each other's faces. Then Zverev goes out partying and breathing on everyone? This is why we'll all be housebound until 2025. And he seriously shouldn't be invited to play in New York. We don't know anything really about the coronavirus -- it's too new. We don't know why it doesn't bother some people too much and why it lands others on ventilators. And it sounds like the plan is to ... allow infected players to come to a tournament with at least 127 other people, especially ones who are refusing to self-isolate?
That's it for now. Stop breathing all over each other, OKAY!
Cocktail optional, but I think we all could use a drink.
Our tennis courts are open again in my corner of Florida, which is great. But I don't really feel ready to test the facility yet. Honestly, there are too many people walking around without masks and trying to crowd me in grocery stores, and I don't want to test public waters yet. League play allegedly resumes next month. Let's say that's true. That gives me about four weeks to finish my Martina knockoff dress. How's that going? Glad you asked.
I said in my previous post that I had attempted to recreate this dress before. I dug out my sewing box with the fabric I had left and a book I'd bought about the basics of sewing. I'd forgotten that I had also gotten a pattern-making book from the library and made copies of all the relevant chapters so I could return the book. When I looked all of this over, I realized why I had stopped.
First, these books might as well have been written in Sanskrit. They couldn't have made the text bigger, or included some white space? This is like reading an economics textbook.
Oh, and the thing that probably sent me screaming from the machine the first time were all these numbers. It's just like Tom Hanks said, "There's no math in sewing!"
Unlike the 1970s, when I'm sure these books were written, there is now YouTube, where I felt sure I could learn how to make a pattern without math-ing.
But it turns out I was wrong. There is no way around calculations to make your pattern, just as there is no way to go without measuring your dimensions. There's been a lot of stress-eating of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around here and also popcorn and cookie thins. So wrapping a measuring tape around my waist is, yeah, fraught.
Anyway, I went to YouTube University and found two fine instructors who gave me some tips before I busted out the scissors. The first one is from The Last Stitch, where I learned that you can digitize your patterns? One great idea she offered was using your best-fitting clothes when drafting patterns in addition to your dimensions. That is probably going to be very important here because while I love the look of Martina's dress, I do not think that playing in a dress that narrow and short will be very comfortable for me. My thighs are a little bigger than hers (and not all muscle), so some length adjustments will be needed there.
Unfortunately, Johanna also recommended using a textbook to learn more about the basics. Which might be a good idea because one of Johanna's other tips was that "Ease matters," and I had no idea what she meant. Cart before the horse much?
Still, I really wanted to get started, just to get something down on paper -- the lovely pattern paper I purchased online. So I cut out a piece and got started with the next video.
And I learned yet another lesson right off the top: supplies needed include a "set square" and "pattern master?!??" What are those? Looks like another online visit to Joann Fabrics is in order.
More math here, unfortunately, but Kim's video helps explain the whys behind the pattern calculations although I'm not going to pretend I'd be able to explain it to anyone else at this time.
I also learned the importance of ease, which is basically making sure that when you put on your dress, you can move around in it. Helpful thing to know. Even without those supplies, I was able to get something down on paper, although it wasn't much.
Like I said, not much. This is far from complete, but I needed a break from all those numerals. But I have officially gone much further than ever in this process, which makes me think I might actually swing this! (Pun discovered in editing process, and it stays.) I also have the material I'm going to use for my first pass at this project, too! No, it's not the original material. Not only have I been unable to find it, but I'm pretty convinced I'm going to need a second pass at this dress and would hate to do it on hard-to-find material. I like what I did pick out, which you'll hopefully see in my next post.
It might even be cut.
It might even be cut correctly.
At the beginning of 2020, I set a list of goals. Ten of them. Some were around my writing, some around fitness, and of course around tennis. My goal for tennis was to get better at it. How to determine if I was getting better? My league matches. I set out to win 60 percent of my league matches for the year. I'd use my club's ball machine to work on my strokes.
My last match before everything stopped was on March 12 and it was on the road. One-hour-away- on-the-road. And for my goals, it was somewhat important. I'd had a spotty start to the season to say the least, but my match the previous week was a great win for me. I'd started out the first set with a 3-0 lead, squandered it, came back to win the first set, then gone down 0-3 in the second set, came back to tie it and win that set, too. I felt like my head was finally becoming an asset. I came in at 2-4, and if I could just get a win, it'd show some progress, would show that I could build towards being consistent.
In this last match, I won a tight first set against an opponent I sensed was a lot like me -- aggressive, but error-prone. Her husband sat on the outside of the fence of our court and every time she played on that side, she told him how terrible she was. When I played on that side, he was quiet, but he was also coughing and not covering his mouth. They'd just detected coronavirus for the first time in this county days ago, and when I wasn't trying to figure out how to get some comfortable distance (literally and figuratively, which is the first time I've accurately used this term) between me and my opponent, I was wondering if people just ... didn't watch the news.
Anyway, after the first set, my opponent asked for a court change, and in fact, half the lights were out on the court. We moved, and I get out to a 1-0 lead, a 2-0 lead. 3-0. Then her aggressiveness started paying off and I miscalculated. See, the first set had taken probably an hour and I saw her misfire, but also hit great shots. She made way more errors than great shots. I figured, later in this second set, that she would fall back into missing her shots if I could just keep the points going, so I worked on defense and on shots where I had clear opportunities, I took the foot off the gas. Like I said, I miscalculated. She won the second set in a tiebreak. The match tiebreak was more of the same, except I'd finally shamed myself ("Hit the ball, you f#*^*&# p$*#*!") into going for my shots, but I was missing now. As for my opponent, she finished off the match with two forehands up the line that she had not even previously attempted. 11-9. After the match, she was very complimentary and I had to admit it was one of the better singles matches I'd played in a long time. We'd been at it for at least 2.5 hours and physically, I felt good. I felt terrible inside and if you play league tennis, you know those drives home can be exhilarating or they can be very long. Mine was very long and now our season was over, but another one was about to start -- both in my county and the neighboring county. There'd be plenty of time to work on my match record.
Remember when you thought there'd be plenty of time? It turns out that you were right. I was right. Except that it turns out that there's plenty of time for us to work on the things that matter, and it turns out that that list is pretty short when life hits pause. Leaving the house is a calculation. Do I really need to? What if I have it? What if someone at the grocery has it? Last weekend, a friend of mine sent out a desperate group text asking if anyone wanted to play tennis -- a text I had sent out myself two weeks earlier and she had been the taker. I looked at my phone, saw that text, and went through about fourteen phases of emotion: It's a pandemic, (name here). Are you crazy? You can social distance on a tennis court ... What if everyone says yes? That's four of us. Too many maybe ... I really do want to play some tennis. Did I ever pick up my racquet from the pro who was supposed to string it before all this started? No? Can you play in a mask? We're supposed to stay home!
After all that, I just put the phone back down without responding and went back to stress-eating chocolate chip cookie thins.
Here's where I've landed. I have to take care of myself, my family and my community. I can't change anything outside of that. All I can do is try to keep us safe and healthy and disinfect the hell out of every doorknob and light switch in this house. And part of that means tennis is also on pause for a while.
Fortunately for me, there are about one million tennis matches to watch on YouTube. One of them reminded me of something I had wanted to do for a while.
First of all, this is a great match. Chris Evert v. Martina Navratilova. Wimbledon. 1978. The rally that starts at 9:58 is just perfect, especially the look on Chrissie's face when it's over.
Another noteworthy point was this one, when Chrissie beans Martina at the net. Just look at this exchange.
I want to point out that Serena could hit Venus like that and wouldn't bat an eye -- and they're sisters.
No judgment here. I am just saying.
The first time I saw this match was probably about four years ago and I was taken by Martina's dress.
I'm thinking it's the collar that makes it pop, but I am not a fashionista so I don't know any technical terms for why I wanted that dress, but I did. I couldn't find it on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, nowhere. I decided then that I could make the dress myself! This might be out of left field to you, but I do have a sewing history. I learned how to sew so I could make my own wedding dress. It was my first completed project. And pretty much my last. I had dabbled in making some tennis clothes with mixed results. Including this top, which was a good idea perhaps, but which ended up looking more like a Denise Huxtable Gordon Gartrelle-knockoff creation:
Then I had kids and I stopped sewing.
Until.
I'd been working on a bookshelf/bench project for my kids' room, which required me to make a covering for the bench, which led me to Joann Fabrics, where they convinced me to download the app for 60 percent off my purchase, at which point I received daily e-mails and notifications about discounted fabric, which is about the time things went sideways and I was spending copious amounts of time at home.
Call it the perfect storm. Because due to my lack of tennis playing, I was falling asleep watching matches and woke up to the Navratilova/Evert classic, and I noticed the dress again. Hmm, I thought. I do have a discount from Joann and if I pay online, they'll bring it to my car. Hmm. Is this the time to say yes to Martina's dress?
I didn't realize how far I'd gotten with this dress idea several years ago until I finally unpacked my sewing patterns, books and fabric to get ready for this undertaking. (One thing I'd found was that I'd cut a pattern for a Strawberry Shortcake onesie for my daughter and never sewed it. She's, uh, no longer able to wear it.) Apparently, I'd realized that I would need a pattern and began looking into how to make my own. I found the instructions in a library book, copied the pages, stuck it in one of my sewing book and basically put it in a box and moved on. So I need pattern paper. And then I need to learn how make a pattern. And the governor just called a 30-day shutdown (about three weeks too late). So I guess I have time.
What else can I say? Watch this space? I'll share photos, videos and posts about my progress. It'll be fun?
I haven't been on retirement watch for Maria Sharapova. I'm honestly trying to gird myself for Venus Williams'.
I wasn't that surprised, though, that Sharapova turned in her papers this week. And in the back of my head, I knew about the debate that would ensue upon her retirement and how it would mess with my blood pressure. And I knew I should have stayed off Twitter during this time, but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have seen this Nike tribute ad:
Mistakes. OK.
Let's see what the news has to say about this.
Ah, complicated? Are we gonna get honest here?
Only?!??
Five slams is not a small amount of Slams, Matt. It's actually pretty impressive especially when you consider that she has at least one of each major. She has two French Open titles. Two! Know how many Venus has? That's not what's "complicated" here.
Yeah, we're about to talk about the doping ban. Because it's a big deal. I read the whole ITF report, if you'll remember, and it was fairly damning. There's also the fact, which is only now sinking in for me, that this report revealed that she'd been taking a drug she didn't need for 10 years. That would start us, then, at 2006, the year she won her second slam. That means that most of those five Slams were won while she was taking meldonium. When she returned from her ban, she could barely crack the second week of a major.
Now that is complicated.
There is this sort of internal wrestling match that tends to ensue when we talk about Sharapova's career. I've tried to insert other names into that Washington Post headline above, another person's photo, to see if we would be so shy about discussing her drug ban in frank terms. Rafa Nadal (who's been dogged by these rumors anyway)? Serena Williams? I can't help but think this conversation would be different if we put in another athlete's name. If it were Nadal or Serena, there'd be nothing "complicated" about it -- they cheated.
Sharapova was assisted in keeping her nose above this fray by supportive sponsors, including Head, which -- I mean, if you ever rob a bank or commit some crime, please get sponsored by Head first. That way, you can get the support that Head gave Sharapova after her ban. Even this whitewashing effort by Nike in this retirement ad is ... a lot. She was taking a banned substance and got caught and ... mistakes? MISTAKES?
Of course Matt mentioned the ban in his story. Everyone does. It should be in the headline because it was significant and it might have been a major part of what made her successful as a player. This is a part of the ITF report that I can't unsee:
Did she call him as he advised? Another thought just popping into my head these years later.
I feel kind of bad writing this and I don't know why. I'm not making this report up. Maybe it's because I do want to remember Sharapova for being a badass on court. I know we can't call what she and Serena had a rivalry, but one thing they both had was this ability to clamp down mentally in a match and will their way to victory, even when it didn't look good. This thread about her shading her opponents is precious and I love it.
A thread of Maria Sharapova moments, by a tennis fan who loved to hate her:
Isn't she back in Poland already? Oh my god. Even when she went after Serena after that Rolling Stone profile and went off on Serena dating her coach my goodness that is what we look for here at Tennis with ATTITUDE. The ATTITUDE.
But.
This tournament has had more plot twists than usual, and let's face it, the Australian Open always comes out wonky.
But Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka both out early? Coco Gauff beating Osaka, then losing to Sofia Kenin?
Let's just unpack it all now, shall we?
A(nother) star is born
Congratulations to Sofia Kenin, who played one hell of a tournament. And she did it not with power, but persistence. I mean, she beat Gauff, who everyone (me included) thought could win after Serena and Osaka went out in early rounds. Then Kenin beat the No. 1 player in the world and home favorite and THEN she beat Garbine Muguruza who also beat a few strong favorites (Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens, and Simona Halep) to get to the final, after having lost the first set and having nearly been broken early in the third! (Oh, watch this. This is what I'm talking about.) And with this Kenin result, and with other younger players coming out and up, like Osaka, like Andreescu -- did Muguruza miss her window for Grand Slam dominance? That might be a crazy thing to say, considering she just advanced to a Slam final again. But this result reminds me of the Andy Roddick loss to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009 and what it meant for Roddick. He never had a sniff again at a Slam final. Then he just got crowded out of the top echelon. Who knows with Muguruza. She's still young and has a great game, but between she and Karolina Pliskova, I'm wondering.
OK, maybe this isn't fair
Congrats again to Kenin ... pending her MAGA background check.
I'm sorry, I am just gun shy because some young Americans trying to assert themselves in the game also had to scrub their social media clean because it was full of offensive comments aimed at gay people. Others openly advocated for the current president to come to see him win Wimbledon (as ifffff).
Of course, you can believe whatever you want. You can believe wind causes cancer. You can believe that you have the best words. You can even ask everyone to believe that you are innocent of bribery even though you won't provide evidence of that innocence or allow anyone else in the know to testify. I can believe that if you support that nonsense, I'll be rooting for your opponent every time. I'll also be wicked-laughing at every one of your blown match points against an injured Roger Federer and noting with interest that at the net, Roger didn't seem that impressed with you.
And as an American fan, I'm still a bit miffed with the USTA failing to address the Sandgren situation when it happened. So again, I'm gun shy.
This Olympic selection process is gonna be ... fraught, yes?
I'm guessing that one of the few reasons that Venus Williams is still on tour is to get another bite at Olympic glory. Serena Williams, although in a better position, is probably thinking the same thing. Now, Serena isn't even the No. 1 American -- it's Kenin. Then there's Gauff -- and Madison Keys. And Alison Riske. Also Sloane Stephens. Pretty sure there are only four slots and this weekend's Fed Cup tie against Latvia will feature Serena, Kenin, Riske and Gauff as singles players, and playing a Fed Cup tie is a requirement to qualify for the Olympics. This will be very interesting to watch through the summer.
Geesh, Danielle Collins, too.
There's a Thiem here
OK, I am feeling sorry for Dominic Thiem and I barely know him. OK, I don't know him at all, but let's focus, all right?
Thiem is as ready for a major as Kenin was and yet he came up empty again against Mr. Houdini Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic will go down as one of the best that ever was, and Thiem alluded to this moment in tennis, playing in a time where three of the best of all time are playing at the same time. The good thing for Thiem is that Federer, Rafa Nadal and Djokovic have to quit at some point during his career.
Of the Big Three, Djokovic does seem as if he's the least revered. I only say that because no one seems to like Djokovic much. The crowd reactions to him are, uh, ... not what they are for Federer. (I don't endorse the clickbaity headline -- just the video.) Did anyone else hear the crowd in the last game? They were pushing *hard* for Thiem. Ultimately, of course, it doesn't matter if the crowd likes him or not because he figures out how to get it done either way. But in this win, and its aftermath, I detected something a little different from Djokovic -- humility. No overt gesturing to the crowd, the kind he usually does that all but cries out, "Like me! Like meeeee!!!!"
Doubles is where it's at
Early on in the mixed doubles, there was a 10-minute "conversation" that grew in intensity involving all four players on the court: Jamie Murray, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Barbora Strycova and Marcelo Melo. Here is the condensed version. There's a lot of versions of this argument online and most of them involve Strycova being called a hothead. First, she was not the only one involved in this dispute. Second, she was right! Hi! And it took 10 minutes because Murray and Mattek-Sands decided they didn't like that their challenge call was a hindrance. All I'm saying is Strycova is always right, so why bother?
Murray and Mattek-Sands made it to the final where they lost to a woman who won this tournament last year (?) and a guy who I'll refer to now on as "almost Chris Pine":
So close -- especially if you squint and close the one eye.
There are worse things to almost be, Nikola Mektic. Like almost Australian Open mixed doubles champs. Mektic and his partner Barbora Krejcikova ran the super tiebreaker and looked like they will probably play together again at some point.
And Bethanie and Jamie ... are gonna need a minute.
Does anyone else remember that movie, "The Day Before Tomorrow?" I remember watching it and finding it a bit unrealistic, even for a sci-fi movie. It starts with everything going sideways, right out the chute. (Also starts and ends with Jake Gyllenhaal, but that's not the point, which is rare from me.) Anyway, the thing that seemed ridiculous was that all of a sudden, the world was melting down and yet, everyone seemed off guard. I just mention this now because we're playing the Australian Open and people having trouble breathing because of these raging wildfires and we're ... just playing the Australian Open. Maybe this is what we're going to do before everything goes truly sideways.
So, yeah, switching gears. Here are the draws.
Some notes:
1. If Coco Gauff can beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon, what will she do at the Slam where Venus routinely underperforms? I don't want to know, not right away.
2. Philipp Kohlschreiber is still out here, fam.
3. I am fascinated by this Ernests Gulbis/ Felix Auger-Aliassime matchup in the first round.
4. Same with Daniil Medvedev v. Frances Tiafoe. I am picking Medvedev, but barely.
5. It was funny, filling out the men's draw. I'd gone through it, thinking Nadal has shockingly little pushback to get to the semis and wondering who was missing. Then I went to the next page, and all of a sudden, there's Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Denis Shapovalov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, heck, even Grigor Dimitrov. Back half loaded much?
6. Whatever happened to Daria Kasatkina?
7. I think Petra Kvitova has a nice shot at a deep run here, but her first round against Katerina Siniakova could be a rough one.
8. Aryna Sabalenka v. Carla Suarez Navarro?!
9. It's nice to see Serena Williams break the title drought. But yikeys, does she have a bad draw. Johanna Konta. Dayana Yastremka, old nemesis Sofia Kenin and other old nemesis Sloane Stephens?
10. Why can you never print a normal-sized draw for the Australian Open?
