#1881

Yeah 100% with you on this. No way would it have affected where I’d have put her in my list. And of course I put McEnroe up near the top too, and he was a complete fucker.

#1882

Focussing on one specific incident ignores the context of a long career spent being treated way more harshly than her white counterparts for more minor infractions. She has had to be so much more perfect than any of her peers as a direct result of the institutional racism of the tennis authorities (governing bodies and umpires both frankly). Completely and utterly understandable why that would eventually come to a head, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen before. Frankly I like her more as a result of it, not less (but obviously it was awful for Osaka and I feel very bad for her)

3 Likes
#1883

i was pretty happy not voting for her because i was sure she would win by a mile anyway

#1884

She scored very highly on my list, and I didn’t mark her down for it, but I have been really clear further up the thread and in the tennis thread at the time about why I personally don’t like that sort of behaviour. I can appreciate her as an awesome athlete who has basically transcended her sport whilst not liking that aspect to her personality. That’s it as far as I’m concerned. It has nothing to do with her gender or race. As I said, we all hold sportspeople to account in different ways.

#1885

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

#1886

Yeah the step I always find it uncomfortable to make is from “it is understandable that she behaves like this” to “it is OK that she behaves like this”.

And as I mentioned it really isn’t one specific incident. There have been a few.

It’s a pretty intractable problem to try and disentangle how much of a person’s personality stems from adverse experiences they’ve had from what they’d have been like if they hadn’t had them, and personally I’m not inclined to try.

#1887

fraser was obviously the one that first came to mind but fuck him (actually don’t have anything against him)

#1888

I think the eventual response reflects well on Serena tbf.

4 Likes
#1889

Fucking hate it in sports where its all politeness and decorum and calling the ref sir or whatever. People booting off and making an arse of themselves because they really want to win is fine and often funny

6 Likes
#1890

Church

2 Likes
#1891

That’s actually quite instructive in explaining her response to the incident. It kind of suggests that she always knew she had done wrong, and was decent enough to admit it to the person she felt deserved it (Osaka), but saw no reason to admit it to the people she didn’t feel deserved it (the media).

2 Likes
#1892

If, after every point, Serena jumped over the net and Keowned her opponent, I might watch tennis

2 Likes
#1893

Think you should get your username shortened to just Agg :smiley:

#1894

“Well played, old bean”

5 Likes
#1895

Thank you for that. That has cheered me up no end.

#1896

Oh fuck here comes shrewbs to expose my complete ignorance of tennis.

1 Like
#1897

I’m sure he’s just here to accept his POTW award graciously.

1 Like
#1899

Struggling to place huge fat irish guy.

#1901

Geoff Capes ffs

#1902

The world’s strongest man, Mark Henry

3 Likes