It has always been said that in tennis as in any other sport, to achieve success you have to undertake a long journey taking even your own body and mind to the limit to try to cross the burning desert. Many of the best tennis players in history have had to fight a lot to try to add even a Grand Slam, a tournament where you have to spend two weeks fighting for hours and hours against tennis players wanting to be able to do the tournament of their lives and achieve some success in their careers.
Yesterday, the French former tennis player Marion Bartoli confessed that this year winning the US Open shouldn’t be considered like winning a Grand Slam: “In my opinion, the tennis player who wins the US Open this year will understand that she has not actually won a Grand Slam. You cannot say that she won one of the most important tournaments on the calendar with 20 of the 32 best players on the circuit missing. The champion will rejoice with the trophy and say that she has overcome all difficulties but we cannot call a tournament Grand Slam where so many people refuse to participate in it. ” Without a doubt, after these statements we will have many people in favor, and others against. Perhaps those staunch fans of Nadal and Federer in the men’s category and those of Halep, Svitolina and Barty in the women’s category are in favor of these statements.
But I think good old Marion is wrong. It is true that if you see the number of players who are losing the US Open you keep thinking that both Djokovic and Serena have practically done it to be able to add a new Grand Slam in their careers, but it is not like that, not at all. Let’s remember that tennis is going to resume practically after almost four months of hiatus due to the coronavirus. Everyone here starts from scratch, with hardly any matches in their legs and with the motivation to finish the year in the best possible way. In this type of tournaments other factors enter such as the fact of playing without an audience, a very tight schedule, young people already stomping to fight against the old guard, the emotional factor for being in a bubble, …
Bartoli referred with those words especially to the women’s circuit. It is true that for the US Open we will not have players such as Simona Halep, Ashleigh Barty, Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens, Belinda Bencic and many other players who could fight for the final title. But as we have seen during all these years, the women’s circuit has been characterized by the wide range of possibilities that there may be to fight for a title. Who thought Sofia Kenin was going to win the Australian Open this year? And Ostapenko when he won Roland Garros a couple of seasons ago? Do you remember Stephens’ title at the US Open? I think Bartoli was hugely wrong in her words yesterday, disrespecting all the players who are currently at Flushing Meadows prepared to face both Cincinnati and the US Open. Playing a tournament under the conditions we are experiencing is not easy at all, but everyone is there, giving their all.
Ah Marion, don’t you remember the Wimbledon title you won in 2013? You managed to advance to the title by defeating Elina Svitolina (# 82), Christina McHale (# 70), Camila Giorgi (# 93), Karin Knapp (# 104), Sloane Stephens (# 17), Kirsten Flipkens (# 20) and Sabine Lisicki (No. 24). It was the only Grand Slam title you managed to win in your career. Should we downplay it for not having won any top ten? The same thing happens here. In both the men’s and women’s modalities, whoever the winner of the US Open is, they will have all the merit in the world and will be the clear deserving of the title.
You have to give your opinion. Are you in favor of their statements or against?
– .
