Martina is one of the most miraculous players in tennis history. Just look at her. She's got thin arms, she's a half-foot shorter than most players, lacks a killer serve, and yet had the skills to be #1 for a while. She came back from retirement to forge a career as a great doubles player, usually with some mediocre older male and rarely with a current Top 10 female (like Coco).
One might almost be tempted to go see her at the OPEN.
But you get a much better look at her on TV or (since this match wasn't deemed worthy), streaming over the Net on a lesser version of ESPN.
Tennis is mostly a bore to watch. The guys are almost all sweaty, goofy looking power players, from greasy Nadal to lantern-jawed Slavic slob, the gawky Joke-o-Vitch. Andy Murray, by default, would be the only one to root for. The ladies? They've almost all shifted to wrap-skirts and boy-shorts which removes the voyeuristic appeal. Mostly, they too are power players.
When all you can see are two idiots bashing a ball as hard and fast as possible at each other, you better sit UP CLOSE ($200 or $500 for that) or watch it on TV.
As to getting a chance to see Hingis in person? Well, unfortunately, that not only involves a bus to a train or a train to a train or a cab to a far-off venue, but after your tedious and/or expensive ride, what do you get?
Unless you're very affluent, you get a seat wayyyyyy up in nowhere. You can barely see the ball and the players scrabble around like angry voles.
Yeah. Who wouldn't want to sit so far away the game is almost a rumor?
Like bad rock concerts in stadiums, you're supposed to go to a live show...to WATCH BIG SCREEN TV.
You glance down and think, "This is really happening. That's flesh and blood down there." Then you have to go back to WATCHING BIG SCREEN TV to enjoy the game.
Martina's game began at 11 in the morning. Who the HELL is going to go? Aren't most people at work? The motley crowd was full of affluent arrogant Yuppies who could tell the boss, "I'm taking 2 hours off." Add a smattering of students, and a few who arranged their vacations around the Open schedule, and that was it. A day game on a Wednesday.
The place was maybe a third full. If that. It doesn't help that bad tickets were probably $70 and decent ones $150 and seats in the coveted BLUE areas on either side of the court were double or triple.
It doesn't help that most of the "stars" are old-timers everyone's seen over and over. The biggest draw is Serena, since she MIGHT break a Graf record if she wins. A big SOOOOOOOOO to THAT. She's a great player but she really doesn't have much personality, and for most of her career you had little sympathy for her since she steamed over women half her size, and rarely displayed mental or physical errors that made her human.
Oh, and one other thing. It was 11am in Queens, New York, with the hot sun beating down, easily burning the affluent whites sitting in the good seats for an hour. If you were off in the balcony somewhere, you had some shade. AND...it was HOT AND HUMID.
At home, thanks to the Internet and air conditioning...pretty cool, and Martina...still hot.
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