Flavia of the end of season!

Viva Flavia Penetta! I am going to give you a quick snapshot of why I toasted her win.
During the interview, I laughed with her and cried with her.  She says she is retiring from the circuit because of lack of motivation for smaller and non-grand slam tournaments and that she no longer has it in her to keep going- come rain or sunshine.  I admired her honesty and the way she savoured her win, her only won and that to at a grand slam at 33 and her last.  Penetta says she is retiring after this tournament and she is ging to find out what life is like with her partner but without tennis; her parner bring the the mad, temperamental and equally talented , world no 22. Fabio Fognini.  She wants to go bycycling in New York and maybe visit Victoria's Secret.  She want to go around the city, stop at a bar for coffee.  For celebrations, Penetta will go out with her team, have lots of wine, dinner and sleep.  Well deserved and much needed!
Well done Flavia Penetta for being refreshingly honest about retirement and for wanting all the things normal people do and for savouring this win like your first swig of wine or your first airborne moment, your first trip alone with friends and who better to do it with than the very friend who you have started your tennis journey with- Roberta Vinci.  There was such joy in the end of match ceremony- something that is missing when veterans like Serena Williams or Sharapova win championships- They enjoy winning more than playing.  These cats and tigresses of the ocurt forget one cardinal rule of the sport they play- the spirit of the game.  And today Vinci and Penetta had that in plenty.
May there be many more Penettas and Vincis and Bartolis and yes Lisickis to win matches and elevate the game with their hearts that shine in their eyes and soar in their words.

US Open 2015- Bigger, Better , Richer

The final grand slam of the year starts August 31st and ends on August 13.  It comes with biggest prize purse of  US $ 42.3 million.  Federer is trying to win one more slam, Nadal is trying to come back, Murray is forever trying to come back, having reached the haloed top 4- there but not quite there, Djokovic is No 1 and the only guy is not have a 'conditions attached' tag to his participation.  Kei Nishikori will try and ride till the semi finals on his awesome form with a searing forehand and super backhand- all working like as ans when he wants it. Stan Wawrinka will try and win more to end 2015 on a high.
These players are want more, are in the right fram of mind, so much so that Federer said that this is the start of the long hard court season  for the next six months when we ordinary mortals were calling it end of the season. He has dived into Flushing Meadows with wons over Murray and Djokovic in the semis and final respectively.  He played an aggressive game in Cincinnati and will want to carry over his game in New York too.
What about the women, you will ask.  I have only one answer- Serena Williams unless ofcourse she decides to defeat herself.  Women's tennis is at an all time nadir with Williams reigning supreme.  There are no contenders, plenty of rising stars that fade away and nobody to lift the WTA save Williams but then she needs a strong opponent to lift her game as well.  Right now all she is doing is carry on her practise game in to the all the rounds and the final as well.  Women do not deserve equal prize money as the men's simpley because they do not put in the work,  an average of 3 hours or more and 5 sets to an average of just over an hour with three sets is not what you earn 3 million dolalrs for.  Best of 5 will actually lift women's games from the doldrums that it lies in now.  A chance to rise, pull up your game in the 3rd set, a comeback in the 4th and then its anybody's game in the 5th.  Out of the Top 10 in WTA only Williams, Sharapova, Kvitova and Ivanovic have won grand slams out of which Serena's recent win has been Wimbledon this year, Sharapova's being last year French Open, Kvitova winning last year's Wimbledon and Ivanovic's last and only grand slam being the French Open in 2008.
I think we definitely need the roller-coaster of 5 sets in women's game.