Let me check my watch. Ah yes, it took Petey 14 hours to reignite the WTA bashing. Awesome.
At first I thought Pete just did a "Find and Replace All" on an old JJ article. But I guess something about Dina taking over *really* chops his hide. This is what he said about then #1 JJ in October:
Given the way the fall has gone these past few years, it's
refreshing to see that Jankovic is still kicking butt and taking names
after having spent so much of 2008 in the first-class transit lounges
of this world. You can be a cynic about this and put it down to greed
(for prize money as well as ranking points), but as someone on Wall
Street once said, "greed is good." It certainly is in tennis.
So
let's give Jankovic a ton of credit as a model WTA citizen who gets it
when it comes to the idea behind a world tour and an 11-month game
culminating in a year-end playoffs. And you know what? Judging by her
scheduling, you could easily conclude that the WTA is dominated by a
chorus of "No we can't" divas who just may be pampered, highly paid,
borderline lazy beneficiaries of a sport that's become an entitlement
program for elite stars. Jankovic simply embarrasses the rest of the
tour with her work ethic and willingness to seize opportunities to play
-- isn't that what pro tennis players have always wanted?
And how about this in January:
What's tennis version of the BCS controversy? Well, how about Jelena Jankovic
being ranked No. 1 (and declared the 2008 ITF World Champion) without
having won a Grand Slam event? But in Jankovic's case, the computer
doesn't lie. There's only one way to get to No. 1, and one way to get
there on the magical date of Dec. 31. By earning more points (not
votes, not dollars, not sponsor patches) than whomever winds up No. 2,
and earning those points on the court, by winning matches. That's
transparency for you.
And this again back in October:
By contrast, the WTA pros have been less faithful to the game.
Even the otherwise exemplary Justine Henin at times chose to play
hide-and-seek in the commitment department. I don't want to second
guess anyone's reasons for taking a break, or start pointing a finger,
but the bottom line is that Jelena has shown an enormous - and singular
- amount of desire, drive, physical fitness, mental and emotional
stamina, and heart. As a result, she's doing something that few WTA
women in recent years have: pushing through a long, exhausting,
difficult period with the simple intention of finishing no. 1 for the
year.
I wrote recently that I didn't like a system that enabled a
player who hasn't won a major in any given year to bag the YE no. 1
ranking (I did, however, stipulate that the system should not be
designed specifically to prevent that from happening, on the
odd occasion). Nobody in his right mind would blame a player for
"playing too much" and reaping what rewards he or she could in the
process. The irony is that some of those very same people who trashed
Jankovic for playing so frequently are the first to protest when
someone appears not to play enough.
The way Jankovic reclaimed the no. 1 ranking, and made holding
it her goal for the rest of this year, is refreshing - it takes courage
to pursue the YE no. 1 ranking with abandon, because there's a lot on
the line. On both tours, the drive to make the year-end championships
is starting to spin off some surprising results (see the recent losses
by Gilles Simon and Stan Wawrinka), which gives you a good idea of the
kind of pressure this kind of year-end push entails. Hats off to Jelena
for tucking in her chin, sticking her head down, and moving forward.
And don't forget that there's no substitute for match play when you
want to get in a groove - provided you're winning enough of them, as
Jelena is.
Now maybe Pete deserves a free pass because he's giving credit to JJ for finishing the year at #1 and capping on Dina because she's playing like crap right now but still got to #1 mid-season. But do we really forget that there was a 3 month stretch there where it was pretty well acknowledged that Dina was playing #1 level tennis? That while Dina was busy making the finals of RG, finals of Olympics, and winning Tier 1 tournaments, Serena was either crashing out early or simply refusing to play at all?
I'm not saying the criticisms of the system are unwarranted. I'm a Dina fan and I'm still hiding under a towel today. But I just don't think you get to defend JJ yet pile on Dina and the WTA for the exact same issues. At least have the integrity to just say (as I do) that you just like one more than the other and that colors how you feel about each situation. But without any acknowlegement of that truth, any differential analysis is completely disingenuous and weak.
