June 6, 2021
Before I get to this weeks very special episode of Sunday Morning...
TENNIS TALK!
The middle weekend of the Roland Garros (Don't be gauche and call it the French Open!) has come and gone. As of Sunday evening, there are 12 women and 11 men remaining. Before I rank players in terms of my rooting interests/favorites to win, a (not so) quick recap:
- On the Women's side, chaos reigns. I'm sure this displeases my tennis watching buddy (with whom I have watched 1 episode of HGTV's Home Town.) But I am here for it all day every day. Let chaos reign friends!
- Barty retired after being breadsticked by Magda Linette of Poland in the 2nd round.
- Osaka withdrew for mental health reasons. Her statement second statement said she did not want to be a distraction. To honor her wishes, this will be the last mention of her in the blog.
- Halep didn't play due to injury.
- Sabalenka lost in the 3rd round to Pavlyuchenkova. This is a surprise to those who are perpetually waiting for her to win slam. I am not one of those people.
- Sofia Kenin is the highest ranked player reamining.
- Other fan favorites:
- Venus Willaims, lost 1st round in singles and doubles (partner Coco Gauff)
- Victoria Azarenka, lost in the 4th round to Pavlyuchenkova
- Petra Kvitova, withdrew after 1st round, injured during press conference
- Jennifer Brady (ok maybe a deep cut, but I'm a big fan!), retired with a foot injury after getting breadsticked by Coco Gauff in the 4th round!
- Other former grand slam champs or finalist who have lost:
- Pliskova - 2nd Round (But the Pliskovae are still alive in doubles! I stole that term from Ben Rothenberg...)
- Andreescu - 1st Round
- Muguruza - 1st Round
- Vondrousova - 4th Round (a decent showing all things considered)
- Keys - 2nd Round
- Kerber - 1st Round
- Ostapenko - 1st Round (Kenin is a tough draw, but that's what happens without a ranking)
- Kuznetsova - 1st Round (lost to Azarenka)
- On the Men's side, Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer were in the same half of the draw because Federer is old and trying to come back from injury and Daniil Medvedev had the temerity to climb to #2 in the rankings and the French (stupidly) do not account for surface in their rankings.
- Federer withdrew after being pushed in the 3rd round. I get it, but even as a Federer stan, the idea of entering a grand slam while having no intention of trying to win it is not a good look. Load management makes its way to tennis.
- There's not much else to cover.
- The hegemony of the big three in men's tennis stopped being interesting a few years ago.
- Nadal's hegemony at the French has made it even less interesting since, mmm... let's say 2013, when he surpassed Borg.
Remaining Women's Players ranked in order of my rooting interest:
1) Maria Sakkari: Should Sakkari every pull off a miracle and win a major, the statue built to honor her accomplishment in her native Greece should just be a sculpture of her disembodied shoulders & arms.
Strength.
2) Ons Jabeur: I'm not rooting against Coco Gauff, whom she plays in the next round, per se. But Jabeur plays the most entertaining brand of tennis of anyone remaining, man or woman. Ons Jabeur winning it all would be a delight.
3) Coco Gauff: Coco Gauff is like an NBA lottery pick at this point. The talent is obvious and the ceiling is an hall of fame/all time great. For me, it's a little bit of an open question that she wins a bunch of slams, especially when women's tennis is so deep.
On the subject of tennis fashion, I know at some point Nike will sign her, but I'm begging New Balance to back up the brinks truck to hang onto her as long as possible. They've pretty much knocked it out of the park with every kit:
Nike and Adidas have come up with the original idea that black is the new black this year. And yes, I know Gauff's outfit predominantly black, but the green skirt is great and not nearly as drab the stock Nike/Adidas kits. I know Coco would get special one off kits instead of the stock outfits, but New Balance has done right by her. Call me crazy, but Serena's best outfits came during her Puma days.
4) Iga Swiatek: Iga is Polish and delightful - one of the best interviews on the WTA even if she leans into the sports psychology more than I find interesting. Since we were just discussing fashion, I will defend this (polarizing) look until the day I die:
5) Sloane Stevens: Sloane has lost 3 close relatives to COVID. If she gets within shouting distance of the finals, it'd be hard not to root for her.
6) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: A one time "next big thing" a decade ago. She has a career grand slam in quarterfinal appearances. Rediscovering a passion for the sport is always a good story. See Agassi, Andre or Capriati, Jennifer.
7) Sofia Kenin: It's weird to say that one of the most mentally tough players on tour is also the one seems to be closest to a mental breakdown at any time, but Kenin walks that mental tightrope. The big story is that she fired her "crazy tennis parent" dad as her coach and is currently trying to figure things out for herself. We wish her best of luck on that. I should give Kenin more credit than I do. Her twitches and ticks and lack of a discernible big weapon other than a backhand up the line and a propensity to drop shot opponents make me question if she is for real. But she made 2 grand slam finals in 2020, winning one. So maybe the answer is yes?
Fashion watch: Sofia is the top Fila player. Her purple outfit isn't my favorite, but I do appreciate the matching, patterned shoes. I enjoy taking risks with the footwear.
8) Elena Rybakina: Her match against Serena today was the first time I have seen Rybakina play. The facile comp is to Sharapova. Both are 6 ft+, blond, and Russian and hit big. (Rybakina is one of many Russian tennis players over the years who switched to the Kazakh flag for funding reasons.) Rybakina's serve and movement both seem to be much better than Sharapova. Mentally? I'm not sure anybody can match Sharapova there except the all time greats. Rybakina is TBD here. Can she play at a high level consistently or does her expressionless facade belie a bundle of nerves?
9) Paula Badosa: A former highly regarded junior, Badosa seems to have made a breakthrough this year by winning a lower tier tourney in Belgrade and then making the semis of Madrid, somehow making her the dark horse pick du jour. She could make the finals. She'd be no more of a surpise than anyone else from the bottom half.
I have no opinion on Zidansek, Kostyuk, Krejcikova
Right now I'm thinking a Swiatek v. Pavlyuchenkova final and Swiatek repeats. But I'll take Rybakina as a dark horse. On the off chance she goes into predator mode, I don't think anyone else can hit with her (except maybe Swiatek, who seems made for clay).
Honestly there are just so many potentially fun match-ups. Think of all the drop shots a Jabeur/Kenin match would entail! Imagine Coco winning her first slam! Imagine Iga becoming the Nadal of the WTA! All these things and more are with in the realm of possibility.
However on the men's side:
At the dawn of man, somebody carved into a stone tablet that Nadal will play Djokovic in the 2021 French Open semis, win, and then win against his finals opponent. A repeat of so many tournaments of past. Look I would love (love!) to try and say one of the Italians has a chance. Whether it's Berrettini's serve/forehand, Sinner's burgeoning talent, or Musetti's ability to do this:
But let's be real. None of that is realistic short of injury or major scandal. Just to liven things up, I'll say Sinner takes one set off Nadal in the upset of the tournament. Prove me wrong and throw in a big upset, Roland Garros. I dare you. The French Open used to be nothing but crazy upsets and nonsense results.
On the side of the draw without any grand slams, it has also pretty much gone to form. Tsitsipas plays Medvedev and Zverev plays Alejandro Davidovich Fokina - the European Union manifested in human form. My heart says Medvedev, my head says Tsitsipas, and the networks should hope Zverev loses so they can avoid this being brought up.
Also, with 4 wins this tournament, Medvedev finally has more clay court wins in his career (15) than Nadal has French Open titles (13). Can Nadal close the gap back to 1? I love Medvedev for a lot of reasons, but mostly he just makes everything he touches more fun. Nothing against the good guy images the top players meticulously cultivate and curate, but I need more of this:
Hold on to your butts on Tuesday because Medvedev and Tsitsipas do not like each other for some reason. I am starting to rethink my Tsitsipas pick because Medvedev is 6-1 against him suggesting that he lives in Tsitsipas's head. One of those wins even came in Monte Carlo where Tsitsipas should have an advantage on clay.
I'm changing my pick. Medvedev to finals against Nadal where he loses in straight sets again. However, this does improbably give Medvedev the #1 ranking. This is really just me pulling for chaos. HA!
(The above was written on Sunday evening but not published until Monday. Maybe time-sensitive content isn't the way I should go.)
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
This week's very special episode was all about policing. The power rankings become sort of moot. THe rankings are as much about the content that piques my interest the most as it is about the correspondents. When all the stories get homogenized to cover the same ground, so would the rankings. I'm surprised if anyone actually reads this blog, but I'm not about to spend one or two thousand words on policing. So here's maybe a few paragraphs.
I probably have a more negative new of cops than I should. There's a certain kind small town suburban cop that for which the job is a power trip that probably shouldn't be in the job. I rarely have encounters with police, but I have encountered this character before. I have also encountered good cops before. The thing is that even when you encounter a good cop, the pulse quickens and anxiety goes up as you wonder what you or someone else has done wrong (even if you already know, it doesn't make it less unpleasant.) The catch-22 is that if you have an interaction with a cop, you are probably having a bad day. It's an unfortunate part of being a cop that rarely do get to see people at their best. I was happy to see mostly positive depictions cops throughout the episode, but on four or five occasions throughout the episode grainy camera footage is freeze framed or blurred right before some dies due the actions of a police officer. I shake my head every time. How does it come to that?
Look, being a cop is a hard in this country. Being a cop in this country is more dangerous than it is anywhere else on Earth. Make whatever argument you want for this, but the reason is bountiful numbers of firearms in the US. In other first world countries, where cops do need to function as an extension of the military, police are significantly less worried that they will be killed on the job. I don't know how to make a cops job safer short of getting rid of guns. There are things around the periphery that could help like banning warrior training and demilitarizing police forces. People die when the cops things in terms of us v. them. I'm not for defunding the police because if there is any group that could a improved/more training it's police. Let's throw big data at systemic problems and keep track of things like police shootings, excessive force complains, police service records, etc. in some kind of federal database. You might have to fight police unions on this because they largely seem to be allergic to civilian oversight, which is a same because they are not the military and are supposed to be of and for civilians.
Qualified immunity? Not a fan. The thing about bad cops and the "few bad apples" theory that doesn't make sense is why are they so hard to get rid of? You'd think that good cops would be happy to get rid of bad cops. Maybe it's a facile analogy, but the MLB players were largely happy to introduce increased PED testing because those that didn't use wanted those that did to be caught. It was necessarily smoothly introduced, because the baseball union can't concede anything to baseball owners even if it's something they secretly or not so secretly want (like the DH in the NL) because they want the leverage, but that's a story for another day.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Like so many other issues, reform seems intractable because no one is willing to budge from dug in positions. In the segment on Japanese policing, a female cop noted that their job is to protect all citizens, which includes both the law abiding and the law breaking. That doesn't seem to be the case here. I think if it could be, it would cut down on use of force. I don't accept that things that work other places cannot work here because the US is a "different culture." With that I'll stop. I hope I don't come across as anti-police. I really do salute anyone who chooses to serve their community in a deeper way than I ever have. Would that we all remember that service should lift others up and that community should include all people. Let's see all people.
1) Muir Woods
In a first, the nature segment takes the top spot. Not only is Muir Woods beautiful (I want to go to there) but the nature segment was a needed palette cleanser after 90 minutes of police reform talk.
A good profile of Bill Bratton with some (deserved) underhand swipes and Rudy Guiliani. I kind of feel bad about about Mark not getting the top spot. This would have been a good profile on any Sunday Morning episode. It probably would have taken a top 4 on any given week, but I'm not sure about a #1 ranking.
3) Ted Koppel
Ted Koppel's journalist emeritus crusade is the criminal justice system. There's nothing quite like an old man with a bone to pick.
4) Lee Cowan
Lee went from North Dakota last week to western Iowa this week. If you live in a rural midwestern city, watch out for Lee. He's coming to do a story about you!
5) Lucy Craft
Being a cop in Japan seems pretty sweet. Feel like I came away from this segment having learned a bit about another culture and feeling a little bit more well disposed towards Japan. For me that's saying something. I'm still a little bitter about the great anime cartoon invasion of the late 90s.
6) Seth Doane
Cops in Europe usually get at least 2 years of training and usually don't carry guns. In the US they might get 4 months and have to police an armed population. I'm sure there is continued training beyond that, but if we want to invest more into policing, lets start here.
Or lets put more money into mental health services and stop putting cops in situations for which they aren't trained. Create more specialized public safety services and coordinate emergency services to send the most appropriate response.
I remember almost all of these stories about kind cops from Sunday Mornings of yore. Even if it's schmaltz, we all need Hartman to bring balance to the force when things start to get too heavy.
9) Jane Pauley
Jane Pauley hosted and introduced the segments. It's what she does. She also warned us they couldn't cover everything in 90 minutes.
10) Martha Teichner
Let's watch Martha play Space Invaders:
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