参考までに記すと、この時世界では量子力学への胎動がはじまっており、1904年(明治37年)には、J. J. Thompsonが原子構造についてブドウパンモデルを、1907年(明治40年)にはドイツ帰りの日本人、長岡半太郎が土星型原子モデルを発表している。1907年は、中間子理論を構築した湯川秀樹が生まれた年でもある。
Women’s tennis is no different. It has a unique history that is totally different from the men’s. Not only is it a history of tennis, but it is also a history
of women (or rather, herstory). As much
as it is hard when you live in Japan to grasp in its fullness, Women’s tennis as it
exists today would not have come about without the Women’s liberation movement. The podcast No Challenges Remaining Episode
224 “The 10 Most Important Women in Tennis History” opened my eyes to the
history of Women’s tennis such that I, a Japanese woman with little if no
interest in tennis up to now, now feels a special bond to the names such as
Billie Jean King and Chris Evert.
The program is hosted by Ben Rothenberg, a
freelance writer for New York Times, and Courtney Nguyen, from WTA
Insider. The heated discussion of the
twosome who are invested in tennis is intriguing. The criteria of selecting the “most important
10” is how much the person affected women’s tennis. The focus is not only on the players’ performance
on court, but rather on the business side and the battle to improve women’s
positions, which makes professional tennis professional tennis. Ben also mentions that especially for one of
his picks, it shows his cynicism towards tennis.
The “10 most important” women that Ben and
Courtney picked are as follows. The
first five are from Courtney’s list of Mt. Rushmore, and she only picked these
five. Ben gave five others in addition
to the former five, but says that he cannot number them. I will discuss the five that are on both
lists, and one controversial woman from Ben’s list.
Billie Jean King
KATHY WILLENS / AP/PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES
Women’s tennis would not have been what it is today without her. She was a player and also a founder of WTA at the same time, and flew to NY during tournaments to attend a business meeting and then fly back to continue in the tournament, thus laying the foundation for WTA. She was an iconic figure in feminism, and also a business person that used femininity such as fashion and glamour to market women’s tennis, and built the most successful women’s sports league.
Chris Evert
(Photo by Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/TempSport/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
The woman that symbolized the women’s tennis league that Billie tried to found was Chris Evert. She gathered the crowd. She was pretty and also a serious player on court, and turned people’s eyes to tennis. Her balance of being feminine and at the same time athletic won the respect of male commentators.
Martina Navratilova
(Getty Images)
Navratilova was Chris’s rival. Together they led women’s tennis. Navratilova brought professionalism into the sport and raised the bar. Billie, Chris, and Navratilova together made the golden age of women’s tennis.
Venus Williams
(Getty Images) The older of the Williams sisters. The reason Courtney chose Venus instead of Serena was because as the older, she was the one to do everything first. She also stood up for equal prize money, standing in front of the All England Club during the tournament at Wimbledon to demand equal prize money. Her act was a step for women to gain the same prize money as men.
Li Na
(Getty Images)
I think that the core of this podcast was Li Na. I even think that this program was created just to talk about Li Na. She won only two grand slams, and was never ranked No. 1. But she literary opened the door to tennis for 1 billion Chinese people. Her impact can be seen by the number of Chinese sign boards in the courts, and by the fact that China is now hosting 8 major tournaments at a time when European and American companies cannot afford to do so. This provides many employment, and supports the women’s tennis industry. Li Na also opened up the inward focused Chinese tennis circle by training under a European coach and fighting in the world. This became a model for Chinese players following her, and there are now many Chinese players competing globally.
This photo shows what kind of presence Anna, which was the target of Ben’s cynicism, held. She was a good player, but never won a tournament. Her fame came not from tennis, but her looks. But, she put butts in seats. And WTA used her glamourous charm for its own sake. Such glamour is an inborn DNA of WTA says Courtney. WTA thrived by selling not just the sport but also the look.
Other names that were mentioned were Althea
Gibson, the first African American player, Monica Seles, the forerunner of
power tennis, and Suzanne Lenglen, who was a star that was one of the first to
earn a living by tennis, and ofcourse the other William sister, and an American
cultural icon, Serena Williams.
In the full matches uploaded on You tube by WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association), there was the finals for 2019 BNP Paribas Open, so I watched it. This final was fresh in my memory as the game
that introduced young Bianca Andreescu to the world.
The 18 year old Andreescu beat Angelique Kerber from Germany to be the
youngest player to claim the title next to Serena Williams, and to be the first
Wild Card player to become the champion.
The game ran to three sets, in which Andreescu took the first set
6-4, but lost the second 3-6, and took the third 6-4 to barely win the
game. By watching the video, you can
see that it is not by an utterly overwhelming strength that she was able to
win.
When you watch the video, you realize that Andreescu does not seem
to have an extreme advantage as a tennis player. Whereas Kerber is muscular, and her body is
well in shape, Andreescu, although she is large, does not have a lean, muscular
figure. She is rather chubby, and a bit
knock-kneed making her drag her feet as she walk. The length between her knee to her foot seems
shorter than between her knee and the hip.
It looks as if she does not have an advantageous build as an athlete.
The BNP Paribas Open is held in Indian Wells, which is a city in the
desert in southern California. The highest
temperature on the day of the finals, March 17, rose to 30℃. Under a clear, blue sky and
the hot sun, the game lasted for 2 and a half hours. The video does not convey how hot it was, or
how much the heat wore down the players physically. But, Andreescu was clearly worn out from the
2nd set. Her coach came down
on court during the 2nd and 3rd sets, but each time, she
complained in an almost winy voice saying that she didn’t know what to do against her opponent to the coach’s words to pump her up. What’s
more, she took two medical time outs, and in the third set, cried out that “her
legs were burning,” and that she “was so tired”, indicating that she was
reaching her limits, to which the coach told her that she has to push further, beyond her limits. She rubbed
ice bags against her legs every time they took a break, and looked like she was
enduring pain during the match. It
seemed that her body was on the verge of breaking down. On the other hand, Kerber was cool, showing no
sign of fatigue, and looked like she had much more mental/physical left than
Andreescu.
So, it was not at all apparent that Andreescu would win the 3rd
set, and she herself probably did not have any idea during the match whether she
will win. It seems just
that although she was worn down and in pain, she kept on pushing beyond her
boundaries, reaching for the ball and hitting back.
Even though this was the case, the result was victory for Andreescu.
Many reasons can be presented why she won looking back, but after we’ve seen the
result, any explanation seems like hind sight.
*A wild card in tennis, is a system awarding a player that fails to
qualify in the normal way, for example by having a high ranking or winning a
qualifying stage.