Jezebel 
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New York, 11:45 AM
Sun Dec 6
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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Similar to many elite female gymnasts, many of them don't menstruate until late teens or even early twenties when they stop training. Below a certain % of body fat, and women don't menstruate.
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THEN, when Carillo (sp?) goes all sarcastic on the girl that Wozniacki will be playing in the semis and can't understand why her snide analysis that the poor girl will be trampled and doesn't deserve to be in the semis with Wozniacki receives boos from the crowd. Overall interview fail. The two teenagers who had just left their hearts on the court thankfully didn't take any of the negative bait and gave great interviews.
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This is where my ducks live. I cannot visit Delano the Disabled Duck and BaQuack Obama in peace as long as all these freakin' tennis tourists are running around getting in the way of me and my fabulous bike, Blue Boy.
Also, it's getting to be the season when the cool Great Blue Herons hang out on the lake. They won't hang out if the Tennis Tourists are running around snapping pictures like peckerheads.
Also, I hate tennis and I'm being forced to go to the Open tonight. I'll enjoy the friends and husband, but tennis? Eh.
Rant over. Thank you.
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Unfortunately, I think that's what people might be referring to when they talk about Oudin "saving" tennis, because she might beat the Champion Williams sisters, in an incredible upset--which is an unhappy thought, because why should people start watching the sport just because the Williams sisters might lose?
Also, the first thing I thought when I saw Oudin was that I loved the fact that she wasn't incredibly gorgeous, and she had some pimples (well she is sweating all the time), but the expression on her face was so excited and fearless.
09/09/09
Here's the deal with Lance and the Tour: it was always hotly contested and simply great cycling. I can't remember a year when people said, "Oh, ho hum, Armstrong wins again." First, it's a team sport and therefore it's always about a lot more than one rider, and secondly, it's such a long and grueling contest with so many wins- stage wins, different jerseys- that unless all you care about is who takes the overall, you don't run out of things to be excited about.
So, in short, not a great parallel, though perhaps your overall point stands. I don't know, because I don't watch tennis. :)
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I thought it was sort of an odd, but nonetheless quite apt, analogy!
And ameliaearhart, we kid because we love, so please don't feel as if we are making fun of you!
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Also, slowpoke.r, I don't watch EITHER tennis or cycling, so I am actually one of those horrid people ho humming about Lance's (YES!) wins. But I was making that analogy for people like me, who don't watch certain sports because nothing about them really interests them, but start watching because something different is happening--my problem is that the supposed new watchers are supposed to be cheering for this little upstart to beat the Williams sisters instead of enjoying the sport.
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And thanks for being such a good sport! I've done similar things myself- just recently spent a morning calling William Morris (textile designer) Roger Morris for no good reason. Your slipup is much better, as it really inspired all sorts of great mental images!
09/10/09
Satchmo wins the yellow jersey!
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Not that difficult.
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09/09/09
Malia and Sasha Obama are America's "sweethearts." Thats because they are child-like, innocent, all-smiles, wide-eyed, shocked at the position they have been put in. Much like Melanie Oudin.
You simply cannot fit the Williams sisters in this mold, not because they are African American, but because they are utterly dominant, veterans of the sport, a force to be reckoned with. And Im sorry, but size has everything to do with "sweetheart" status (in tennis). As a tennis player myself, being small makes things more difficult at the professional level, especially when you are competing against the Sharapova's and Williams of the world. Oudin is a mighty mouse, and if that makes her a sweetheart, so be it.
I read this site everyday and love the dialogue, but honestly some of your over analysis makes me quake in my (apparently not so) politically correct boots.
09/09/09
BUT...I think for a good amount of folks, their race definitely does prevent them as being perceived as sweethearts, or even just respected and liked.
09/09/09
I am a 6'2" 200lb. man who has played ball my whole life. When I was pitching in college, I had elbow tendenitis and I could not throw a ball without my eyes tearing up from pain. I just watched Venus play a grueling three set match on hard court with tendinitis in her knee. She did not complain, retire or limp around to get sympathy. When she lost, she refused to use her knee as an excuse, instead crediting her opponent for out playing her. At that moment she embodied everything that is great about American sports and American athletes. She left it all on the court. If that doesn't make her "America's Sweetheart" than what in god's name do people want. She is a great champion and an example of what plain old hard work can do for you. She is what athletics are supposed to be about. She is a beautiful woman, a champion athlete and a role model to anyone of any gender or race who aspires to be the best at anything.
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Someone blonde and petite.
Easy.
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Being a big tennis fan, all I know is this: the bottom line is, the Williams sisters are incredible American tennis players who go through phases of being totally, unbelievably unstoppable.
So I guess my question is: "savior of women's tennis"??? Who/What is Oudin saving tennis from? America has had the ever-dominant Williams sisters to root for for a long time now, so it's not like she's the sole American woman rising to the top after a drought of good American woman tennis players. It's great that we have another up and coming American tennis player to root for, but the fact that she's getting the particular type of praise she is getting, when comparing it to the Williams sisters, there is clearly something problematic here.
Oof, that comment was a little disjointed, but you catch my drift.
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It's similar to some of the crap that gymnasts and figure skaters get from commentators when they don't fit into neat little boxes, either. So I'm thinking it's also largely a gender issue, in addition to the racial aspect.
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(And not to go off on another whole topic, because there are other issues there, but they didn't say it about Mauresmo either.)
They weren't happy that Henin wasn't American, but they could live with it.
09/09/09
As for Melanie Oudin, and being "America's Sweetheart" - there is a lot of unpacking to do, but she doesn't have the rags-to-riches intense father-as-coach story that the Williams sisters had. As noted below, that story was constantly retold when Venus burst on the scene. Whether its racist that Venus was not a "sweetheart" and Melanie Oudin is, I don't know. I do know that calling Melanie Oudin, the "petite white upper-middle class child of privilege from Georgia who has worked very hard with one of the world's greatest tennis coaches" is a little long.