Thursday, January 7, 2016

2015 second half awards, Part 2: Top 20 Exhilarating Wins

In Part 2 of the 2015 On the Rise (a tennis blog) Second Half Awards, I present the 20 most exhilarating American wins of the latter part of the year. (Note that I'm not including wins by Americans over other Americans, which is its own category.) Vote for which match you found most exhilarating in the poll at the end!

Stay tuned for Part 3, the most crushing losses from the 2nd half. (See: Part 1, MVPs.)

Top 20 Exhilarating Wins of 2015, 2nd Half

1. Wimbledon 3R: Serena Williams d. Heather Watson 6-2 4-6 7-5. This match, as Stefon would say, had everything. A (nearly) dauntless out-of-nowhere local challenger, a hyper-engaged (let's be honest, over-the-top) crowd, and a legend on the verge of ignominious defeat who saved her year with a brilliant comeback from down 0-3 0-40* in the 3rd set, and from Watson serving for the match at 5-3. A match that could have seen Serena's quest for history aborted far too early instead turned into one of the more memorable afternoons of these latter stages of her career, and helped her complete the Second Serena Slam. It also gave us Tara Moore's now-deleted, infamous "learn how to lose" tweet, which destroyed the internet, and Serena's epic "Don't try me" warning to the crowd.

2. Wuhan SF: Venus Williams d. Roberta Vinci 5-7 6-2 7-6(4). Context was everything with this match. Prior to Wuhan, Venus had last played at the US Open, where she reached the quarters before running into her sister, the odds-on favorite to win the title. (See the forthcoming "Crushing Losses" post for what happened next.) So when, after beating Aga, Goerges, Suarez Navarro, and Konta to reach this Premier 5 semifinal, she found herself down a set to the cagey Italian, it ... wasn't looking good. But then Vee turned on the jets to win 10 of the next 13 games and the conclusion seemed foregone. However, as you can tell from the scoreline it was anything but, and in fact Vinci held match point in the penultimate game. Fortunately, Williams collected herself in the end to win, but not without some controversy of the hot beverage kind.



(Venus of course went on to beat Muguruza in the final for one of her biggest titles in years.)

3 & 4 (tie). US Open 1R: Donald Young d. Gilles Simon 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 and US Open 3R: Donald Young d. Viktor Troicki 4-6 0-6 7-6(3) 6-2 6-4. The US Open started with Donald Young a combined 0-6 against Simon & Troicki, and a combined 0-career when losing the first two sets of a match. What a difference a week makes.

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
A photo posted by Donald Young (@donaldyoungjr) on

5. Cincinnati R1: Varvara Lepchenko d. Barbora Strycova 2-6 7-5 7-6(6). They had just played one week prior in Toronto, a match the Czech won 6-2 6-4. This time, Strycova was seemingly guaranteed an identical score, serving up 6-2 5-4 40*-0. And then she blinked and lost the next three games. No worries: Strycova leapt to a 5-1 final set lead. She failed to serve the match out at 5-2 and then at 5-4 found herself down 0-40, but then got it to her advantage -- match point #4! But Lepchenko saved that, and the tiebreak came. Four points in, it started to rain. When the rain stopped, they played 2 more points and the rain returned. Finally, the American prevailed and, tennis being tennis, faced not Maria Sharapova in the next round, but a lucky loser: Mirjana Lucic-Baroni ... the same woman she had beaten in the first round two weeks prior in Stanford in her only other 3rd set tiebreaker of 2015. (Lepchenko won the rematch as well.)

 6. Sacramento Challenger R2: Taylor Fritz d. Dustin Brown 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 7-6(7). The scoreline is impressive enough, but the circumstances (first tournament since his US Open junior crown, leading to first pro title) and the level of his competition (Dreddy owns Rafa) cemented this as one of the matches of the year. And he followed it up the next week with another title, topped off with a far more comprehensive 3 & 4 win over Brown in the final.

7 & 8 (tie) Nottingham 2R: Sachia Vickery d. Zarina Diyas 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1 and Lauren Davis d. Magda Linette 5-7 7-6(13) 6-2. Vickery, the American qualifier, saved 6 match points in the 2nd set to reach her 1st career WTA quarterfinal (including 3 on return at 4-5 0-40* and 2 more at 5-6 15-40*). This came a day after Lauren Davis saved *8* match points in the 2nd set, including 4 at 2*-6 in the tiebreaker. Shine on, crazy grass court.

9. Newport: Rajeev Ram d. Field 7-6 in the 3rd. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but "Rampras" did have a remarkable three 3rd-set tiebreak wins during his run to the title. First round it was over top seed Isner 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(8). More dramatically in the quarters, he beat Mannarino 2-6 7-6(8) 7-6(2), saving 2 match points. And in the final, he knocked out Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(2). The win put Indy's pride back into the Top 100, last achieved back around when he won his first title (as a Lucky Loser at Newport 2009 ... he really deserves his own plaque at the Hall of Fame).

10. Zhuhai F: Venus Williams d. Karolina Pliskova 7-5 7-6(6). The win that won Venus the WTA Elite Trophy, got her back into the top 10 (at 35!), and gave us this photo.



 11. Paris R2: John Isner d. Roger Federer 7-6(3) 3-6 7-6(5). Isner capped off his best season with this gem. Put him on the verge of a return to the Top 10, but his loss to Ferrer in the next round put an end to that ... for the time being. Highlights:


 12. Washington, DC SF: Sloane Stephens d. Sam Stosur 7-6(4) 6-0. Okay okay, the match didn't go the distance and the second set wasn't even competitive. But if you're a Sloane fan, the match that got her to NOT ever again be referred to as Sloane "she's never reached a WTA final" Stephens was the very definition of exhilarating. (Also helped that Stosur had thwarted Stephens from reaching her first final a few months prior in Strasbourg, courtesy of a third-set bagel.)

13.Wimbledon 3R: Denis Kudla d. Santiago Giraldo 6-2 6-7(3) 2-6 6-1 6-3. After a great grass challenger run and two tough wins to open his Wimbledon campaign, Kudla found himself down 2 sets to 1 against the Colombian with the big forehand. But Denis composed himself brilliantly to reach his first career major 4th round (in which he gave Cilic a tussle before falling in 4 sets).

14. US Open R1: Austin Krajicek d. Santiago Giraldo 3-6 7-6(6) 7-6(6) 7-6(1). Oh hai again, Santi! First slam win for AK. The first two tiebreaks showed impressive clutchiness.

15. Nottingham QF: Sam Querrey d. Gilles Simon 5-7 7-6(8) 6-4.  Speaking of clutchiness, Ol' Sam isn't always celebrated for that quality, but it was on display here, as Querrey saved 2 match points in the second set. He showed more clutchiness in the semis with another come-from-behind win, over Dolgopolov. In less-clutch news, he lost the final in two tiebreaks to ... well, I'll just come out and say it: to Denis Istomin.

16. Winston-Salem R1: Frances Tiafoe d. James Duckworth 3-6 7-6(4) 7-6(3). First of many ATP wins for the kid, coming back from 0-3 down in the 3rd.

17. Vienna QF: Steve Johnson d. Kevin Anderson 5-7 7-6(5) 6-4. Johnson had lost 4 straight matches to the big-serving South African and fellow former collegiate. He followed it up with a win over Gulbis for his first career ATP final.

18. Davis Cup World Group Play-Off: Jack Sock d. Denis Istomin 6-2 2-6 6-4 6-4. The second of two wins in the tie for rookie Sock. His heroics kept USA in the World Group.

19. Knoxville 2R: Tennys Sandgren d. Blaz Rola 6-4 3-6 6-3. Legendary tbh. If you do nothing else today, watch the third set of this match.



20. US Open Juniors Tommy Paul d. Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6 6-4 7-5. I mean, I didn't watch this but knowing how good FAA has been and is going to be, and given that the win helped ensure one last junior slam title (by Fritz) for that amazing cohort of American juniors, I'm including it.
So what did I miss? Let me know in the comments!

What was the most exhilarating USA tennis win, 2015 2nd half?

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Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 USA tennis second-half awards, Part 1

As we enter the last few hours of 2015, a quick set of awards to commemorate those players and events that moved us in the second half of the USA tennis season.

Part 1: Grades, MVPs, Better Luck Next Years, Get Well Soons, and Farewells.  Stay tuned for Part 2 in the coming days!

Check out the mid-season awards here.

 Grades

 US Men: B+. It was a strong second half for American men. Rajeev Ram and John Isner each won an ATP title during the summer. Things really got good post-US Open, when American men had 33 ATP match wins (the most in that timeframe since 2006), and Jack Sock and Steve Johnson each reached a European indoor final. Americans also dominated the extended fall US challenger circuit; particularly exciting were the youngsters who stepped up in that period: 5 different American teens reached challenger finals in October and November. And an incredible 18 of the top 25 American men reached new career highs in the second half of 2015.  Key figure: Immediately after the French Open, the Top 10 US men had an average ATP ranking of 78.9.  At the end of the season, they had an average ranking of 65.9 -- a remarkable 13 spot jump in six months. 

 US Women: B. It's weird to put the women below the men, given that an American woman won a second-half major and as we all know, no American man has done that since the Truman Administration. But we're grading on a bit of a curve here. Would you believe me if I told you American women reached fewer second-half finals than American men did? Well, you shouldn't, because in fact the women reached one more (7 vs 6). But two of those seven were at the $125K level, and I don't think there's consensus that those should count the same as other titles. The highlights that existed were huge: Serena Williams winning Wimbledon, CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys in the Wimbledon quarters, Sloane Stephens getting her maiden title, and Venus Williams' run to the Wuhan and Zhuhai titles. But given talent levels and expectations, it would be fair to say it was a disappointing stretch. Key figure: Top 10 American women's average ranking fell from 36.1 post-French Open to 37.7 at the end of the season.

 MVPs ('Merica's Valuablest Players)

1. Serena Williams: Won Wimbledon. Had a globeful of non-tennis fans paying attention to tennis. Won Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year. The most accomplished American tennis player in history. Stunning.

2. Venus Williams: Maybe even more stunning. Again, won Wuhan, Zhuhai, finished the year #7 (she started it at #19). Would have been higher had she not had to face her sister when she did at Wimbledon and the US Open. OH AND SHE'S 35.

 3. Taylor Fritz: Won the junior US Open. Then won back-to-back challengers (second-youngest player to accomplish that, ever). Moved up nearly 600 spots in the rankings to inside the Top 200 in just a few months. Most impressive to me was his run to the Champaign Challenger final (most Americans' last tournament of the year). He lost that match (and the Australian Open wild card that would have accompanied it) but showed that the prior successes were anything but a fluke.

4. Jack Sock: He didn't have a great summer, with only a Newport semifinal standing out. His Asian swing was short: 3 wins (over Gabashvili, Haider-Maurer, and Kubot) and 2 losses (to Nadal and Berdych ... it's tough out there). But that European indoor swing! His second career final at the 250 in Stockholm (beat Gasquet) followed by a semifinal at the 500 in Basel (lost to Federer). Brilliant. I put him a hair over Steve Johnson for his two Davis Cup singles wins in Uzbekistan. Those were huge.

5. Steve Johnson: He had a very nice summer, with semifinals at the ATP 500 in Washington, DC, and later at the 250 in Winston-Salem. His Asian swing was short: 2 wins (over Seppi and Tomic) and 2 losses (to Murray and Cilic ... it's tough out there). But that European indoor swing! His first career final at the 500 in Vienna (beat Anderson) followed by a semifinal at the 250 in Valencia. Brilliant. He also had a great doubles half-year with Sam Querrey, featuring a US Open semifinal and a huge Davis Cup win in Uzbekistan.

 6. John Isner: Title in Atlanta, final in DC, and a win over Federer in Paris. He finished the year just outside the Top 10 and may be playing the best ball of his career at 30.

 7. Sloane Stephens: Title, baby!!!!

 8. Rajeev Ram: Behold! Rampras, king of all he surveys (as long as he's only surveying the grounds of the International Tennis Hall of Fame). Second career title (first was 2009, also in Newport). Finished the year at #89, the 7th-ranked American. Surprise!

 9. Bethanie Mattek-Sands: The first half of her year was all about doubles (two major titles). The second half was all about singles: beating Ivanovic at Wimbledon, giving Serena a big tussle in the 3rd round of the US Open, a semifinal in Florianopolis, and quarterfinal in Beijing. Upping her ranking from #161 to #60. Oh and some doubles too: US Open final with Sam Querrey and Toronto title with Safarova.

 10. Noah Rubin: After the disappointment of losing in the NCAA individual final, he went 15-6 in Futures and then had one of the most impressive runs of the year in Charlottesville, qualifying and then running the table to win the whole thing -- a win that ultimately secured him the USTA's Australian Open wildcard. Upped his ranking from #1050 to #317 in 5 months.

 11. Samantha Crawford: Won the USTA's Australian Open wildcard with her first pro title at the $50K in Scottsdale, Arizona. Also reached her first WTA quarterfinal (Quebec) and upped her ranking from #255 to #141.

 12. CoCo Vandeweghe: In addition to her Wimbledon QF, a quarterfinal in Wuhan (with back-to-back 3rd set tiebreak wins), a doubles semifinal at the US Open, and one of the best racquet smashes of the year:



Honorable mentions: Louisa Chirico (Limoges $125K final), Nicole Gibbs (Carson $125K final), Sam Querrey (Nottingham final), Donald Young & Denis Kudla (epic runs to 4th rounds of US Open & Wimbledon, respectively), Madison Keys (Wimbledon quarterfinal), Reilly Opelka (Wimbledon junior champion), Tommy Paul (US Open junior finalist, Charlottesville Challenger finalist), Robin Anderson (#900 -> #277), Sekou Bangoura (#573 -> #295), Sofia Kenin (US Open junior finalist), Amanda Anisimova (Alberto Juvinil champion at 14 years old), Clay Thompson (#1153 -> #465), Eric Johnson (#1463 -> #522).

 Other Categories
Hoping for a 2016 rebound: Alison Riske, Taylor Townsend, Chase Buchanan, and Grace Min.

 Get well soon: Allie Kiick, Melanie Oudin, Bradley Klahn, Brian Baker, Rhyne Williams, and Jarmere Jenkins.

 Best post-pro-tennis wishes to: Lisa Raymond, Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri, Michael Russell, Andre Dome, Ryan Sweeting, and Greg Ouellette.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Rankings predictions for 2016 USA women

For the On the Rise (a tennis blog) panel of experts' predictions for USA men and under-21 men, see yesterday's post.

Participants: Jonathan Kelley, David G., Joey Dillon, Parsa, Romain Azema, Juki. Both Juki and I took the extra step to predict what the players' year-end WTA rankings will be. And for a bonus, see Joey's end-of-post comments and honorable mentions.



Analysis: If we assign one point for each 10th place prediction up to 10 points for each #1 prediction, we get:

1. Serena Williams -- 60 
The queen shall retain her throne. And so say all of us.

P.S. Don't ask me why I put her to finish world #2. She literally has zero points to defend after the US Open. Hard to see anyone overtaking her, and she's chasing the all-time weeks at #1 record. But there you go.

2. Madison Keys -- 50 
By the fuzz off a tennis ball, Madison Keys beat out the elder Williams Sister. All but one participant had her in 2nd or 3rd place.

 3. Venus Williams -- 49
Like Keys, everyone picked her 2nd or 3rd with the exception of one 4th place vote. Quite amazing for the elder stateswoman of the tennis world.

4. Sloane Stephens -- 45 
Four picked her to pick her in 4th, with one optimistic fellow picking her 2nd. Will be interesting to see how the loss of Coach Saviano affects her.

5. CoCo Vandeweghe -- 33 
5th is where she finished 2015. 5th is where half our voters picked her to end 2016. The other half picked her 6th.

6. Bethanie Mattek-Sands -- 22 
This is where it starts getting interesting. BMS was guessed to finish anywhere from 5th to outside the Top 10. The main issue, as always, is how her body holds up.

7. (tie) Varvara Lepchenko -- 20 
Speaking of health issues, Lepchenko had a run of illness in 2015. Maybe the prospect of a return to the Olympics will have her back at her crafty, lefty best.

7. (tie) Christina McHale -- 20
Yet another player trying to regain top form after malady struck. A big goal for her should be closing out winnable matches sooner.

9. Louisa Chirico -- 9
The youngest player in our top 10, she finished 2015 strong with a final of the $125K in Limoges.

10. Madison Brengle -- 8
Remarkably, the woman who finished 2015 as the 6th-ranked American had only 2 voters keeping her in the Top 10. One reason: she has more points to defend in the early stages of the year than her home state of Delaware has square miles.

Others receiving votes: Alison Riske (7), Lauren Davis (2), Irina Falconi (2), CiCi Bellis (1), Samantha Crawford (1), Katerina Stewart (1)


Notes from Joey:

Honorable Mention: Madison Brengle, Nicole Gibbs, Jessica Pegula, Shelby Rogers, Vicky Duval and Robin Anderson (in that order)

Almost no change from the top 10 this year and I think the #10 American will be in the Top 70. Big year ahead! I do expect a solid year from Sloane (at least one Slam QF). I also see Bethanie earning a career-high ranking in 2016 at some point. Madison Brengle will dip and Jessica Pegula and Shelby Rogers will gain consistency and hopefully no injuries that lead to their solid US Open runs. I'm most excited to see the return of Vicky Duval. She's hitting very nice in practice, but hopefully she'll have an injury-free 2016. She starts at Hopman Cup as an Alternate and then play at Melbourne. My sleeper pick for 2016 is Robin Anderson. I think she'll be Top 150 or even knocking on the Top 100. Lots of talent that will progress from college onto the WTA.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Rankings predictions for 2016 USA men & 21Unders

For the second year in a row, I've invited some folks to come up with rankings predictions for American men, young men, and women in the coming year. My thanks to everyone who participated! Today it's the menfolk, tomorrow, the womenfolk.

Participants:

Jonathan Kelley, Parsa, Romain Azema, Lang, and Kevin Craig. I'm the only one who also included the projected final ranking for the men (but not the 21 & under guys).

Let's play.

Predicting 2016's top 10 ATP Americans  




Jonathan
Parsa
Lang
Romain
Kevin
Isner (12)
Isner
Sock
Sock
Isner
Sock (18)
Sock
Isner
Isner
Sock
Johnson (24)
Johnson
Johnson
Johnson
Johnson
Young (40)
Querrey
Querrey
Querrey
Young
Querrey (45)
Fritz
Young
Kudla
Kudla
Fritz (72)
Young
Fritz
Fritz
Querrey
Kudla (85)
Kudla
Kudla
Donaldson
Harrison
Krajicek (99)
Donaldson
Donaldson
Young
Ram
Tiafoe (108)
Krajicek
Smyczek
Harrison
Fritz
Donaldson (111)
Tiafoe
Tiafoe
Smyczek
Krajicek
Analysis:
If we assign one point for each 10th place prediction up to 10 points for each #1 prediction, we get:

1. John Isner -- 48 points
By a hair, the reigning top American beat out the up and coming Sock in our prognosticators' polls.

2. Jack Sock -- 47 points
Jack and John shared all the #1 and #2 picks.

3. Steve Johnson -- 40 points
The only unanimous choice: all five of us think he'll repeat as the #3-ranked American.

4. Sam Querrey -- 32 points
Despite a down 2014 and 2015, there's plenty of believe that ol' Sam still has lots of game in him.

5. Donald Young -- 28 points
DY looked to be hitting his stride at the US Open. But can he carry the momentum into 2016?

6. Denis Kudla -- 24 points
A breakthrough year for the Virginian saw him have incredible grass court results. Now he needs to back it up on other surfaces.

7. Taylor Fritz -- 23 points
Our voters are anxious for the 18-year-old to continue his enormous fall. He's the last player all 5 predict will be a top-10er.

 8. Jared Donaldson -- 11 points
He'll be playing a lot more ATP events, so it will be fun to see how the Rhode Islander holds up against better competition.

 9 (tied). Austin Krajicek & Ryan Harrison -- 6 points
2015 saw Krajicek break into the Top 100 for the first time, while Harrison got close but couldn't get back in. Our pollsters are definitely torn on how they'll compete next year.

Others receiving votes: Frances Tiafoe (3 points), Tim Smyczek (3 points), Rajeev Ram (3 points)

Predicting 2016's top 10 ATP Americans  



 
Jonathan
Parsa
Lang
Romain
Kevin
Fritz
Fritz
Fritz
Fritz
Fritz
Tiafoe
Donaldson
Donaldon
Donaldson
Donaldson
Donaldson
Tiafoe
Tiafoe
Tiafoe
Tiafoe
Paul
Rubin
Paul
Rubin
Rubin
Rubin
Paul
Rubin
Paul
Paul
Kozlov
Baughman
Escobedo
Kozlov
McDonald
Escobedo
Kozlov
Baughman
Mmoh
Kozlov
Baughman
Mmoh
Kozlov
Escobedo
Mmoh
Opelka
McDonald
Mmoh
McDonald
Baughman
Mmoh
Escobedo
Opelka
Baughman
Escobedo

Analysis:
1. Taylor Fritz -- 50 points
2. Jared Donaldson -- 44 points
3. Frances Tiafoe -- 41 points
Almost unanimity on the Big 3. The only difference is yours truly, who thinks Big Foe can sneak ahead of JD.

4. Noah Rubin -- 33 points
5. Tommy Paul -- 32 points
We're pretty certain the 2014 Junior Wimbledon winner and 2015 Junior French Open winner will finish 4 & 5. Rubin got one more 4th place vote than Tommy.

6. Stefan Kozlov -- 21 points
Most expecting 6th or 7th place.

7. Deiton Baughman -- 15 points
He impressed at the Futures level in 2015. Time for him to make the next step?

8. Ernesto Escobedo -- 14 points
So. Much. Power.

9. Michael Mmoh -- 13 points
The last unanimous pick.

10. Mackenzie McDonald -- 9 points
The only college guy on this list. Such a great ball striker.

Also receiving votes: Reilly Opelka (3)
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Thursday, December 17, 2015

In defense of the horse defenders

Waking up Monday to the news of Serena Williams' Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year (SOTY) award was awesome. The photo accompanying the announcement, showing Serena at her sultry, powerful best, only cemented the positivity I felt. How great to see the sport I obsess over honored like this! How great to see the player at the pinnacle of that sport -- a black woman in her mid-30s no less -- celebrated as the icon that she is!

It was particularly nice to see her win given that the day before, American Pharoah was named the winner of the meaningless online Sportsman of the Year poll. I'm not a fan of horse racing anyway, and it saddened me that tennis again would be ignored despite the remarkable 2015 accomplishments of both Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic. Particularly Serena, whose Americanness and previous career accomplishments should have helped tip the scales in her favor.

But then Serena won the real award, given by the Sports Illustrated editors, and all felt right.

Yes, there was some backlash from fans of American Pharoah. And to me, this was completely understandable! The horse did have an incomparable year, what with winning the Triple Crown and the Breeder's Cup Classic, and he did come out on top of the online poll. There are people who love horse racing as much as I love tennis. God bless them. To each their own.

Then the LA Times put out its tweet.



I tweeted a few things about the ensuing controversy, suggesting that the LA Times was getting an unfair rap. After all, it was Sports Illustrated who had made the horse the candidate -- blame them if you don't think a horse should have been in the running for the award. Despite the jarring visual, the underlying question they were asking was a reasonable one: did the Sports Illustrated editors get it "right," or did the fans (in an admittedly unscientific poll)?

Yet so many tweets on my timelines seemed to suggest that just bringing up that question was tantamount to racism. That got me to pondering the matter, but I didn't comment further.

Then yesterday I read Brittney Cooper's Salon article, "The truth about Serena and Amarican Pharaoh (sic): Here's the real reason why the comparison is so insulting" and was finally motivated to write down my thoughts. Because I have issues.

Let me preface this by saying that Professor Cooper's article has some fantastic insights; it should be read closely, ruminated on, and taken to heart. She did an excellent job of explaining why it's incredibly problematic, and highly offensive to so many, to make an unnuanced one-to-one comparison between a black athlete and a horse. (To do so on the occasion of one of said athlete's greatest honors is even more messed up.) For the LA Times (and me) not to have recognized that immediately is pretty awful. (The author, Chuck Schilken, has since apologized.)

But there were other elements of her article that were not so fantastic.

First, there were the factual errors. Besides misspelling the horse's name throughout (a minor error to be sure) there were the inaccuracies in listing Serena's accomplishments. That Serena achieved "an unprecedented record of consecutive grand slam wins" is demonstrably false (see: M. Navratilova), as is the claim that Venus is the "only" player older than Serena in Grand Slam draws (this has never been the case; see: F. Schiavone). Other claims demanded but did not get qualifications, whether era-based or gender-based or both: (1) that she is the "only tennis player ever to have won all four slams consecutively twice" (see: R. Laver), (2) that Steffi Graf is the "only player to ever accomplish the Calendar Grand Slam" (see: D. Budge et al.), and (3) that Graf is the player with the most Grand Slam titles (see: M. Court). These are not huge quibbles, but they make up the bulk of Professor Cooper's argument in favor of Serena. It would be good to get them right.

My second issue was her misrepresentation of the LA Times article. Professor Cooper accuses Schilken, of "coming dangerously close to making an argument that Serena Williams bested American Pharaoh ... because of affirmative action" and wrote that Schilken suggested that "the horse is at a disadvantage for this award because a horse can’t experience racism." That's a huge stretch. Schilken quite fairly explained why Serena exhibited certain human qualities that a horse could never exhibit. Those human qualities quite explicitly included dealing with the racism that Serena confronts. Did having those human qualities disqualify the horse from receiving the award? Not according to Sports Illustrated, which made him a candidate. But without question it weighed the scales against him. I think it was in fact incumbent on Schilken to point that out. Professor Cooper chose to take his quote out of context to lambast him.

Then there were the semantic problems. First and foremost was Professor Cooper's categorical assertion that "Horses cannot be sportspersons of the year." Which, of course, is accurate, but which elides the point that the award in question wasn't initially for "sportsperson" of the year, but rather for "sportsman" of the year, despite the fact that the field of candidates included several women. It was only called "sportsperson" because Serena won.

None of the horse defenders I've seen have seriously claimed that American Pharoah is a "person." Yet Professor Cooper devotes a significant chunk of her article chastising those supporters as if they didn't understand the distinction -- without even mentioning that it was Sports Illustrated itself that made the horse one of its finalists. In fact, a horse could have been "sportsWhatever" of the year. It was their award, after all. Sure, a huge number of people would have bemoaned the choice for all sorts of reasons. But it could have happened.

So the underlying conceit of Professor Cooper's broader argument -- that any and all support for the horse serves as an attempt to diminish black people's humanity -- is to me a nonstarter. Which brings me to my final issue with the Salon article: her accusation that to support American Pharoah's SOTY candidacy is necessarily to traffic in racism.

I want to be very clear here: there is a LOT of anti-black racism in the USA. White supremacy, after all, is part of America's Id. It hasn't gone away, as nearly any comments section will prove. And racism -- both conscious and unconscious -- informs much of what is thought and written about Serena Williams. Pointing this out will never be wrong.

But Professor Cooper went farther than that. She wrote, "Still, many commenters spent their time this week actually debating the merits of a horse receiving a 'sportsperson of the year' award. It is only the curiosity that is American racism, which demands that we actually defend Williams’ victories against the accomplishments of one animal."

"It's is only the curiosity that is American racism," she asserts.

"Only."

Professor Cooper here denies that a fair debate on the merits of American Pharoah's 2015 vs. Serena Williams' 2015 can even take place because to do so is racist.  This is different than the promise of the article's subheading -- that such a debate shouldn't take place without taking into consideration our "racial and political context," an argument I find compelling. Instead she avers that "only" racism can motivate the horse defenders.

Here I will note that American Pharoah didn't just beat out Serena Williams in the online poll. He also beat out the Kansas City Royals. He beat out Lionel Messi. He beat out Steph Curry. He beat out Jordan Spieth. He beat out Simone Biles. He beat out Novak Djokovic. He beat out Carli Lloyd. And all these candidates beat out Serena Williams, by a lot. (American Pharoah got fifty times the number of online votes that Serena did. That's astounding, scientific or not.) Serena was an outstanding choice for Sportsperson of the Year. But she was anything but an undebatable choice.

Professor Cooper ignores these other candidates as if the larger debate was always and only about Serena and the horse. But to most of the horse defenders, it never was.

Is there any doubt that these same (predominantly white) horse defenders would have been up in arms had anyone else won? If nothing else, the 47% of the online vote her garnered assures that there was a lot of passion motivating his supporters. Would they really have been any less agitated had Djokovic, or Spieth, or Lloyd claimed the award?

Moreover, of course the disgruntled would compare the various candidates' years. It's what you do in any such inter-sports debate -- you go to the stats. That does not mean that they are somehow arguing for a horse's humanity, or in denial of the humans' humanity.

I'm certainly not advocating that we don't use lenses of race or gender when discussing tennis or sports. Sports are cultural artifacts, after all. If you believe, as I do, that we have a social justice deficiency in this country, then we must work hard to understand how such forces inform how we discuss sports, sports awards, etc. I now believe that the LA Times' tweet -- their setting up Serena Williams against American Pharoah in a "horse race" -- was more than "jarring," more than problematic. It was indeed offensive. And I thank Professor Cooper for spelling out why.

 But I also believe that the Times' underlying question -- did the Sports Illustrated editors make the right choice? -- was an utterly fair one. And more importantly, I believe that those people who tweeted their disappointment that their candidate didn't win deserve some slack.

Horse people are people, too.
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Friday, December 11, 2015

USA Race to Rio: Olympics Update #2

We're now halfway through the Race to Rio.

Two months ago, I posted the first standings showing how US tennis players were faring in the race to grab eight spots for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. With the end of the season upon us, I thought it was a good time to provide an update.

As mentioned in the prior post, the top 4 American men in the ATP rankings will join the top 4 American women in the WTA rankings to make up the singles contingent, so long as all are ranked in the Top 70 or so. (As for doubles, my understanding of the rules is that only players in the Top 10 are assured spots. Beyond that there will likely be some jockeying for spots based on what singles players also want to play doubles, and with whom.)

Since October's post, very little has changed on the women's side. Venus Williams, who had such a strong finish to the year, added 800 points and solidified her position at the #2 spot. She can pretty much book her ticket to Brazil. Also, Madison Keys increased her lead from 70 over Sloane Stephens and 86 over CoCo Vandeweghe to 229 and 246, respectively. Anna Tatishvili moved up 3 spots to #8, while Nicole Gibbs also moved up 3 spots, to #11.

For the men, John Isner is still well in front, while Steve Johnson and Jack Sock both leapfrogged Denis Kudla thanks to strong European indoor results (each reached a final and a semifinal). Donald Young ate into Kudla's lead over him, from 213 points to 144 points. But the biggest jump belonged to 18-year-old Taylor Fritz, who had just 10 points two months ago and now has 265 -- good enough for 10th place, and less than 200 points behind 5th-place Young.

Stay tuned for another update after the Australian Open, when the races for the Olympic spots will become much clearer.

See the full database of Americans in the Top 200 and where they stand in their respective races.


Race to Rio - USA Women as of December 11, 2015
Player
Race to Rio points
12/11/2015
1. S. Williams
4060
2. V. Williams
2452
3. Keys
1126
4. Stephens
897
5. Vandeweghe
880
6. Mattek-Sands
657
7. Lepchenko
645
8. Tatishvili
485
9. McHale
479
10. Brengle
449
11. Gibbs
442
12. Falconi
389
13. Riske
358
14. Davis
341
15. Crawford
310
16. Chirico
283

Race to Rio - USA Men as of December 11, 2015
Player
Race to Rio points
12/11/2015
1. Isner
1555
2. Johnson
916
3. Sock
845
4. Kudla
595
5. Young
451
6. Querrey
415
7. Ram
402
8. Krajicek
331
9. Fratangelo
284
10. Fritz
265
11. Donaldson
259
12. Novikov
254
13. Smyczek
203
14. Harrison
175
15. Tiafoe
120
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