OPINION: Earlier this year, Martina Navratilova, a much-lauded lesbian role model, caused a media storm with her remarks on transgender athletes, saying: “It’s insane and it’s cheating.”
OPINION: At this year’s Wimbledon, the women’s final between Simona Halep and Serena Williams lasted under one hour, ending in a 6-2 6-2 whitewash.
The men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer lasted just under five hours in a five set thriller.
It was a reasonably good French Open this year, and although there were some great matches, I wouldn’t call it a hugely memorable one.
This was published in Stuff.co.nz
Endless suffering of Andy Murray raises questions around player welfare
OPINION: Exactly one year ago former world No 1 Andy Murray pulled out of Aussie Open citing a hip injury.
Shortly after, he made a major decision – to have surgery on that hip.
He seemed very positive after the operation, fairly certain that he would make a full recovery and get back to business.
The Australian Open, 2019
Andy Murray at Queen’s Club
The big news of the fortnight was Andy Murray tearfully announcing his retirement. Exactly one year ago, he had surgery on his hip and never really recovered. He came back at Queen’s last June but was clearly not in great shape, pulling out of Wimbledon a couple of weeks later and hadn’t won any major tournaments since.
He lost in a tight five-setter against Bautista-Agut and didn’t appear to be hampered but who knows how he felt the next day. He’s hoping to make his farewell at Wimbledon but isn’t sure if he’ll be able to play without too much pain in the months prior. So this may have been his finale . Read More
This article appeared in Stuff.co.nz and The Dominion Post
OPINION: So, the 21-year-old German, Alexander Zverev, won the end of season ATP championships in London, a highly-coveted title, played out by the top eight men’s tennis players in the world.
OPINION: A huge number of fans, (in particular, Americans, since she is, of course virtually royalty there), seem to agree with Serena Williams that the game docked from her in the US Open Final was about sexism.
Nice to get this from a reader:Hi, I really enjoy reading Languedoc Living every day. I especially appreciate Katrina Allen’s updates on the major tennis tournaments and I totally endorse her article about Serena’s behaviour in the US Open’s Ladies Final.
I would like to point out that Serena screams racism; doesn’t screaming abuse at a Portuguese umpire constitute racism? I would have thought so.
This article appeared in Languedocliving.com
The US Open was filled with controversy this year, making the whole thing rather interesting for reasons other than just the tennis.
For British viewers, the tournament was being aired, for the first time, on Amazon Prime. The whole user experience was dreadful. At one point Amazon was so overwhelmed with complaints that the system crashed and reviews were suspended. Read More
“Participation, Inclusion and Personal Best”
by Katrina Allen
The Gay Gam
es, a huge sporting event, is held, like the Olympics, every four years.
It first took place in San Francisco in 1982, featuring 17 sports, 12 nations and 1,350 participants. It was a huge success and it was clear that this LGBT+ sporting celebration would continue.
Since then, the event has been held in cities such as Vancouver, New York, Amsterdam, Sydney and Cologne. Each time the numbers have increased. By 2006 there were 30 sports and cultural events, 70 nations and 11,700 participants.
This year, the sporting extravaganza is to be held in Paris from 4th -11th August.
The Gay Games was initially known as the Gay Olympics but objections were raised by the Olympic Committee and the name was changed. It was a reasonable request since the whole ethos of the Gay Games is about inclusion, not just within the community but also across various standards, which go from beginner to expert. The Olympics, of course, is all about excellence, world-class athletes within their sport.
From synchronised swimming to pétanque to wrestling – you name it … The full list of sports can be found at https://www.paris2018.com/sports-list/ Read More
This article appeared in Languedoc Living
Novak Djokovic (photo: Katrina Allen)
Much of Wimbledon was rather flat this year due to World Cup frenzy coinciding with the Championships.
Even some of the players appeared to want to cheer on their teams rather than play their own matches.
At this point, the commentator said “and that’s her girlfriend and coach”. I have never heard that from a commentator before.
Good on them all for normalising it…
And it was replayed on match of the day – Navratilova raised her eyebrows, grinned and gave an approving nod in Becker’s direction. Clare Balding said nothing – she should have done but maybe she was worried about her job – wouldn’t surprise me.
Visibility matters. Coincidentally, it's also #Pride weekend in London, isn't it? #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/hJIra8FfDg
— René Denfeld (@Renestance) July 7, 2018
Andy Murray Clutching at Hip (photo: Katrina Allen)
So, Andy Murray has withdrawn from Wimbledon. It’s sad for him and it’s also sad for those of us who were rubbing our hands in anticipation of what would have been a fascinating match against the Frenchman Benoit Paire in the first round. Paire would have been a tricky opponent, having had two match points in a hugely tense final set tie break against Roger Federer in Halle.
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