I noticed the other day that a comment poster responding to one of TW’s seemingly interminable debates over Justine Henin-Hardenne’s ethics went with the Big Box Behaviorist theory: Sure Justine has done some “bad” things, but keep in mind that she came from a tough background, from a poor family, a broken home, etc. etc.
I think that argument often reflects bourgeois prejudice more than it does any social reality, because it infers that “poverty” (a relative term to begin with) is in some deep way linked to poor character or behavior. Poverty, thus, is some kind of soiled or inferior state of existence. This is baloney.
I know more people who grew up poor (including some tennis players) who are conscientious, ethical and generally admired, and a lot of middle-class and wealthy people who are liars, cheats and thieves, even if they, theoretically, shouldn't be, right? Poverty shouldn’t be a dirty word.
I don't really mean that as a shot at Justine, either. It's just something I got to thinking about thanks to her opponent in tomorrow's Roland Garros final, Svetlana Kuznetsova. This morning, in her pre-champinship round presser, she said:
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I mean, everybody has some stories, you know, about the life. Everybody been, especially the top athletes. I think if you see top 10, everybody has very tough stories when we made it through and we had very tough things to go through. This is what makes you stronger. This is part of your efforts you go through.
And about Roland Garros, I've been playing here Juniors. I lost final in the Juniors and I remember I was very, very nervous. Yeah, this is when I first come here to play.
But I was -I growing in cycles family. I was not watching tennis that much all the time. I was living with guys in the club. The only thing I remember, they were watching Tour de France. So Paris is a bit more Tour de France or something. . .
Yeah, and I remember myself, just hanging out with the cyclist guy and the cyclist clothes, you know, just ten sizes bigger from which mine is, with tennis racquet and the cycling shoes, you know. I had this mixed in me.
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I’m not suggesting that growing up in a cycling training compound is tantamount to emerging from a Rio favella or a Manchester council housing block, but Kuznetsova certainly has faced plenty of hurdles on her way to the Top 10 in tennis. You can get a good dose of her story by reading this transcript from her great run at the NASDAQ 100 tournament (the presser following the final was a great one, too).
The text should also give you a reasonable feel for the Kooze's personality, although it’s hard to get sense of how playful, honest and good-natured she is on a computer screen. Yesterday, I mourned a certain lack of “authenticity” in the face Nicole Vaidisova presented to a group of reporters; today I am celebrating a player who personifies the opposite virtue. Everyone is different, I know, and shyness, reticence, or guardedness are not crimes punishable by law. Still. . .
I guess I’m becoming my own worst nightmare, a Kuznetsova Kool-Aid Drinker (KKAD?), but I really like this girl for a couple of reasons, not the least being that she is just plain different. Some of you old-schoolers out there will know what I mean when I say she reminds me of a wonderfully colorful character out of the 1970s, Fast Eddie Dibbs.
Dibbs was Lebanese, from Brooklyn. He coined the immortal line, “If I weren’t a tennis player, I’d probably be a bag boy at the Food Fair.” I swear to you, I think he was the first person ever to utter those words!
Eddie was tough, street-smart, Runyon-esque character with a Brooklyn accent so thick that as soon as he opened his mouth, you reached back to see if you still had your wallet. Eddie and his compadre Harold Solomon, a Jewish kid from a wealthy Maryland family, were “The Bagel Twins” – a pair of short but consistent, tough, seemingly inexhaustible guys who took pride in winning on guts instead of gunshot serves. They especially loved to pick-apart people love-and-love on clay. I miss them. Also, I digress.
Anyway, Fast Eddie was just as original and funny a character as the Kooze, and the odd thing is that they even play alike. Dibbs was small and thickly built, he walked with a rolling gait, not unlike the Kooze, and he had the same natural talent – timing so good that either player appears to get intimate with the ball as he or she hits a shot; something that bigger, more mechanical players lack.
I don’t know if the Kooze will beat The Little Backhand That Quit tomorrow - the numbers (10-1 head-to-head in favor of Henin-Hardenne) Henin-Hardenne is in my doghouse, but I have to concede that I’ve never seen a woman player who consistently matched beauty and grace of shot with such amazing pugnaciousness. And on clay,her game is as deadly as it is fetching.
But I believe the Kooze can beat Henin-Hardenne, and I'll let The Kooze tell you in a revealing quote from her presser the other day:
Beyond that, the Kooze has the tools with which to trouble Justine, who matches up deceptively well with the woman she blasted off the Court Centrale the other day, Champagne Kim Clijsters. I mean, has anyone ever seen Clijster use the drop shot? Change pace? Also, Kuznetsova can force Henha to play an up-and-back game as well as side-to-side. As her quote above makes it abundantly clear, this is a girl who will go in with a game plan if she thinks she sees an opening.
One last hint: Elsewhere, the Kooze has admitted that she has had her best luck when she plays inside the court and moves her opponent around, taking the ball on the rise. Look for her to do that to keep the match from becoming a track meet she cannot win or a marathon she can't endure. I think she's going to force the action.
Easier said than done, A Henha KAD might say.
Fair enough, I say. What does The Kooze has to lose against the best European female clay-court player since Steffi Graf?
Game on.
In one of her numerous collegial moments she had this exchange with a reporter:
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It may be the pro tennis equivalent of a knock-knock joke, but it seems that Kuznetsova has already told us how she needs to play. We also know that if she feels there are specific tactics she can employ against Henha, she won’t hesitate. And we know two other things: the Kooze held match point against TLBTQ last year, at a time when she was feeling a lot worse about herself and her game. Plus, they played a tight match on clay a few weeks ago, in Berlin, which Henha won, 6-4,7-6.
The spirit of the match should be amiable as well, for Kuznetsova speaks kindly - and frankly - of her rival:
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And for her part, TLBTQ said:
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Henin-Hardenne also cracked a joke – one slightly different in kind from Kuznetsova's:
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Kind of a weird moment, that.
Q. If there is one key to that final tomorrow for you to win it, what is it?
A: Yeah, right, I say you the tactic? You say it to Justine. This is very nice, right (laughing). No, I guess the key is just to hold my serve and just to play every ball, to don't let easy balls. This is a tactic I can tell to you (smiling).
. . . We practice often together. I think I'm getting along very well with almost all the players, even top players in the tour. I practice plenty time with Justine.
Yeah, I think she's very good person. Yeah, she close in herself, but this is professional athlete, we're all rivals and it's tough to be out there. It's the way she is. But I think she's very good person for me, and I admire her, maybe little bit as an athlete, because she done many things.
It’s gonna be a tough one, for sure. I mean, it's a Grand Slam final. A lot of things can happen tomorrow. Different kind of pressure. It's always very special atmosphere. We never met in this kind of situation. We played each other couple of times.
Even if the numbers look good for me, doesn't mean anything right now because it's another match and I want to stay focused on what I will have to do. Svetlana, she's a great player. She's back at her best level, the level where she was she won the US Open a few years ago. I know I will have to play my best tennis, for sure, if I want to win.
Q. Do you have an extra motivation to erase the bad memory of the last Grand Slam?
A: Well, I think I have digested that wrong choice of word, by the way (smiling). But hard to swallow, I'll put it that way. No, that's not a good word either. Well, let's talk about something else. . .
Anyway, it's behind me. But it was a difficult moment. I'm pushing it away from my memory. I have a new chance today. I have that in the back of my mind. My motivation is to have a different moment. The final of a Grand Slam is always very special. In Australia, it was not the case for the reasons you all know. I hope tomorrow is going to be totally different.