MELBOURNE—There’s nothing like tennis history to give you an idea of how much the world has changed in the last 50, 60, 70 years. Sometimes the difference between then and now is hard to get your head around. For instance, consider the story of Gertrude “Gorgeous Gussy” Moran, who died yesterday at 89. Moran, a California native who played on the amateur circuit in the 1940s, is famous for having sported, as the AP put it this morning, “a daringly short dress and lace-trimmed panties” at Wimbledon in 1949. What’s amazing to think back on now is what happened to the designer of that dress and those panties, Ted Tinling. Upon seeing them, a Wimbledon official publicly bellowed at Tinling, “You have brought shame and sin to tennis!” Tinling, already a prominent figure in the game, was banned from the club and didn’t return for 20 years. Because of a dress design.
Now that I think about it, though, when it comes to tempests in a teapot, maybe tennis hasn’t changed all that much. The controversy of the nanosecond seems to be whether Maria Sharapova “celebrated too much” with her quintuple fist-pump and banshee shriek after her win over Venus Williams last night. I admit that, at the moment she did it, I thought it was a bit over the top. Or, more accurately, I was surprised by Maria’s ferocity, because the score hadn’t been close. The “hey, now” look on Venus’ face as she walked toward the net told you she was surprised, too.
But thinking about how the match ended, and how Venus hung on just long enough to make Maria nervous, I realized that a big part of Sharapova’s emotion at that moment was relief. She said as much later. She said she had let some chances to put away the second set slip by, and she “knew what [Venus] was capable of.” Plus, Sharapova had played so well in a match that she had been anticipating all week: “I was pumped, why shouldn’t I be?” While some thought Sharapova showed disrespect to an aging champion, Maria herself would tell you that her elation was really the opposite. She wouldn’t have felt or acted the same way against a lesser player.
So maybe tennis isn’t all that different than it was in 1949. Back then we worried about short dresses and lace trims, now we worry about how many fist-pumps is too many fist-pumps. If we were soccer fans, we’d probably debate whether a striker slid too far to celebrate scoring a goal.
Still, there may be one reason for Maria to regret the move: I’m guessing Serena saw those fist-pumps, too.