Women breaking Aussie Open straitjacket
I’m wearing the pink knitted beanie with the pussycat ears and I’m marching around the living room. It’s mid summer in the Wairarapa and it’s that cold.
Oh, and it’s also about peaceful protest. I’m outraged that the tennis pop-up channels have closed down for the night and a couple of boring blokes are bashing the hell out of the ball on screen, but there’s no sign of the big women’s match going on.
This stuff matters, because right now the women’s draw at the Australian Open is way more interesting than what’s going on with the men. Forget all those ridiculous marches around the world, because intolerant female liberals don’t like Donald Trump. My march is on behalf of a cause worth fighting for.
Who needs Madonna banging on and telling us that she’s angry and won’t accept this age of tyranny. Who needs Madonna saying, ‘‘Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.’’
I’m sorry Madonna, but why weren’t you and America Ferrera marching when millions of blue collar workers were losing their jobs? And why don’t you go and march in Kabul or Riyadh or places where women really are oppressed? Or are you just a champagne marcher, happy to preach to a like-minded crowd. Don’t you see the joke in being intolerant about intolerance?
And you may not have noticed, but Trump’s inauguration speech was rather brilliant. Now of course the demagogue braggadocio didn’t write it himself. This after all is the man whose favourite word is ‘bigly’. But surely we need to see if Trump can implement his policies before we tear him apart. Surely we need to give tolerance a chance.
My far more meaningful march is about women refusing to be erased from the tennis discussion. And frankly, I’m not surprised there was a Brexit on the men’s side of the draw, because who wants to be a part of that middleaged, European Community. Well, Milos Raonic does obviously, but then he was born in Montenegro.
It’s the same blokes time and time again. There’s no youth, there’s no Australia or America, it’s just the same show reel on permanent play. Okay, the volleying of Mischa Zverev has been a joy to behold, but where are the characters. Even Grigor Dimitrov is now sounding as dull as Roger Federer. Maybe he always was.
The interesting stuff is all happening on the women’s side of the net. Five of them are younger than the youngest man left in the draw. There are signs of a future generation. Garbine Muguruza, daughter of a Basque dad and a Venezuelan mum, is a 23-year-old charmer with game. Karolina Pliskova, a year older, has tattoos and game.
Coco Vandeweghe, the 25-yearold American, could take on Nick Kyrgios in a head-to-head racket smashing contest. She has also called out Maria Sharapova for cheating on and off the court and said that Ryan Lochte ‘‘tarnished’’ America at the Olympics.
And when she feels ‘‘crap’’ on court, as she did in her final 16 match, she has a coping strategy. She said, ‘‘My grandmother always said to me, ‘Fake it till you make it’. Coming from a Miss America that basically oozed confidence, that’s a pretty good line...I had a divorced mother. I don’t really know my father at all. My grandparents helped raise me. That was really special for me.’’
Maybe Vandeweghe was lucky not to know her father. The 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni is still getting over the effects of her abusive dad. As a 17-year-old she lost in the semi-finals of the 1999 Wimbledon to Steffi Graf. Then it all fell apart.
She fled home, and nearly went broke on and off the court. She cried at the 2014 US Open, saying, ‘‘It’s been really hard. After so many years to be here again. I wanted it so bad that I kind of burned out.’’
And then there’s Johanna Konta who used to watch Serena Williams growing up. Now she’s playing her. Williams, who turned up at a press conference on Martin Luther King day with a T-shirt that said Equality.
She said, ‘‘I don’t involve myself in politics but I think it is important that we should pass the message of love as opposed to hate.’’
And out there somewhere in the Melbourne shadows is Johnny Mack, the only man to have ever been disqualified from this tournament, who said, ‘‘The future of tennis is for players to break free from these straitjackets we put on them.
‘‘To show their true colours, their emotions. [People] don’t want statistics, they want heroes – someone to root for. Nick, I know you are sad. This Kyrgios thing, I’m sad too. This kid and I are cut from the same cloth. Nick Kyrgios, you are the future of this game. The perfect prototype for this sport.’’
I’m sad too. I am sad that Kyrgios has gone from the men’s draw. I’m sad that it is only the women who are man enough to break the straitjackets. I’m sad that Yonex is now fining players who smash their racquets, as another disapproving corporate restraint is put on the youth of today.
The tennis establishment has protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs.
While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you…
Sorry, I came over all Trump there for a while. What I meant to say was: Go Girl.