Shivani Gupta was the first Indian TV professional to cover multiple grand slams and report from the spot. Today she is a TV sports correspondent and anchor. She follows tennis and golf closely, apart from cricket. We asked her to tell us *everything* about tonight’s finals match between Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. (Saturday 8th June, 2013, 6:30 pm on Neo Sports)
Q: Why is today’s match a big deal and why should everyone who loves tennis watch it?
This year’s French Open women’s final will be memorable regardless of who wins. If Sharapova manages to beat Serena, she will defend her only grand slam from 2012 – a title that brought her back into the top rung of women’s tennis after a lull and an injury. Defending a title is always special. Also, this result will be remembered for long because the Russian needs to exorcise her ‘Serena’ ghosts once and for all. She hasn’t beaten Serena in nearly ten years – since she was a 17-year old teenager. She has lost to her 12 straight times since, most recently In Madrid earlier this season. She only has two career wins over Serena in 15 matches. So in other words – she is a clear underdog here – and an underdog winning just has its own charm.
For Serena fans, a win here will be memorable as the last time she won Roland Garros was good 11 years ago in 2002. She has won all other grandslams multiple times. This is the only won she’s stuck at one. She has come close since but I feel this year she knows the title is her’s to lose.
So, yes, overall, we’re in for a great final.
Q: As a journalist do you have to listen to endless men’s tennis is better than women’s tennis arguments? Do you buy into any of them?
I have covered tennis closely over the years and yes, this is always part of the discussion. As a ‘woman’ journalist, its especially tricky at times – like when there are murmurs as to whether women champions deserve the same money as men when they spend considerably lesser times on the court to win the title.
And frankly, there are arguments for both sides. But one must not mistake the discussion itself as disrespect for women’s tennis. We just have to be objective about this. Men’s tennis is just more gruelling – not just because they play five sets in grandslams, but also the level of men’s tennis that is being played since Rafael Nadal’s era started way back in 2005. The physicality of the game has grown immensely. Which is not to say that it hasn’t in women’s tennis, but the continous comparisons are made because there are not enough players who are the steady dominators of this era except Serena Williams.
There have been glorious eras of women’s tennis too when the likes of Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Monica Seles. Steffi Graf and others played. No tennis fan would ever be seen cribbing about those days. Infact, I hear men raving about many past women players and their rivalries endlessly and with tremendous respect.
It’s just that after the end of the more recent rivalries between players like Serena Williams and Justine Henin, or Henin and Kim Clijsters or even players Jennifer Capriati and others, we havnt seen great rivalries in women’s tennis lately. It just takes a little away from the narrative of the times. Women’s tennis is like choppy waters right now. Up and down. No clear favourite except Serena Williams. We’ve been waiting for a real challengers for some time now.
But hey, that also means it’s more open than the Top-4 dominance that persists in men’s tennis!
Q: What are you looking forward to this year in women’s tennis?
I’m looking forward to seeing a few more of the breakthrough players from the last fews years create a dominance of their own. We have seen 5 new champions in the last 12 grand slams, and only one of them has gone on to win a second. Apart from them, it has been ‘senior’ players like Serena, Clijsters and Sharapova on the board.
We need to see more wins from the next-gen players. They are winning the tour titles but strangely not the grand slams. Lets see what happens.
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Also read:
Clive James’ crazy ode to male fans of female tennis players.
The brilliant New York Times profile of the Williams sisters.