Return of the hairy yellow balls
Australia Day 2005, here I am sitting on a couch somewhere in this beautiful country of ours, watching the Australian Open tennis on TV. The whole experience is very odd for me, not because all this has happened before, but for completely different reasons...
For starters you've got Maria Sharapova bouncing and jumping and lunging around Rod Laver Arena like she should be, I guess. Nothing odd there, but unless my ears are playing tricks on me, she is either experiencing a lot of pain or a lot of pleasure when she is hitting the ball. I'm not criticising her or anything, she obviously knows what she's doing (she did win Wimbledon after all...), but it just sounds like she might need a relaxing cigarette right after the match...
What's even more disturbing about the Network Seven tennis coverage is their choice of the commentary team. Normally the role taken by John McEnroe, we are joined in this year's coverage by none other than four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier.
Sections of the media haven't been happy with Jim's super breezy on-court interviews, but I find this quite a refreshing change of pace to the normal routine. What I have found upsetting, however, is how articulate he is and his unusually soft and smooth accent, especially in contrast to the stereotypical American's loud, obnoxious & 'nasal' accent.
Because he is smarter than (and also doesn't sound like) the average American I was kind of caught off-guard a bit, though I think the main thing I found odd about Jim was the fact that his hair looked to be about 2 sizes too big for his head.
Although not directly related to the Australian Open, I have recently discovered that my all-time favourite tennis player, Martina Hingis, has announced that she has come out of retirement and will return to the courts soon. Woohoo!