Venus Envy

For my awareness assignment I did a book analysis on the above titled book. It is about the Woman's Tennis Tour. Specifically, it covers the tour during a period in the late 90's - early 2000's when the sport began to flourish. There was one part of the book that I found particularly interesting.

A reporter asked Martina Hingis, who was the top ranked female player at the time, if she would prefer to be renowned solely for her tennis game or if she wanted to be popular off the court as well, the way Anna Kournikova was at the time. Hingis hesitated, then grabbed a paper and pencil. She wrote the letters LD on one side and AK on the other. Then she wrote her initials, MH, not in the middle but closer to the AK.

The statement she was making was that even though she wanted to excel at her craft the same way Lindsay Davenport (LD) had, she also sought the fame and media attention that Anna Kournikova had, or at least a fraction of it. This interested me a lot even though the author didn't really touch on it much. But I think the conflicting views on what direction woman's sport should go are often split along generational lines. The older generation tends to want only to excel and be recognized for it, while the younger generation wants to excel and enjoy all the perks that are supposed to come along with being athletes.

David L. KIN338I T/TH