Not just twitterers. One of the BBC announcers went on about how she has to rely on talent because she's not hot. God, so many assholes.

Is tumblr content open to search engines? If so, some of those guys could be screwed by their own words someday. Public shaming should happen far more often.

This is the market that celebrated Kournikova for so long, and used monkey and other animal-related metaphors to describe the Williams sisters and let out a sigh of relief when Sharapova showed up--finally a leggy pretty blonde that could actually win tournaments.

And, seriously, pointing out how many hot blondes were hotter than the physically mediocre Kournikova (her tennis was better than her face, but neither explained the amount of adulation) but just didn't play tennis didn't seem to affect anyone's calibration--it took until she did bad krav to turn off a number of the guys I was trying to plead the case to...

JESUS.

I would like to set up a "How hot are you, how hot is your mother, how hot is your daughter?" poll for those complainants. And once the answer is in, the next question is "AND WHO CARES????"

Yeah, clearly looks has so much to do with winning tennis tournaments. When I saw the report this morning they showed a number of views of Bartoli and a)she is quite cute and b) what the hell difference does it make!!! It isn't like football or basketball where looks clearly make the player.

The BBC apology link [link]

So do we forgive the guy for saying this...

"I just wonder if her dad, because he has obviously been the most influential person in her life, did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, 'listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker.

"'You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you're never going to be 5ft 11, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that.

"'You are going to have to be the most dogged, determined fighter that anyone has ever seen on the tennis court if you are going to make it', and she kind of is."

No, we think he's a shithead.

Also, Sharapova is quite often characterized as a "dogged, determined fighter", so it's not like there's any rational connection with what he's talking about.

Don't follow tennis, but Bartoli is quite attractive and really badass-looking, imo. By which I mean to say, I don't get where any of those comments could come from.

People are the worst. seriously.

What I've said to Megan is "You're never going to be a Williams sister--you're never going to be taller than five foot one. But DAT ASS."

No, we do actually tell her that. It's the ass of a sprinter, and that accounts for her ability to cover the court without the advantage of a foot more height--that and her "happy feet". Because the speech they give, if you take out the "looker" bit, and the dodgy use of Sharapova as the comparison (valid, but leading), is a decent "the game got tall and you didn't" speech.

But, like Dana alludes, nobody's in the top 100 without being a dogged determined fighter. It's the price of admission to the big leagues. And nobody wins anything without having been consistently the doggedest fuck out there all week.

The part that caught my attention was I expected an unattractive person when I heard the controversy, and she isn't. Yes, tall is a legitimate issue, but it isn't the only factor for success in the game. Perceived attractiveness of course is not a factor at all. People!