Don't Stick to Sports

It's a popular refrain we hear whenever a notable sports figure deigns to go outside his or her supposed expertise and comment on a political or social issue consuming the world.

"Stick to sports."

After all, you're just here to entertain me. Your value is wholly in your performance on court or on the field. You're not paid to opine on topics outside your purview.

But if we've learned anything over the last few weeks, it's perhaps exactly when athletes don't do that that they have the most impact.

In a year that's already been rocked by so many tragedies, the tennis community has again come together in the days since the brutal death of George Floyd to make a statement.

Frances Tiafoe and college star Ayan Broomfield came together to put out a powerful video featuring the sport's biggest talents and a haunting message: "#RaquetsDownHandsUp"

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“Our Lives Begin To End The Day We Become Silent About Things That Matter” Martin Luther King Jr. Thank you to everyone that joined us in this, it starts with each and every one of us. • • @serenawilliams @iamgaelmonfils @katadams68 @malwashington @kgmontjane1 @zackeveee @k1ng_2._0 @heatherwatson92 @jarmere @naomiosaka @sloanestephens @tennisdarian @eastpoint_jenkins @tsongaofficiel @asia.muhammad @coacho.g @r_bizzeee @donaldyoungjr @mcneil8970 @coreygauff @haileybaptiste @ymerjr @philsbrainparade @thechandarubin @michaelmmoh @sachiavick @kamaumurray @cocogauff @garrisonzina #tennisforequality #lovewins #itisbiggerthantennis • • Song: Glory (@johnlegend @common) Thank you for creating such an impactful piece of art. Special thank you to Brian Tsao (@the_general_tsao ) for helping with edits. • • @wta @atp @espn @usta @itf__tennis @shaunking @bleacherreport @theshaderoom @octagon

A post shared by Frances Tiafoe (@bigfoe1998) on May 31, 2020 at 1:55pm PDT

Coco Gauff, all of sixteen years old, spoke to crowds in her hometown of Delray Beach with an eloquence that many politicians and most adults can't seem to muster for these trying times.

My speech at the peaceful protest in my hometown of Delray Beach, Florida. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/Jeyswzt7n5

— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) June 4, 2020

And Naomi Osaka, who just as lockdown was beginning made a vow to be less shy, has come out swinging in the fight for social justice and equality.

They're far from the only people trying to use their platforms to speak out. Martina Navratilova, Andy Roddick, Nicole Gibbs, and of course Serena Williams -- whose husband resigned from the board of the company he founded so a black director could take his place -- have all been huge advocates for the cause.

And why shouldn't they be?

The argument can't be that they have no base of knowledge to comment on the subject. It was just a few years ago that my dear James Blake was a victim himself, abused by police after being mistaken for a criminal. As he writes, if it weren't for the fact that another cop recognized him, he doesn't know what might have happened to him. That's a kind of fear that no one should have -- famous athlete or not.

And with their base of fans, athletes are arguably the best chance of spreading the message and affecting change that we have. And the more that sign on, the better -- Colin Kaepernick's been trying to make his point for years, and it was only after this latest movement that the NFL finally admitted that its treatment of player protestors was wrong. Whether that gets Kaps back on a roster remains to be seen, but it's a start.

Of course the "stick to sports" trope can be trotted out selectively. Laura Ingraham was quick to defend Drew Brees's respect of the U.S. flag while commanding LeBron James to "shut up and dribble." And I found myself with "stick-to-sports" feelings when Lisa Raymond tweeted (and subsequently seems to have removed) a post equating "bad apple" cops to "bad apple" protestors. But we need to hear their voices -- all their voices -- if we're going to be able to educate ourselves.

And hopefully, even when there are once again live sports to stick to, the voices calling for justice will continue to be heard far louder than anything that's happening on court.

Challenges at the Challengers

I don't often cover the Challenger Series events, but for a couple reasons, this year's action in Indian Wells before the main tournament kicks off next week is worth an extra look.

First let's start with the action on court, because we've already seen some stellar results.

On the men's side there's a lot at stake for fourteenth seed Marcos Giron, who currently sits atop the series' leaderboard -- the Americans who earn the most points during the four tournament stretch, which included events in New Haven, Houston and Newport Beach over the last few months, get an entry to the main draw next week. The twenty-six year old is currently ranked just outside the top hundred, so may need the extra boost to make the cut. He's currently on court with Britain's Ryan Peniston, in danger of being pushed to a third set, but could seal the deal soon. And then, of course, is Frances Tiafoe, who's my long (and getting longer) shot to make a big breakthrough this year. He, thankfully, won his first match against Michael Mmoh in a convincing two sets.

But perhaps the big story this week is Jack Sock, the one-time top ten player who now sits all the way down at #768 in the world. Before this week, he'd only won a single singles match in some eighteen months, crying in relief when he beat Radu Albot in Delray. But he may have found that spark again in Indian Wells. Against top seeded Ugo Humbert, who kicked off this year with his first career title in Auckland and then made the semis in Delray, Sock was able to score a straight set win in the second round and will now face Evgeny Donskoy for a spot in the quarter. A win there could set him on pace for even more success down the road.

The ladies' draw also has some interesting bright spots. While the series' leaders didn't fare quite so well -- both Madison Brengle and CoCo Vandeweghe both lost their opening rounds -- some others are nonetheless making nice comeback runs. First there's Yanina Wickmayer, who was once ranked #12 in the world but whose career was interrupted by everything from back injury to Lyme's disease. Now outside the top 150, she surged past wildcard Claire Liu and then battled Brengle in a two and a half hour match, where she avenged a loss from last month at an ITF event in Kentucky. A couple more wins like that could mean a lot for her as she looks to mount a comeback.

But my favorite story on the women's side is none other than Vera Zvonareva, a two-time Grand Slam finalist and former world #2, she too has been plagued by injury and actually used her time off tour to get a college degree. Now ranked at #319, she's had a couple wins in 2020, but it'd been a while since any real big heads. She may have turned the tide this week though, opening with a victory over Acapulco standout Xiyu Wang in her opener and then ending a streak of eight straight losses, which extended back to 2004, to Sam Stosur in her second round. Up next for the veteran Russian is top seed Katarina Siniakova, so the task only gets harder from here. But, if you know me at all, you know how much I love rooting for this feisty underdog.

Match results aside, though, there's another issue that seems to have come back into the forefront this week, and that's the one of player pay. It's long been a hot button topic in the sport, where the handful of lucky athletes who can win Grand Slams and other big events can earn millions of dollars, while the vast (vast) majority of players are making comparatively nothing -- paying to fly not only themselves around the world and board up at hotels, but for a team of coaches and physios too, all to make just a couple thousand dollars if they lose in an early round. And they're not making the same kind of dough the Serenas and Rafas of the world are in endorsements.

Darren Cahill most recently pointed out the huge discrepancy in prize money between someone who won just two matches in Dubai and someone who won just one match more. And as pointed out by Nicole Gibbs -- who earned a paltry $1,130 in her first round loss this week -- that hits players ranked as high as #31 in the world.

Let’s also take a moment to acknowledge that in this case “lower ranked” applies to the 31st ranked player in the world (the cut for that event).

Rest of us making pennies.

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) February 24, 2020

Borrowing a point made by the late David Foster Wallace in one of his many glorious essays on tennis, can you imaging being better than all but thirty people in the world at your chosen profession and not being able to make a living?

Yes, I realize that, in a world where income inequality is such a far-reaching problem, pointing out its impact on people who play a "game" may miss the forest for the trees, but you have to remember that this is people's livelihoods and one they won't be able to sustain as long as us normal people can stick with our own careers.

That's one of the big benefits of these Challenger Series events: giving players at lower ranks -- and again, by lower, we're often talking about low double-digit rankings -- an opportunity to play more matches, grab more ranking points, and eventually gain entry to the bigger tournaments, as Giron hopes to do. Still it would be great if some of those sky-high prices we pay for tickets to the U.S. Open and other events -- I don't even want to mention what grounds passes for middle Saturday cost me last year! -- went to increase payouts at these events.

The idea of upping purses for all players is one shared by those ranked high and low, and if we really want to keep the best talent coming to the sport, we're going to have to get something done about this soon.

By the Skin of Their Teeth

It's been a warm couple days Down Under, but it wasn't just the rising temperatures that put the heat on players at the Australian Open. More than a couple favorites were given quite the run-around during their second round matches by some very capable opponents. And how the survivors regroup for their next challenges could reveal a lot about their prospects down the road, both here and for the rest of the year.

You might not expect too much out of low-seeded Elina Svitolina -- the twenty-year-old has only won a couple matches in Melbourne during her short career, but she did beat Petra Kvitova in Cincinnati last year and Angelique Kerber earlier this month in Brisbane. The two-time Junior Grand Slam finalist -- she won the French when she was fifteen -- certainly has the potential to make her mark on Tour in the coming years, and on Thursday she showed she can stay tough under pressure. She was pushed through two long sets by U.S. college champion Nicole Gibbs, recovering from a 1-5 deficit in the second and then keeping her opponent from serving out the set. The young Ukrainian's path forward is admittedly the toughest of this group -- she'll face Serena Williams in the next round, and the top seed allowed her just three games in their one previous meeting. But Serena's notched some surprising losses already this year and was down set points against one-time Wimbledon rival Vera Zvonareva in her last match. She's also gone home early in three of the last four Majors, so Svitolina does have a chance. And even if she doesn't ultimately emerge the victor, how she handles the challenge could say more than the eventual scoreline.

Twelfth seed Feliciano Lopez has already been on the wrong side of a couple scorelines this week. The veteran Spaniard is coming off the best year of his career, but he's had to rally big time in his first two matches -- against American wildcard Denis Kudla in his opener, he found himself down two-sets-to-one and fought off match points late in the decider before finally closing out the match 10-8 in the fifth. He understandably seemed tuckered out in Thursday's heat, losing the first two sets to Auckland finalist Adrian Mannarino and facing another match point. But his opponent suffered more late in the match -- after losing the third set tiebreak, the Frenchman lost four games in a row before retiring, and Feli again squeaked through a round he'd come so close to dropping. Next up he'll face big serving Jerzy Janowicz, another man who barely edged out a win Thursday -- he came back from two-sets-to-one down against Gael Monfils to reach his third straight third round in Melbourne. The pair have never met before, and after the long couple matches they've each faced, this one could be a little messy. But Feli will want to make a statement here and prove he's getting by on more than just a little bit of luck.

A couple other champions, though, may use their close calls in the last round to fuel them to even more dominating performances throughout the week.

Coming into the Australian Open, 2008 champ Maria Sharapova had been one of the favorites for the crown -- a solid run to the Brisbane title and a one-sided win over Petra Martic in her first round seemed to underscore the Russian's chances. She began her second round against qualifier Alexandra Panova -- a woman who'd just won her first Major main draw match this week -- in similar fashion, breaking three times and taking the opening set in under half an hour. But the underdog found a way to rally, holding onto an early lead in the second to force a decider, and even running off with a most unlikely two-break advantage in the third. But as she often does, MaSha was able to play her best when she was under the most pressure -- she saved three match points on Panova's serve and won the last three games with a whirlwind of powerful winners. She might not have expected a test so soon in her campaign, but it may have lit a fire under the world #2 -- against thirty-first seed Zarina Diyas on Friday, I expect her to be relentless and wouldn't be surprised if she finished off the match in under an hour.

Hopefully Rafael Nadal can do the same, though it's arguably a much more difficult ask. The 2009 titleist in Melbourne may have retained the #3 seed this fortnight, but after an injury-addled 2014 season and a disappointing start in Doha, he was still a long shot to make even the second week here. He kicked off his run strongly though, needing just over ninety minutes to dispatch former U.S. Open semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny in what could have been a tough early test. His bigger challenge came unexpectedly a match later, when qualifier Tim Smyczek threatened to become the fourth sub-#100 player to beat the Grand Slam champion in the past year. The American took a two-set-to-one lead on an ailing Rafa Wednesday, but the Spaniard dug deep himself, grinding to a deciding set and finally converting his fourth match point after more than four hours on court. He was barely spared a rematch against one-time Wimbledon vanquisher Lukas Rosol and will instead meet unseeded Dudi Sela for a ticket into the second week. Hopefully his struggles over the last few months and days haven't taken too much out of him and he'll have enough time to recover.

After all, there's still a lot of action left to be played before the winners are finally crowned at the Australian Open. And the most successful players will be the ones who not only scrape by early challenges, but turn them into even bigger opportunities.

Where's the Follow Through?

Here in the U.S., with veteran champions like the Williams sisters and Andy Roddick crossing, or about to cross, the thirty-year mark, and transition players like John Isner and Sam Querrey having their biggest successes so far at the mid-tier tournaments, we've been aching to identify our next generation of big tennis stars. We get some glimpses of hope here and there, but have yet to find the next athlete who promises to deliver again and again.

At last week's U.S. events, a couple American youngsters got a chance to shine. College stars like Nicole Gibbs and Mallory Brudette got their first Tour wins in Stanford and young Coco Vandeweghe chopped her ranking nearly in half by making the final. In Newport, 2009 champion Rajeev Ram put together his most successful singles run in a while on his way to the semis, and soon-to-be Olympian Ryan Harrison put up a solid fight himself in the final four. But all these guys fell in their first rounds this week, understandable given their efforts, but disheartening for those hoping to see them back up their recent success.

That's not to say all hope is lost. The draw in Carlsbad features plenty of Americans, many wildcards, and more than a couple have so far survived early rounds. Christina McHale, long touted as the premier talent in the generation has lived up to her seeding and Melanie Oudin, finally backing up her 2009 U.S. Open run with a title in Birmingham last month, pulled off a solid win over fellow(-ish) up-and-comer Sloane Stephens in her first round. But perhaps the most potential lies with twenty-six year old Varvara Lepchenko. The surprise fourth-rounder in Paris has only lost a handful of games so far this week. With a quarterfinal meeting against often-spotty Nadia Petrova next, she has the real potential to pull off another upset, and that could bode well for her even beyond this tournament -- a first-time Olympian in a few weeks, there might not be a better time for her to prove how well she can fight for her country.

There's no Olympic gold on the line for some of the standouts in Atlanta, but that's no excuse for them to not put up a fight. While veterans like Roddick and top seeded John Isner, twice a runner-up here, are getting in some good practice for London, those a little further down the rankings may be the ones to watch this week. Wildcard Steve Johnson had only played one Tour-level match this year, but he hung tough against one-time U.S. Open Cinderella Donald Young in his first round. He'll meet another young star in Jack Sock next -- the 2010 U.S. Open Juniors champ defeated seventh-seeded Alex Bogomolov in his opener and could put on an entertaining show for a spot in the semis. For the man who survives, it could be a great opportunity to make a real splash on a Tour-level stage.

It's going to be difficult for any of these guys to make a real and immediate impact at a Slam -- with the top players in the sport right now proving they're not going anywhere soon, they might have to slog it out for several more months or years. But it's important that they bring the momentum they capture from wins this week into their next few events -- if they can prove themselves to be constant threats in the draws, it might not be long until they're no longer considered the underdog.