Black Tennis Pros

Tonight, after Serena Williams defeated Elena Dementieva in their semifinal at the Australian Open, Chris Fowler and Bud Collins were "commentating" about the match. They drifted into the area of Dementieva's serve falling by the wayside yet again. Now, I must admit, I was reading when I heard this, but I do believe I heard Chris Fowler say:

WASHINGTON — Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Postmaster General John E. Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.

And, despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week."

At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with business leaders to discuss the economy, President Obama asked to make an unrelated comment -- on the weather.

"My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," Obama said, and all at the table started laughing.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he continued. He said that in their old hometown, "you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors."

The President said he would have to bring "some flinty Chicago toughness" to Washington.

Asked if he was calling Washingtonians wimps, Obama responded: "I'm saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

SINGLES

Round 1

Donald Young, USA defeated Artem Sitak, RUS
6-2, 6-3

Scoville Jenkins, USA vs. defeated Somdev Devvarman, IND
6-1, 6-4


DOUBLES

Round 1

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Tim Smyczek, USA
defeated by
Woong-Sun Jun, KOR and Hiroki Kondo, JPN
4-6, 6-7(2)

Scoville Jenkins, USA and Prakash Amritraj, IND
defeated by
Rylan Rizza, USA and Kaes Van't Hof
4-6, 6-7(4)

Donald Young, USA and Lester Cook, USA
defeated
Brian Battistone, USA and Dann Battistone, USA
6-1, 6-3


SINGLES

Round 1

Todd Paul, USA defeated Mattia Livraghi, ITA
2-6, 6-4, 6-1

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated by Luigi D'Agord, ITA
6-7(9), 3-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Todd Paul, USA and Stephen Bass, USA
defeated
Roman Borvanov, MDA and Dennis Zivkovic, USA
6-4, 6-1


Marcus Fugate, USA and Andreas Siljestrom, SWE
defeated
Marcus Echtler, USA and Zachary Ganger, USA
7-5, 6-2


SINGLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA defeated by Madison Brengle, USA
2-6, 4-6

Jennifer Elie, USA defeated Maureen Diaz, USA
6-1, 6-1

Megan Moulton-Levy defeated S. Zahlavova, CZE
6-3, 6-1

Mashona Washington, USA defeated Kai-Chen Chang
6-1, 6-4


DOUBLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
defeated by
Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Laura Siegemund, GER
6-4, 3-6 [6-10]

Mashona Washington, USA and Kimberly Couts, USA
defeated by
Lindsay Lee-Waters, USA and Tetiana Luhanska
3-6, 6-3, [9-11]

I absolutely love this article by Claudia Johnson that appears on SI.com. It captures my total disdain for inept commentators and why the mute button on my remote is practically worn out.

Color me cranky, but tennis commentators who talk during points chap my ass (as we used to say where I grew up in Texas). It's like trying to watch your favorite film with the director's commentary running -- and you can't turn it off. Or sinking into a soothing massage and your masseuse won't shut up.

Mind you, I think tennis commentators are the best in the biz -- smart, funny, insightful. I agree with SI.com's Jon Wertheim that they're "a competent bunch with a nice mix of styles" and that "critiques about the commentators are fairly muted," but I have to second Tennis Magazine Editor-in-Chief James Martin's suggestion:

"Television needs to come up with a new mute button. Not one that blocks out the sounds of the game. Listening to the ball come off the strings, the sliding (or squeaking, depending on surface) of the shoes, the grunts of the players, and the 'shhhs' of a crowd before a big point -- this is the soundtrack to my life, my passion. No, this new mute button will keep all of those sounds but simply, mercifully, block out the commentators' blather."

Get out of my head.

I woke up Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. to watch history. I was thinking: How am I going to see the inauguration, I am all the way in Australia? But I knew that I wanted to see history. And I did. Wow! All the people there standing there to watch President-elect Barack Obama become president was simply breathtaking. All these people bringing their little kids to see something they won't remember, but yet having the ability to say they were there. I was not there, but I felt and saw every moment.

Being here in Australia for the Aussie Open is the only reason why I was not there. Tennis makes the athletes travel so much. We travel 11 months out of the year on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, but I get such a rush and such a joy out of traveling to six continents while doing something I love — playing tennis.

My first-round match here was one I will remember. I was told it was over 115 degrees on the court. It was so hot that I forced my breathing to become shallow, to not over-extend too much energy gasping for air. My throat was clogged with dryness. I was desperate for water before the allotted two-game break and remember telling myself, "Serena, after this point you get some water." Indeed I did get water only to restart in the dry, excruciating heat.

I looked over at my opponent (Yuan Meng of China) while on the changeover to see how she was handling it, and she seemed to have succumbed to the heat. She was bent over with her head between her knees trying to keep cool. Finally after an hour and 20 minutes it was over. I won, but you did not see the usual Serena Williams after-match celebration. Just the Serena "happy to have won" and even happier to run out of the heat. What was even more interesting is that not 20 minutes after my match was finished the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Can you believe it? I always say if it weren't for bad luck I would not have any luck at all! LOL. I like to believe that someone or something wants me to be ready for the long haul. Hmmm.