[GirlySports]

They began lining up at mid-morning on Thursday to watch 15-year-old amateur CiCi Bellis play her second-round U.S. Open match. She didn’t hit the court until 8 p.m.

Above all, the sudden, frantic fascination with the elfin teenager was a “Murika!” thing. This poor country hasn’t won a Grand Slam in almost a year, and it’s begun to erode their self-confidence. America has made itself a promise – no more wars until they get this tennis thing sorted out. Not even a little incursion. No, no, not even a couple of guys in a canoe.

What made it really special is Bellis’s precociousness. The average female pro is an unusually large, lissome specimen. Bellis is a tiny little slip of a thing. Yet, she was still able to compete because she’s mastered the basics.

She doesn’t do any one thing particularly well – her average first-service speed is 135 kilometres an hour (a functional knuckleball) – but she does everything just well enough. Like every other successful woman, her game is rounded, and will grow more so.

Try to imagine a male CiCi Bellis. It’s verging on impossible. Because the men’s game isn’t about skill. It’s about brute force.

Women’s tennis is chess – in and out, lengthy rallies, in-game tactics and plotting, all happening at speed.

The men are playing checkers – huge serve, try to rip the skin off the ball, depend more on your opponent’s weakness than your own strength. It’s ballet without the dancing, only throws.

This is why women’s tennis is so much more enjoyable to watch. It’s more than that. It’s better, full stop.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...service=mobile


One of the more hilarious, ignorant articles on tennis I've ever read. Some pretty broad, sweeping generalizations made out of nothing complete with some Gilles Simon bashing. I guess this is what happens when uninformed Canadians start to write about tennis