By Blair Henley
Francesca Schiavone may have rained on Samantha Stosur’s French Open parade, but the 26-year-old Australian’s run of upsets at Roland Garros this year cemented her status as a new “it-girl” on the women’s tour.
The media took advantage of any opportunity to get to know Stosur in Paris, asking her countless questions about everything from her mindset to her signature sunglasses.
But there’s one more question I would love to know the answer to:
How does it feel to be told you play like a man?
ESPN analyst and former touring pro Mary Carillo made the analogy during Stosur’s match against Justine Henin. After a slow start Stosur proceeded to dominate the four-time French Open champion, kicking in serves that bounced above head-level and running the Belgian relentlessly from side to side with superhuman amounts of spin.
Aussie great Pat Cash was quick to give his opinion after Stosur upset top-seeded Serena Williams in the next round.
“She’s got the perfect game for clay: big, powerful,” he said. “She plays like a man. Big serve and brings a lot of pressure.
On one hand this is the ultimate compliment.
Stosur’s approach to the game is the opposite of dramatic. Her racket bag is like her briefcase. The court is her office, and she’s just there to get the job done. There is no shrieking. There are no obnoxious celebrations. She acts like she’s been there before, even when she hasn’t. She is the antithesis of the many attention-seeking players on the women’s tour.
Add that to the fact that she has an unusually high-bouncing, penetrating kick serve as well as punishing groundstrokes with topspin to spare and it seems like Carillo and Cash have made a fair assessment.
But it just so happens Stosur also looks like she could leg press the weight of my car and beat Mike Tyson in an arm-wrestling contest.
In short, it seems unlikely that such an analogy would have been used if she had a physique more closely resembling ultra-feminine stars Maria Sharapova or Ana Ivanovic.
Even Serena Williams, who has more power behind her shots than just about anyone on the women’s tour is, for the most part, spared that crass comparison. Why is that?
The trouble comes when fans, commentators and even fellow players have difficulty separating the game-style and the person.
Just ask Amelie Mauresmo.
Lindsay Davenport apologized for comments she made after losing to a muscular Mauresmo in the semifinals of the 1999 Australian Open. Davenport said she felt “like she was playing a guy.”
Martina Hingis went even further that same year calling the broad-shouldered Frenchwoman “half a man.” The comment was quickly retracted.
After Stosur steamrolled (man-handled?) Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals at Roland Garros last week, the willowy Serb made similar comments.
“To be honest, she kind of has almost a game like a man,” Jankovic said. “That’s what it feels like. When I look at how the men play, she has a very good kick, which not many women have. It’s very heavy, the spin. And then she runs around the forehand. She’s been very impressive.”
And that is the definition of a backhanded compliment.
Unlike Cash and Carillo’s observations, Jankovic’s words seemed more like an attempt to make excuses at her opponent’s expense for an embarrassingly bad loss.
Interestingly, Davenport and Hingis were blasted in the press for their words over ten years ago, but Jankovic got off scot-free. The two situations differ in only one way. Mauresmo had acknowledged her same-sex preferences to the media prior to the remarks being made.
Sam Stosur has always handled the media with grace. There’s no doubt she would brush off these comments if asked about them directly – heck, she may even be flattered by them. But people should use caution before throwing the gender card around at will.
After all, you’d think twice before telling a guy he plays like a girl, right?