The various reactions to the biggest sports story of the week – Naomi Osaka’s boycott of post-match press conferences at the French Open and subsequent withdrawal from the tournament – have been instructive.
Most believed it was a shame to have lost the superstar from Roland Garros, many thought it should never have gone so far. More than a few used it as an opportunity to shoot down the tennis media.
After her first-round match this week, Venus Williams delivered a serve bigger than any we’ve seen from her on the court for years when she was asked about the Osaka controversy and how she herself deals with press conferences.
“For me personally how I deal with it was that I know every single person asking me a question can’t play as well as I can and never will,” she told every single person asking a question in the room.
“So no matter what you say or what you write, you’ll never light a candle to me. That’s how I deal with it. But each person deals with it differently.”
An interesting perspective. Woodward and Bernstein, back in your box fellas. You never even attempted to become President of the United States, so how could you ever question one?
We weren’t in the room – and certainly can’t light a candle to Venus (we may, however, be the best tennis player in our family) – but if Belgian tennis journalist Filip Dewulf was there, he may have shifted in his seat a little.
In 1997 Dewulf wasn’t yet a member of the press pack – he was a professional tennis player who reached the semi-finals of the French Open, only to be knocked out by the 1990s’ King of Clay Gustavo Kuerten. It was a herculean effort, seeing as he had to qualify to get into the tournament – one of only three players in history to go so far at Roland Garros after surviving the qualifying matches. He made the quarter-finals a year later and was ranked No.39 in the world at one point. In other words, he would’ve played Venus off the court without raising a sweat. (We also think The Weekend Australian’s tennis experts Courtney Walsh and Will Swanton, both more than handy with a racquet, would make Venus sweat, but that would be two against one).
We can’t criticise Venus too much. No matter how salty she was, she did front up to the press conference after a defeat. The 40-year-old was the oldest woman playing at Roland Garros this year but was knocked out in the first round for the fourth year running. (Courtney and Will are getting their gear together as we speak, sensing an easy mark).
Osaka’s stocks rise
Rather than damage her image, Osaka’s decision to withdraw from the French Open may have enhanced it. Forbes magazine is reporting that the decision to reveal her battle with depression makes her all the more inspiring.
“I don’t think there’s a downside for her – I don’t think there will be any kind of brand damage,” marketing consultant Joe Favorito told Forbes.
“Where she comes out of this personally as opposed to professionally will hopefully be a good story that sponsors will want to be a part of.”
Osaka is the highest paid female athlete in history, making $77.5 million in the past 12 months.
Blazers of glory
Some companies like to think they are part of the fabric of a sporting team, others take it a little more literally.
It’s reasonably well-known in cricket circles that suit maker MJ Bale fits out the Australian men’s team. But our correspondent at this week’s Global Food Forum, organised by our well-paid colleagues over at The Weekend Australian’s Business desk, report that the relationship goes way deeper.
No only are the suits made from pure Australia merino wool, but the grass those sheep eat comes from the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Jonathan Lobban, head of branding from MJ Bale, told the conference the backstory.
“We’d only just started – this is probably 2011 now – and we got the contract to the Australian Test cricket team,” he said.
“We decided to make some very special suits for them and we talked to the curator of the SCG. We worked out that the SCG was a special place for Australia and had its highest percentage of victories.
“And so we took (some turf) from the SCG and we took it up to our wool guy, our partner in New England, Bill Mitchell. And we planted in a corner of the paddock and then he propagated it over about 12 to 18 months until it became an enormous paddock.
“We let the sheep graze on the turf and then we got (their wool) woven into suits for the cricket team. I’m pretty sure they won well too.”
Brilliant, except for one little detail. Australia’s best Test winning percentage is actually at Bellerive Oval in Hobart at 69.23 per cent compared with the SCG’s 55.05 per cent. We’ve only played 13 Tests in the Tasmanian capital so you’d probably say Australia’s most successful home venue is the Gabba at 63.49 per cent over 63 Tests.
Nevertheless, it’s the sentiment that counts. And a lovely story of Australian success.
Aussie-produced wool and our national cricket teams are often tightly bound together. The famous baggy green cap is the most famous example. As part of 2018’s Flock to Baggy Green project, The Woolmark Company gathered 500kg of wool from more than 400 growers to ensure the baggy green remains Australian made.
That’s enough wool to cap the next 100 years of Australian Test cricketers.
Stat of the week
Not so much a stat but a freakish occurrence as pointed out by the ABC’s Roger Oldridge on Friday.
“Not quite a decade ago, racing fans were desperate to see a race featuring Black Caviar and Frankel that was never going to happen,” Oldridge tweeted.
“(On Saturday) daughters of both – Invincible Caviar and Argentia – will run against each other down the Flemington straight in race 4.”
Invincible Caviar is $5.50 on the TAB at second favourite, with Argentia at $9.50.
BC’s tip of the week
Our man Brendan Cormick is as cold as a Cobungra toilet seat, not just because it is bitter in his home state of Victoria but because his luck is anything but hot.
BC figures he has to stick with the strength if he is going to turn things around. The unstoppable Jamie Kah gets back aboard Way To Go Paula at Flemington (Race 6, No.8), having won on the filly three runs back.
“Suited down in weight and back in distance,” he says.
As a back-up bet, AWAAT’s good friends at theraceguide.com.au are bullish about Pandano (Race 8, No.6) at Rosehill on Saturday.
mcloughlins@
theaustralian.com.au
Twitter: @simmomac
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