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We might as well stop moaning, and even celebrate the women who have stuck two fingers up to the health and fitness gurus and demonstrated that it is possible to be fat and successful. There have been many notables over the years, especially in the last few. These are role models to those who are carrying a few pounds that even if you're not prepared to put in the training, and eat healthily, you can still be successful in sport. Or, at least in women's tennis you can.
Lindsay Davenport was once likened to an articulated truck in c1995, and yet she was ranked number six in the world on the strength of the flawlessness of her groundstroke technique and the leverage lent by her height.
Monica Seles was prepared to sacrifice the rest of her career to food and lack of training after she returned to the court in 1995. And yet Seles, in spite of being unable to reach her former heights, was able to defeat both the Williams sisters, Hingis, Graf, Davenport, Novotna, Pierce, Sabatini, Henin, Clijsters and Capriati all at least once after her comeback.
Conchita Martinez, she with the ease of stroke production and tremendous guile, was number two in the world in 1996 when she had clearly not been training hard. I often have the impression with a lot of these players that when they aren't under pressure from those pushing up the rankings, they are more at ease eating cream cakes. Conchita by 1996 had accepted that she'd never best Graf, so she was happy to relax in the top three. It didn't last long, but she was still able to play quite well.
Fat and successful doesn't come as a more famous combination than Serena Williams, which is a testament to her ability. She has been several levels below her physical best of 1999-2004, and has been overweight for up to four years now. We've given up on her ever losing weight. Some say she's carrying a bit too much, some say a lot more. And yet she strolls to victory, testament to her devastating power, self-belief and, probably most key, her physical strength to pull herself around the court. It's a similar situation with Svetlana Kuznetsova, who often starts the season looking trim, but by Miami is looking fat again. And yet despite her underachievement, the Russian is an established member of the top ten now and probably will be for another five years due to her physical strength to maintain her balance under the weight of her body, and natural athleticism.
Some of these women are fat relative to their body types, perhaps, and though clearly not in optimum shape, they are not corpulent quite to the level that we suspect. But Marion Bartoli was once a lithe 17 year-old, similar to Alize Cornet in size. However, by any standards at Wimbledon 2007 Bartoli looked like she needed to go on a diet compared with any girl in the street. However, once again, she showed what big women can do in trouncing Henin (who had exhausted herself against a heavy-laden Serena) and playing respectably against the gazelle-like Venus.
We could go on. Ana Ivanovic was able to win tier 1 tournaments clearly several sizes larger than now. Nadia Petrova has been number three in the world with spare tyres. Magui Serna, who was a top 25 player, was a HUGE girl. I was once sitting watching a match at Birmingham and somebody whispered that top 30 Lisa Raymond's thighs were fatter than hers. I must admit I did look to decide for myself, and the woman was quite correct! Dinara Safina was top ten in 2006 clearly a stone heavier than she is now. Let's not mention Jennifer, bless her, because her woeful conditioning from all that partying
would detract from the joy that she was to watch and those awesome groundstrokes.
So maybe she would just celebrate women's tennis for what it is, and what it has increasingly become? In no other sport would wobbly flesh be as gainful.
Lindsay Davenport was once likened to an articulated truck in c1995, and yet she was ranked number six in the world on the strength of the flawlessness of her groundstroke technique and the leverage lent by her height.
Monica Seles was prepared to sacrifice the rest of her career to food and lack of training after she returned to the court in 1995. And yet Seles, in spite of being unable to reach her former heights, was able to defeat both the Williams sisters, Hingis, Graf, Davenport, Novotna, Pierce, Sabatini, Henin, Clijsters and Capriati all at least once after her comeback.
Conchita Martinez, she with the ease of stroke production and tremendous guile, was number two in the world in 1996 when she had clearly not been training hard. I often have the impression with a lot of these players that when they aren't under pressure from those pushing up the rankings, they are more at ease eating cream cakes. Conchita by 1996 had accepted that she'd never best Graf, so she was happy to relax in the top three. It didn't last long, but she was still able to play quite well.
Fat and successful doesn't come as a more famous combination than Serena Williams, which is a testament to her ability. She has been several levels below her physical best of 1999-2004, and has been overweight for up to four years now. We've given up on her ever losing weight. Some say she's carrying a bit too much, some say a lot more. And yet she strolls to victory, testament to her devastating power, self-belief and, probably most key, her physical strength to pull herself around the court. It's a similar situation with Svetlana Kuznetsova, who often starts the season looking trim, but by Miami is looking fat again. And yet despite her underachievement, the Russian is an established member of the top ten now and probably will be for another five years due to her physical strength to maintain her balance under the weight of her body, and natural athleticism.
Some of these women are fat relative to their body types, perhaps, and though clearly not in optimum shape, they are not corpulent quite to the level that we suspect. But Marion Bartoli was once a lithe 17 year-old, similar to Alize Cornet in size. However, by any standards at Wimbledon 2007 Bartoli looked like she needed to go on a diet compared with any girl in the street. However, once again, she showed what big women can do in trouncing Henin (who had exhausted herself against a heavy-laden Serena) and playing respectably against the gazelle-like Venus.
We could go on. Ana Ivanovic was able to win tier 1 tournaments clearly several sizes larger than now. Nadia Petrova has been number three in the world with spare tyres. Magui Serna, who was a top 25 player, was a HUGE girl. I was once sitting watching a match at Birmingham and somebody whispered that top 30 Lisa Raymond's thighs were fatter than hers. I must admit I did look to decide for myself, and the woman was quite correct! Dinara Safina was top ten in 2006 clearly a stone heavier than she is now. Let's not mention Jennifer, bless her, because her woeful conditioning from all that partying
would detract from the joy that she was to watch and those awesome groundstrokes. So maybe she would just celebrate women's tennis for what it is, and what it has increasingly become? In no other sport would wobbly flesh be as gainful.
