Great piece! And yeah, you pretty much killed it on Jeopardy other than that very last one. Also going for the $3000 in the first round Daily Double was pretty brazen, but you fought your way through it. Stay leeward.
As someone who also lost on J!, I feel the pain. I think what probably bothers her (and me) the most, was that event was “your shot” and as the event unfolded you could feel yourself getting closer, and then to have it fall short it so deflating because for most, there is never going to be that kind of opportunity again.
For all the joys of the one-point Slam (and your Jeopardy experience), the really bad part is that it’s so binary. Binary is the worst kind of loss. If the losing finalist took home a half-million dollars, or something more like what a runner-up usually gets, she would have been a bit disappointed but fine. Probably quite happy. The pain of getting close is always worse than the pain of not getting close. Guillermo Coria had two match points in the 2004 Roland Garros final. And both those MPs were long points that Coria could have won. But unlike when Sinner lost those three MPs to Alcaraz last year, Coria hadn’t won a Slam before and he never did afterward. You have to wonder how much that has messed with his head. Really dating myself here, but when I was a kid we played the best-of-nine tiebreaker in real, sanctioned junior matches — simultaneous match point at 4-4. Not going to make this about me, but those were brutal.
These stories about the way less glamorous side of tennis are so important and I'm so glad you're telling them (What the Vlog does a great job of showing that side of tennis as well). It is such an unforgiving sport and I hope so much that despite Garland's Wimbledon qualies loss today, she keeps her head up and perseveres through the completely brutal world that tennis puts players through -- she seems like an awesome person. This game-show One Point Slam format honestly just adds to how brutal it is; do we really need to put up-and-coming players through more torture at *just* barely missing out on a great thing than tennis already puts them through?
Loved this piece. Thank you for following up with her and hopefully helping her process her loss by sharing the story of your loss on Jeopardy. Do you ever sing the Weird Al song to yourself? 😉
Im Ok with events, but considering the fact the only a small amount of players can actually live of this sport, its pretty respectless to all the afford those athletes make without earning anything major.
Great piece! And yeah, you pretty much killed it on Jeopardy other than that very last one. Also going for the $3000 in the first round Daily Double was pretty brazen, but you fought your way through it. Stay leeward.
As someone who also lost on J!, I feel the pain. I think what probably bothers her (and me) the most, was that event was “your shot” and as the event unfolded you could feel yourself getting closer, and then to have it fall short it so deflating because for most, there is never going to be that kind of opportunity again.
For all the joys of the one-point Slam (and your Jeopardy experience), the really bad part is that it’s so binary. Binary is the worst kind of loss. If the losing finalist took home a half-million dollars, or something more like what a runner-up usually gets, she would have been a bit disappointed but fine. Probably quite happy. The pain of getting close is always worse than the pain of not getting close. Guillermo Coria had two match points in the 2004 Roland Garros final. And both those MPs were long points that Coria could have won. But unlike when Sinner lost those three MPs to Alcaraz last year, Coria hadn’t won a Slam before and he never did afterward. You have to wonder how much that has messed with his head. Really dating myself here, but when I was a kid we played the best-of-nine tiebreaker in real, sanctioned junior matches — simultaneous match point at 4-4. Not going to make this about me, but those were brutal.
These stories about the way less glamorous side of tennis are so important and I'm so glad you're telling them (What the Vlog does a great job of showing that side of tennis as well). It is such an unforgiving sport and I hope so much that despite Garland's Wimbledon qualies loss today, she keeps her head up and perseveres through the completely brutal world that tennis puts players through -- she seems like an awesome person. This game-show One Point Slam format honestly just adds to how brutal it is; do we really need to put up-and-coming players through more torture at *just* barely missing out on a great thing than tennis already puts them through?
Loved this piece. Thank you for following up with her and hopefully helping her process her loss by sharing the story of your loss on Jeopardy. Do you ever sing the Weird Al song to yourself? 😉
Not the point of this piece, of course, but it was nice seeing and hearing Alex Trebek again. I wasn't expecting that. (And sorry, Ben.)
Also, FWIW, I would have guessed Windward, and I question allowing “going off the handle” for “flying off the handle.”
Im Ok with events, but considering the fact the only a small amount of players can actually live of this sport, its pretty respectless to all the afford those athletes make without earning anything major.