By Mark La Monica
Most first-round matchups in major tennis tournaments are overwhelmingly one-sided.
The Venus Williams-Kira Nagy match on the first night of this year's U.S. Open was a bit different, if only for the fact that it was more one-sided than a No. 1 vs. No. 16 game in March Madness.
This was Pros. vs Joes without the marketing and energy drinks. This was Ivan Drago vs. Apollo Creed without "Living in America."
This first-round match was about as fair as Jessica Biel being as hot as she is.
Nagy served in laser disc. Venus returned in DVD. Nagy played in 8-track. Venus played in iPod.
At one point, with Nagy trailing 0-5, the broadcast team led by John McEnroe, was basically rooting for her to win one game.
How Nagy managed to win three games in the 6-2, 6-1 drubbing is nearly unexplainable. There were unconfirmed reports that Venus was using her hands instead of a racket in two of those games and wasn't even on the court for the third game.
It's not so much that Nagy stinks. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. That's not for us to decide. But you couldn't help but feel bad Nagy, who was seeded 29th at last week's Open qualifying tournament.
You wanted to change the channel. Or put on the "Grease" DVD. Or listen to "Cool it Now" by New Edition. Anything you could think of to put you in a good mood. That's how painful this was.
In the first set, Nagy gave us a first serve of 78 mph. To her credit, that increased to triple digits in the second set. Not that it mattered.
Nagy won a total of 37 points in the match. Nineteen of them were unforced errors by Venus. Add in two double faults and one slip on the court and we're left with 15 points actually won by Nagy. Compare with Venus' 57 points won: 18 unforced errors and three double faults by Nagy, leaving Venus with 36 points actually won.
I felt so bad for Nagy, I had to look up her bio on usopen.org and share some information about her, if for no other reason than to clear my conscience. (Note: records and earnings don't include this U.S. Open.)
• She's 29.
• She's from Hungary.
• She tied her best U.S. Open finish! (1st round in 2000)
• She's currently ranked 137 in the world.
• She's been ranked as high as 122 in the world in her 13-year career.
• Her career record is 1-12.
• Year-to-date prize money for singles: $37,562
• Career prize money: $321,186
Do you even want to see the Venus comparison? OK, here goes:
• She's 27.
• She's from Compton, Calif.
• She's a two-time U.S. Open champion.
• She's currently ranked No. 14 in the world
• She's been ranked No. 1 in the world several times in her 13-year career.
• Her career record is 440-106.
• Year-to-date prize money for singles: $1,497,498
• Career prize money: $17,801,117
Comments (3)
Why do you always make me snort Diet Coke out of my nose, La Monica? I love it that "Cool it Now" is the first song you thought of to put you back in a good mood.
It's a gift, Beth. Glad I can continually be of service.
And Cool it Now is a tremendous song. However, I've always felt "Mr. Telephone Man" was the better video.
Is that Charles Nagy's daughter?
Ralph is the MVP of NE.