From Washington to Montreal, Toronto, and Cincinnati: Tennis in an Age of Chaos

Alexandra Eala and Taylor Fritz, the stars of the Washington Open, went down quickly in Montreal and Toronto, where they play the tournament variously called the Canada Open and the Rogers Cup.

You get confused with these name changes, which I suppose is a sign of the loss of attachment to ancient mores and traditions, itself a sign of the spreading chaos that the nihilists foment to bring us down, us being the normals.

And then of course you lose sight of the stars of the show, which tends to blur your appreciation of these contests and does no favors to the young athletes who have worked hard and long to qualify for a chance to compete at the highest levels of their sport. But not to exaggerate, tennis is an individual sport and you would not confuse Miss Eala with Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian star whom she beat in the quarters, or Naomi Osaka whom she beat in the semis. Nor would you confuse Taylor Fritz’s game with his semi final opponent Brandon Nakashima’s, though they are both Californians, nor with finalist Rafa Jodar’s.

Whereas the women will see an unreachable shot and let it go, the men tend to try for it anyway — often with dramatic success.

Things were underway in Canada before some of the interested parties had caught their breaths in Washington, with the finalists having to hurry up and catch a flight without taking time to visit the White House or some of the legendary locations of their sport, such as Rose Park, which is in Georgetown midway between a Christian church, Jerusalem Baptist, and an Orthodox shul, Kesher Israel.

And scarcely have you sorted out who’s winning in Canada than they are on the road or in the air again, this time headed for Cincinnati as have been tennis champs since 1899.

The North American summer hardcourt swing is rationalized as good preparation for the biggest show of all, the U.S. Open, which begins in New York at the end of August, but players withdraw or choose not to enter, and there cannot be much doubt that they are calculating that as between the advantages of tuning up and the risks of injury from overwork, the latter sometimes carries more weight. Tennis, as an establishment, has been urged for years to rethink its scheduling and the ranking system that comes with it and encourages — forces may be the better term, but are we not a free country? — participation in too many tournaments.

More sensible approaches are suggested by the local and amateur tournaments that are quietly organized by neighborhood and civic minded associations like Friends of Rose Park, whose Spring Doubles event was a credit to the American Way of Life and also an occasion for some really fine players to compete in front of friends whom they often meet at the park.

Obviously we are talking about different worlds, but I think the big racquets from USTA or the AELTA or the FFT would profit from dropping in from time to time, just as, no comparison intended, the rascals a few blocks away in the federal buildings would do well to stop in on small towns in Texas or Maine and listen in on town councils discussing matters of public interest in calm voices and with neighborly courtesy.

Too many of us Americans are allowing the wrong people to steal our attention, always the first step in power grabs. They invent disputes and controversies to make it appear there is a critical political fight, when in fact the supposed adversaries, each warning of the perils to which the other would lead us, are spreading confusion as they pursue their selfish lusts.

In these times of chaos even the usual brief summer respite is lost.

It came out — someone talked — that the president of the U.S. had been flown out of a foreign country in a military transport instead of the official aircraft, due to intelligence the bad guys were plotting to attack it in the air, with intent to kill. This is quite possible, though still unproven. It is not clear why we would want it proven, since we should not want to compromise intelligence sources.

In 1943, the top admiral of the Japanese imperial navy was shot down over the Solomon Islands by U.S. Army Air Force interceptors acting on intelligence from code-breakers, dealing an irreparable blow to the enemy. You may be sure nothing was divulged about how they knew the details of the admiral’s flight.

Obviously it was right to ensure the president’s safety. One has some misgivings about letting everybody else in the party — mainly the press corps that was following his trip, the crew — get on the officially designated plane without a hint as to what was happening and letting them take off, in effect as a decoy to fool the enemy; but maybe they already had plans for evasive action, or for a quick landing under some pretext or other, while the other craft made its getaway.

War is war, commanders in chief are commanders in chief, our side has taken theirs out. We’ve even taken out some alleged enemies on suspicion they were drug runners on the high seas, which frankly is dicey from the moral and rules of combat points of view. The point, however, is that this is a “remember the Maine!” moment; should not the response be a straight-up cry, “take the gloves off and be done with it!” — and it would be a good time to test our new Arab friends’ mettle by offering them to take the lead on the ground.

The other controversy had to do with primary elections and involves the takeover of the Democratic party by anti-Semitic anti-American communistic pinkos, and while I cannot go into details here because a) I have no idea who won or lost where or when and b) you can look it up, it does seem there is something wrong with these people even being on the ballots. It is not clear why any of them are in Congress, as reportedly some are, or in state offices. There must be procedures for removing anti-Americans from places where they subvert our Republic; for that matter there must be procedures for removing them from our territory.

Miss Eala had a great tournament in Washington, beating everybody including at the end, Buffalo’s own Jessica Pegula. The night-session final was interrupted due to a typical Washington summer storm with Miss Eala ahead by one set. When play resumed the following day, “Alex”, as Miss Pegula is called by her fans — including the big parties of Filipino tennis enthusiasts who appear at all her matches — was in full offensive mode and made a brilliant comeback, repeatedly flummoxing the former champion to win in three sets.

I did not know there were so many Filipinos in D.C., but the federal district is markedly international, which cannot be unrelated to its peculiar attitude toward the states, but that is another matter. She was on her game and Miss Pegula was off hers. Some remarked that Miss Eala, all credit to her, is also a credit to Spanish tennis: she has trained since her teens at the Rafael Nadal Academy and makes fine use of the aggressive style the Spaniards favor, based on strong and deep groundstrokes from the back of the court to create opportunities to pull the opponent way to one corner and then get one past him (or her) by hitting to the other side. (A Eala d J Pegula, 4-6. 6-4. 6-).

This is not as easy as it sounds. The men do it too but it is more difficult for them, due to their builds allowing them to run faster and longer. This was demonstrated in the contrast between the women’s and men’s final. Whereas the women will see an unreachable shot and let it go, the men tend to try for it anyway — often with dramatic success, making for thrilling points. Taylor Fritz managed this just too well for Spanish teen sensation Rafael Jodar; staying cool under pressure, he won his first Washington trophy. (T Fritz d R Jodar, 7-6 (2), 6-4).

In Canada, both winners went down early, Fritz in the very first round and Miss Eala in the round of 16 to Swiss star Belinda Bencic (6-4, 6-0), who then had to withdraw due to injury. In Canada they play in Montreal and Toronto, the two genders trading cities year by year. As a former teacher I have observed that in certain social environments keeping boys and girls apart can be beneficial. Maybe the Washington Open should take the hint, play in Washington and Baltimore, or Richmond, or even Dover, Delaware, which is a charming town not farther away than Richmond in the other direction.

Also it would give fans an excuse to get out of the federal district for a day.

It could be tried. In Canada there is a terrific bicoastal match up in the men’s final, California’s Brandon Nakashima vs Georgia’s Ben Shelton. Nakashima, who played for powerhouse Virginia and put up a strong fight against Fritz in Washington, deserves it, you feel: but deserving is never enough in love and war and sports, and Shelton, who played for powerhouse Florida, is a top American hope for the New York City tournament that is just around the corner after Cincinnati. And then on the women’s, it will be Iga Swiatek against Elena Rybakina, two of the best of the current class and both multi-major (slam) winners and thus also contenders for the New York Tennis World Cup — just kidding, there is enough name confusion already, and the U.S. Open is the last major of the year.

And a last chance for a calm before summer’s end.

READ MORE from Roger Kaplan:

Lucky Losers and Unbreakable Grit at the Mubadala DC Open

Win or Lose, Everybody Can Play

Glory Days at the All-England Club