Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Editorial-credit-Leonard-Zhukovsky-Shutterstock.com-photo-credit-
August 30, 2021,
Some people make things happen and others, like ourselves, when it comes to certain industries wonder “what really happened’’?
Did something go wrong?
During the pandemic some of our most beloved and traditional companies are financially struggling. JC Penney, Gold’s Gym, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Hertz and 24 Hour Fitness to name a few.
Profits sliding downward.
Another significant entry should be added to the list.
Apex Parks. They struggled too. They own water parks. With water slides.
Compared to a dry slide, when you go down a water slide, you can go really fast.
It’s time for the 2021 United States Tennis Open. A time for celebration. A time to make your move. A time to showcase on the world’s largest tennis stage.
Unless you are sliding.
Downward.
Hopefully on a dry slide where sometimes you get stuck. And stop sliding.
Eugenie Bouchard is on the Tennis Channel. Broadcasting.
She used to be seen on the Tennis Channel, playing. A lot. In big matches.
Before the slide. Not a dry slide. Not a curvy slide. A straight downhill slide filled with water.
Sloane-Stephens-Eugenie-Bouchard
Femcompetitor Magazine wrote about that slide.
2019 AO, Vs Serena, What Was Eugenie Bouchard Thinking
At tennis.com Eugenie expressed “I think just learning the behind-the-scenes of what goes in for production for a show like this and the fact that I feel like I’ve improved since my first day and it’s just satisfying trying to improve my skills in this world.”
Sounds nice. With one big problem.
Many fans wished that she had worked harder on improving her skills in another world. The women’s professional tennis tour. Not the Socialite and Party Circuit where she was highly ranked and photographed.
Femcompetitor Magazine wrote, “Yes you heard that right. In 2014 she was number 5 in the world. Now she is number what? Remember?”
No we don’t remember.
We won’t go by memory, so today we’ll look it up. As of August 9, 2021, she is ranked number 133.
That is a slide. Down a water slide.
We write about Eugenie a lot because we miss her. Not behind a microphone. On the tennis courts.
At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament in singles, finishing runner-up to Petra Kvitová.
Eugenie also reached the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open and 2014 French Open.
Having won the 2012 Wimbledon girls’ title, she was named WTA Newcomer of the Year at the end of the 2013 WTA Tour.
Very impressive. Past tense.
We’re glad that Madison Keys is still competing hard on the tennis courts. Present tense.
Sloane Stephens too.
Madison Keys achieved a career-high ranking of No. 7 in the world in October 2016 and has been consistently ranked inside the top 25 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) since early 2015.
Madison has played in one Grand Slam tournament final at the 2017 US Open, competed at the 2016 WTA Finals, and was a semifinalist at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She has won five WTA tournaments, all at the Premier level. Her biggest title came at the 2019 Cincinnati Open, a Premier 5 event.
Very impressive. Present tense.
Sloane Stephens achieved a career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world after Wimbledon in 2018. Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion, and has won six WTA singles titles in total.
Ah yes, the 2017 US Open Finals. What a memory. There we will go by memory because we remember it so well. Especially the warm hug felt around the world after Sloane defeated Madison.
In the finals. On the world’s greatest stage.
It was beautiful and sincere.
So did we read this year’s US Open schedule correctly? Madison is going to face Sloane in the first round? Some people make it happen, we’re now wondering what the heck just happened.
Why are these two former finalists meeting in the first round of the mighty US Open?
It’s about the slide.
As of this writing, Madison is number 41 on the WTA rankings list. Sloane is 64.
That is quite a slide.
Now if they hug at the conclusion of the match where one will exit, it might be similar to the embrace after an intense group therapy session where professional female tennis players sit and discuss why their once high ranking careers are declining. Sliding.
Hopefully temporarily.
Where some players at the meeting are trying to stop their tennis lives from sliding accented with water.
As reported on August 10, 2021 by montrealgazette.com, “Montreal tennis fans were able to celebrate a big victory on Monday, but it didn’t come from the player they expected to deliver.
Rebecca Marino, a 30-year-old Vancouver native who is ranked 220th, upset 16th-seeded Madison Keys of the U.S. 6-3, 6-3 in first-round action at the National Back Canadian Open women’s championships at the Jarry Tennis Centre.”
Madison was just defeated, not in a three set knock down drag out affair, but a two set sweep.
By the number 220th player in the world. Yes, over 200.
In the finals? No.
In the first round.
The slide continues.
Not like The Electric Slide which is a four wall line dance set to music.
There, people are standing up. Here, careers are sliding down.
Are the stakes high? We sense they are. One of these two great players will be gone pronto. By Tuesday morning. The Open starts on Monday, August 30, 2021.
In head to head play. Sloane leads 4-2 and right now she seems to be playing a little better than her former finalist BFF.
On August 4, 2021 at tennis.com they share, “The Sloane Stephens tennis game took a while to arrive this evening. But once it did, she played an airtight brand of tennis, eventually smothering Caty McNally to earn a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the first round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.”
The brilliance for both women is still there. The consistency doesn’t seem to be.
What about the drive to be ranked in the top 10 once again? What about the drive to win another Grand Slam? Is that there?
That is a massive question.
They are both wealthy. Very wealthy. We looked it up.
To some degree we’ll find out if the fire and will power to get back to the finals of a major is there.
Not in the round of 16 or semi-finals where we could expect these two titans to meet after a week of sensational victories over young rising stars who lack both their talent and experience.
This time we’ll see if that passion to excel is there early. Very early.
In the first round.
Here, not only will losing be significant, even more so will be how the player loses.
It may speak to something foreboding.
A slide.
Hopefully not one containing water.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Editorial-credit-Leonard-Zhukovsky-Shutterstock.com-photo-credit-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Keys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloane_Stephens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Bouchard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Slide
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
