I fell in love with another woman yesterday- and I suspect that I had a lot of company. In fact, if my wife had watched the aftermath of yesterday’s French Open women’s singles final, she might have fallen in love with her too. Seriously.
I’m talking about an incredible yet all-but-unknown player from Italy named Fancesca Schiavone, who beat Australia’s Samantha Stosur to win the French Open. It was a big surprise to for the final to feature two players that were so obscure before this tournament. Stosur, seeded 7th, gained her place in the final by upsetting two of the best players in the tournament, Serena Williams and Justine Henin, while 17th-seeded Schiavone scored a couple of upsets of her own, including one over perhaps the craftiest (and most crooked) player in the women’s game, 5th seeded Elena Dementieva. But going into the final, most everyone was expecting Stosur to be the winner- not only because she was higher ranked and had beaten such strong players, but also became she had clobbered Schiavone in the first round of last year’s French Open.
But as it turned out, it was Schiavone who did the clobbering in yesterday’s final, beating Stosur in straight sets and setting the crowd on its ear with her spirited and brilliant play. But as much as I loved her in the match itself, she most emphatically won my heart from the moment the match had been won and the two players wrapped each other in a long, warm hug. (I can’t stand it when a hard- fought match ends with the two opponents barely even glancing at each other. That always leaves me me with such a sour feeling in my stomach, no matter how great the match was.) And she just beamed as she accepted the delirious applause and cheering of the crowd, which included quite a few Italians there to cheer on their countrywoman. And then she climbed up into the stands to share the moment with her family and friends, who swarmed her and nearly smothered her. It was such an endearing sight.
And then came the trophy ceremony, and Schiavone began her speech to the crowd by saying ( in somewhat broken but perfectly understandable English ) that she hadn’t prepared a speech became she figured that if she did prepare an acceptance speech, she would end up with nothing to accept. 🙂 But then she proceeded to do an absolutely beautiful job, congratulating her opponent (and telling you “you deserve to be here”), thanking her team (who were in the stands wearing matching t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Nothing is Impossible”) and expressing love to her mom and dad (who I believe were watching on television back home in Italy.) In fact, at one point, she cracked a joke, saying “hey, I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable here!” And it was true- for someone who hadn’t written a speech and was speaking in English, she was doing great. But my favorite moment came right after that, once her speech was done, the applause resumed, and she prepared to pose for photographers with that beautiful trophy in hand that had been presented to her a few minutes earlier by past champion Mary Pierce. Suddenly, Schiavone turned around and asked for the microphone again- and then turned to Mary Pierce and said “Sorry” and then thanked her for being there and for presenting her with such a beautiful trophy. “I am honored.” And Mary Pierce replied “I love you.” It was just such a tender exchange- and an amazing gesture from Schiavone. Quite often at such presentations, there is a past champion who participants, but the current champion often fails to acknowledge them at all or does so in only the most cursory sort of way. But Schiavone seemed genuinely thrilled that Pierce – a player she really admired – had presented the trophy to her . . . and she just had to thank her for being there. It was such a sweet moment…. and in a world poisoned by ill-mannered reality TV, nasty talk radio, and more than enough real life rancor, it is so nice when we get to observe some genuine sweetness.
pictured above: the moment right after newly-crowned champion Francesca Schiavone (l.) thanked past champion Mary Pierce (r.) for being there and for presenting her with such a beautiful trophy.