This was a good follow up to Game. Set. Match. With the French Open now behind them, Penny, Indy, and Jasmine look to make the quick turn around of Wimbledon. Probably the most underrated difficult thing to do in any sport, go from the super slow clay courts of Roland Garros to the lightning fast grass courts of Wimbledon. True, over the years, The All England Club has slowed down their courts in an attempt to encourage more rallies but it’s still unbelievable achievement to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back. Borg did it multiple times, Nadal has done it twice and Federer only once. Ok, so you get the point.
All three girls are in very different places. Indy had a successful French Open, in more ways than one. She won the juniors and got Jack. Penny beat the World number 1 again but sprained her ankle in the process. And poor Jasmine, crashed out the first round of the juniors and now is being pushed to play college instead of going pro. All of their careers are going in different directions and the stakes are getting higher. How does one balance friendships when your playing for thousands of dollars in the most prestigious tournament in the world?
Now, there are a few things I do have a problem with from a tennis fan perspective. Indy and Jasmine have to qualify to make the women’s doubles field but when Indy is given a wildcard, she pulls out. The reasoning is her coach and agent think that she can’t play qualifying and focus on her singles. For someone who has followed tennis as long as I have I feel this in inaccurate, for lack of a better word. Young players are often encouraged to play doubles when they are younger. It gives them more match play, a chance to get real life experience of playing in tournaments. It gives young players a chance to compete and learn how to compete on a more consistent basis while their singles game improves. Winning is winning. However, I understand from a drama point of view, why Miss Iacopelli would decide to go this way and really, I’m being nit picky here.
I do like the friendships. I like that they are messy. I like that for the most part, when they do fight, it’s not about boys but about their games. They all may have dramatic love lives but for all three of them their tennis comes first. I think it’s important to show that girls can be ambitious, that they can have drive but also have the love and respect of a man. I hope that there are more of these because now that Wimbledon is over I can’t wait to see what happens at the US Open.