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Sam Stosur. Photo by ME.

This is going to be short and sweet because it is not a planned piece of writing. This post is a visceral reaction to Dominika Cibulkova's post-match comment that Samantha Stosur "played like a man" yesterday in their French Open quarter-final match.  Chris Evert said today that her comment would have caused quite a controversy years ago (Hingis-Mauresmo, "half-a-man"), but today is very much a compliment.  

Wrong Chrissy. I understand that Cibulkova probably meant it as a compliment but why is telling a woman that she plays like a man a compliment and telling a man that he plays like a woman an insult? If Federer volleys like Navratilova shouldn't that be a compliment?  I've covered this in a previous post so I won't rehash it here but all I want to know is when will playing like Samantha Stosur be enough of a compliment?

Stosur's game revolves around high-kicking serves and heavy topspin forehands, so she was playing like herself.  If that is what Stosur is capable of, and she is a woman then THAT is what a woman plays like.  Saying that she plays like a man assumes that all men are better than all women, which is far from the truth.

* * * *Once when I was playing tennis there were two young boys playing on the court next to me.  At the beginning of their game they got together and one said to other "who do you want to be today?" His friend replied "Steffi Graf."  The other boy said "Okay, then I'll be Monica Seles."  Clearly these boys thought that playing like girls was good enough for them.

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