The New Tennisphile:

• My neighborhood tennis team: the Forty Love Point Swingers (3.0 women's team, night), have added me to their team as an alternate player. My first match was last night, 10/26/09, at Crooked Creek Park. Number two singles.
• I played against a speech therapist named "Andrea," and we had both just returned from weekend vacations: she went to the mountains; I went to the beach. We were in no shape to compete.
• This morning I can hardly stand up. We played 3 sets, a total of 28 games. I won, barely: 6-4, 2-8, 6-4. Whew. These Lexington County tennis players mean business.
• The best part is that our team won the match! Go, Swingers!

At last we see an Italian woman, Flavia Pennetta, 27, a native of Brindesi, playing well. She won the championship in Carson City, California on 8/09/2009 after defeating Maria Sharapova in the semifinal and Samantha Stosur in the final (6-4, 6-3). The American press tried to ignore Pennetta, giving more space in the newspapers to Andy Roddick who lost the Legg Mason Classic the same day to Juan Martin Del Potro (called "del Porto" by the chair umpire).

Pennetta comported herself well, even in the face of condescending questions by Pam Shriver at the close of the match. Fifteen percent of Americans are of Italian descent. Why do we treat Italian women so poorly in this country?

In Italy, they did give Pennetta some front-page press in the newspapers Gazzetto dello Sport, and Corriere della Sera, but it is always difficult to see tennis on TV in that country. Is this because Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns many of the channels also owns a soccer team? The Italians are obsessed with soccer. Pennetta has a Spanish coach, Gabriel Urpi, which is great for her because the Spanish are more dedicated to tennis these days than the Italians.

Wimbledon 2009

I was rooting for Andy Roddick in the men's final. He should have won. My husband says competition is important, but I tend to agree with John McEnroe. Roger Federer (the ballerina player) should have thrown Andy a bone. Roger should have let Andy win without telling anyone. Roger already had 5 Wimbledon titles. His 2008 income was $35 million. Did he need the extra cash?

At 14-14 in the final set, Federer should have double faulted a few times and then shut up about it.

STAR TREK FANTASY

                              by Laura P. Valtorta

                              After 25 years of glucose checks,

                               Josephine longs for

                                the stoicism of Spock,

                                the humor of Captain Kirk,

                               the painless blood tests of Bones