holy crap this is easily the best Tony Award speech of the entire night. hell yes to all of this
"This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty. To the queer and trans communities that always will exist, no matter what people in power try to take away from them. To the people of Palestine who deserve to live a free life – a full life – without occupation. ... If there's one thing we can learn from vampires, it's that life is short, but that's its gift. Find beauty in the ephemeral and gratitude in what is not promised."
—Ali Louis Bourzgui, winning Featured Actor in a Musical for The Lost Boys
Sorana Cirstea was 19 years old the last time she reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals.
She’s 36 today and she’s back in the quarterfinals.
It’s 2009 again. 🥹
🇷🇴❤️
Naomi Osaka says Nike plans all of her Grand Slam kits at least a year and a half in advance, ‘I don’t think people realize how much time and effort they put into every outfit… For me it would be almost weirder to wear a normal tennis kit at this point’
“If you’re going to the Met Gala, it doesn’t have to be a consideration whether the dress is comfortable or not. If you’re playing, obviously it needs to be something you’re comfortable playing with. How much time, how many fittings did you need to make sure you were actually comfortable playing in that dress?”
Naomi: “Honestly I really love that you asked this question because I have a lot of meetings with Nike. I don’t think people realize how much time and effort they put into every outfit. They plan it like a year and a half in advance. And that’s like minimum. We have so many fittings throughout the year because your weight can fluctuate and the fabric can change a little bit. There’s a lot of effort that goes into it. If you’re asking the exact amount of fittings, I wanna say at least four.”
“When you wear a dress like you’ve been wearing this week and all the earlier.. the last 2 or 3 years, are you able to switch off from that and focus on your tennis?”
Naomi: “I kind of consider it a part of me. So it’s not like I have to switch on or switch off when I’m playing tennis. It’s literally like my self expression. For me it would be weirder to wear a normal tennis kit almost at this point I think. I feel like it’s the fun of it. For a long time, I didn’t have fun for a little bit. You guys know that period of time in my life. So now I just want things to be fun and I want to make it exciting for myself.”
(via Roland Garros Press)
Osaka on coming back to R3 at #RolandGarros.
"It means a lot to be back in R3. I just feel so grateful. It's another milestone. I just want to keep going."
Interesting convo on the TNT Roland Garros desk about the players putting pressure on Slams for more prize money:
Wertheim: "Since Friday the French Federation has offered to sort of come with a counter proposal in the next month and also on the books are meetings with Wimbledon and the US Open. The goal is to get to this 22% in the next 5 years.."
Tim Henman:
"I'd like to sort if slightly set the scene from my point of view. I am on the board at Wimbledon, but these are my opinions. These aren't necessarily the opinions of Wimbledon.. The talk of a boycott is terrible for everyone. I think it's extremely unlikely that we're going to get to that stage. & in my opinion regarding Wimbledon, their door is always open..
& yes, we certainly hear the players right now.. & I think they will get paid more prize money.
I think it's also important to understand from Wimbledon's point of view the investment that is made in the facilities. When we look back since 2009, a roof on court 1, a roof on Centre Court, the Millennium Building, the projects across the road to buy the golf course for £65,000,000. I'm not sure we're comparing like with like if we look at a facility like Miami. Are they investing the same as we do in Grand Slams? So it's about finding the sweet spot where the players are getting paid what they feel it's worth, but then the likes of a Grand Slam that can take a long term view on the investment to provide the platform that is where a lot of these top stars are making a lot of the money..
Because I think it's interesting to hear Sabalenka talk about how they're doing it for the players further down the food chain. And then if you break down the prize money, players ranked 101-200, probably 70% of their prize money is coming from full tournaments.."
Sam Querrey:
"I don't think the players care whether you're a non profit or you're for profit honestly. And 2 things, and Tim hinted at it. This argument is not just with the French Open or the Majors, it's with the ATP tour as well. It's with Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome. They're trying to increase that prize money and revenue share throughout all of the tournaments.
When you guys talk about the improvements in facilities. I think if you went to the players here and the French Federation said 'We have an extra 50 million. We can either build a new stadium or we can put that into prize money, what do you guys want?' Well give me the prize money, we don't need a new stadium, we don't care about the facilities to an extent. So that's kind of my view on it right now."
Wozniacki:
"Obviously the players feel like they weren't heard and things weren't moving quick enough so that's that's they're making such a public stance. Do I think 15 minute interviews instead of 18 minutes is really gonna make a difference? I don't. I think if it wasn't because the tournaments already wanted to hear out the players. Really nothing would change at this point unless there was a boycott but it's so good to hear that tournaments are taking this into consideration. And we're gonna see changes, there's there's no doubt about it. Every year from when I turned pro in 2005 to now, there's a huge difference.."
John Isner:
"I think one of the beefs is that these tournaments, especially at the Grand Slam level, these assets are always appreciating. And I can speak on the ATP level, no tournament has ever been sold at a loss.. And what is the player's number one asset? It's their body. Every single time they go on court, their assets are depreciating. I think that's a very important distinction to make there. So yes, as you did say Tim, as a player you have a limited time, a short window, to try and make as much money as you possibly can. I think this symbolic protest 15 minute media boycott if you want to call it that. I think it has started to turn some wheels and things are moving in the right direction. And it's awesome to hear that the tournaments are listening to the players."
Let me put it to you this way, if Kamala were president and all she did was sit in the Oval Office, drink wine and watch reruns of The View, our country would be ten times better off than it is right now.
Naomi Osaka on why she chose to host a party for the black tennis players:
“You know I'm seeing a little bit of-
‘Why can't you love everyone for all skin tones?’ and ‘what if someone had an all white party?! First of all I do love everyone for who they are no matter their race + ethnicity, (I'm literally half Japanese lol). I can only speak from my experiences in my own life though, growing up as a tennis player I didn't see many people that looked like ME and I feel like it's important to celebrate them.
Secondly I feel like it's important to note that there have been all white dinners/parties. I don't know how else to tell you this, I literally seen them all the time and never had an issue with it at all. To the people who ask this question I want to ask you this question too, ‘What is it about POC getting together that unsettles you so much?’
I want to end this by saying I grew up watching my dad get discriminated against, having the cops called on him multiple times at the tennis court. There are multiple things I will apologize for in my life but celebrating being black and appreciating who we are will never be something I would consider saying sorry for. Thanks.
Actually I lied, I am sorry. I'm sorry for the people who cannot comprehend in their brains that this is not about exclusion, this is a celebration about how far we have come 🖤”
(via Naomi on Threads)