Sportswomen have never quite shaken off the notion of being a sideshow. And events such as next week's 'Trilogy' at the RDS don't help, writes Eileen Battersby
Trilogy - it used to mean three volumes of one story, or as we've seen more recently, of a play. It could also be the name of a movie, an album or a type of floor tile, fancy lingerie or how about a new saloon car? In our Brave New World of Marketing, concept is all.
Anyhow, for most of next week at least, Trilogy refers to what is described as "a fashion, music and tennis" extravaganza in the RDS. It includes a women's Europe vs US exhibition tennis event.
The world's top three players, sisters Venus and Serena Williams, and Jennifer Capriati, will be joined on the US team by Monica Seles (currently ranked world number seven) and former Wimbledon champion, Lindsay Davenport (now 12th in the world). The Europeans are Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Jena Dokic of Yugoslavia (who are currently world numbers eight and nine respectively), with Iva Majoli from Croatia (the world number 32), the Russian Anna Kournikova (ranked 35), and the Austrian Barbara Schett (who stands at number 40).
A glance at the rankings suggests that the European spread of talent might be overpowered by the four Americans and Seles, who now plays for the US. Even so, women's tennis is usually entertaining, or was, before the heavy hitters that deadened the men's game, emerged.
Most tennis fans would concede that the Williams sisters' power play can overwhelm spectators, never mind their hapless opponents. But they are spectacular players.
It is interesting to note that the sisters, Capriati and Seles are confining themselves to tennis. The other six players - all the Europeans plus Davenport - will be participating in an optional extra for tennis fans. They will share the stage, or more specifically, the catwalk, with fashion models.
Before I hear outraged cries of "it's only a bit of fun", I have to ask: why can't top women players simply play their sport? Why turn it into a circus? After all, when the men's senior tour featuring McEnroe, Borg and co., arrived in Dublin, the sportsmen simply played tennis.
Of the six women tennis players prepared to appear with professional models, only Anna Kournikova will be in what is now her natural environment. She models regularly, and, as journalists and players alike repeatedly tell us, she makes more money from endorsements, sponsorship and appearance fees than from winnings. She began playing tennis at five, was declared a prodigy at nine, moved to the US at 11 and became a professional at 15.
A former junior world number one, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 1997 and a holder of one Grand Slam Doubles title, when she partnered Martina Hingis in the 1999 Australian Open final, Kournikova was 10th in the world in 1998. The same year, she defeated Steffi Graf at Eastbourne.
But her tennis seems to mean far less to the public than her glamour. Not since the Argentinian Gabriela Sabatini moved the laconic satirist Martin Amis to purple prose, has a female tennis player or indeed, sportswoman, inspired so much gush from so many men, and so much inverted sexism and/or beach envy from tennis purists, other players, journalists and some women - OK, lots of us. Who wouldn't envy someone who looks like her, and is also good enough at tennis to compete on the world circuit?
But now, at 21, Kournikova has become a favourite subject for tabloid features about her private life, while the sports journalists debate her mental state, her lack of heavy shots, her absence of a killer instinct and apparent contentment with her life and her tennis. It looks like Kournikova, unlike, say, the French player Mary Pierce (now ranked at 52) is insufficiently angst-ridden to satisfy hungry reporters.
Of the 10 players involved in the three days of tennis next week at the RDS, Kournikova and Capriati - herself the survivor of her early talent and subsequent problems - only play one match each. Despite the presence of the Williams sisters and the fact they will probably win their matches, there will be less written about them than there will be about the Russian.
As early as page nine of his irritating autobiography, Serious, none other than John McEnroe recalls his agent asking him: "Hey, are you interested in playing Anna Kournikova?"
Sportswomen have never quite shaken off the hint of sideshow. At the very top, they are castigated for being too masculine or, if beautiful, like the good but not great Kournikova, are ridiculed. One exception is Heike Drechsler, the great German double Olympic long-jump champion, who hit an acceptable balance between talent and beauty.
Women's tennis has had its share of troubled players, crazy parents, mad fans, stabbings - why not just let them play? Kournikova is getting a raw deal. It may be just the Mom in me, but I'd like to think it's my sense of justice in rising to her defence.
Admittedly, the commercially minded Kournikova is wealthy and famous, thanks largely to her looks, but she is also a stylish player and an underrated doubles partner.