Those We Don't Talk About, Much
 
March 23, 2012 -- The Internet. The final frontier for sports reporting?
 
It could be if you want to make an impression on readers of sports, which is 90% of the male population and an increasingly growing segment of the women's population, about 75%, especially if they live in Chicago. (All statistics were pulled out of a hat, but sound about right.)
 
Chicagoland women know more about sports, like team sports, than some journalists on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN.com, Pardon the Interruption, and Sports Illustrated in print or electronics.
 
Skeptical... spend a summer weekend along the shores of mighty Lake Michigan, taking in a Cubs game and a White Sox game. You'll soon be a believer.
 
Point being ... the Internet is an open door, a forum as it's frequently called, to talk about athletes that normally don't get much air or print or video, except in their home countries and most Americans don't speak anything but English and they're not about to scramble for the latest news, let's say, on Alisa Kleybanova, a wildcard entry into this week's Sony Ericsson Open, unless it's served up to them on an Internet platter.
 
The sport biggies, named in the first paragraph, probably won't carry a note about the Russian player who returned to tennis in Miami after recovering from Stage Two Hodgkin's Lymphoma over the last ten months, so let's do spotlight this brave woman.
 
In her first round match against Johanna Larsson, Kleybanova 3-set win made her ecstatic. After reaching the top 20 in 2011 and entering Miami at 434, a win is a big deal.
 
"I'm really happy I won the match, but I really enjoyed playing," she said, as reported in USA Today. "Just to feel again all those emotions was really great and something I missed the most from tennis."
 
Her diagnosis in July last year threw the six-foot athlete for a loop. She had missed a couple months of matches in early spring, feeling tired with flu-like symptoms and finally decided to seek help. Once detected she withdrew from all tournaments through the end of the year.
 
In late February, Kleybanova announced that she her treatment was a success.
 
"I don't want to think about rankings, I just want to be on the court and feel good," she said, as reported by Simon Evans with Reuters. "I have a huge motivation to just live at 100 percent, every day of my life."
 
Her second round opponent, Maria Kirilenko, seeded #22 at the Sony Ericsson Open, was a step beyond Johanna Larsson. Kleybanova lost in straight sets, but took the higher seed to a tiebreak in the first one.
 
While she fought the disease in Italy, she forgot the world of tennis and turned off her career to focus on one thing - beating the disease.
 
"I followed everything that my doctors told me to do and I learned to listen to my body well," she said, in the Reuters article. "I didn't really try to keep myself in shape. The most important thing was obviously to survive -- to resist. In the beginning you think you can do it, but it gets worse. It doesn't matter anymore how you look and how long it is going to take you to get back on court."
 
The Russian evoked similar sentiments to those experienced when Venus Williams talked about her struggle with her autoimmune disease -- Sjogren's syndrome. For months prior to the diagnosis Venus knew she wasn't 100%. She was more-than exhausted and frequently had flu-like symptoms.
 
Before her second round match at the 2011 U. S. Open Venus pulled out. She'd had a hitting session earlier in the day. Afterward she couldn't raise her arm. It was time to stop.
 
"Looking back, it's affected my career in a huge way," Venus told Karen Crouse of The New York Times. "I've been playing a lot of matches with a half a deck."
 
Kleybanova's disease could return while Venus's autoimmune syndrome will live with her for the rest of her life, most probably. But both women have an altered perspective of their worlds on and off the tennis courts. The common ground they share, though, is the importance of each day relative to their careers.
 
"I feel like a person that has an autoimmune disease," Williams said, as reported in The Huffington Post. "I'm not going to probably feel like everybody else. But just to get back at this level is a win for me."
 
Unlike Alisa Kleybanova, Venus Williams remains in the draw. She opened Friday night's session against Petra Kvitova, the reigning Wimbledon champion. It was a tough order for someone who isn't match tough, like Willimas. But there's one person, plus many others presumably, that foresaw a victory for the tall American tennis superstar: Nick Bollettieri, legendary tennis coach.
 
He suggested in his picks that Venus can't stay back, and should not 'get hung up in long rallies. She has to get right in Kvitova's face.' Nick called Venus 'a fox,' adding that she controls herself very well and the advantage is hers with the crowd who probably don't know what to expect from the woman who resides in Palm Gardens, Fla.
 
"I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that her experience will give her the edge," Bollettieri ended. "Venus in 3 sets."
 
Bollettieri nailed it, with Venus taking the win Friday night 64 46 60 in three sets.