Something Missing From Open Coverage

I was wondering if the L.A. Times covered the women’s semifinal matches at the U.S. Open. If so, then I must have missed it somehow. There was a teaser story in the Sept. 8 paper by Diane Pucin on Page 1 of the main section with two photographs of the Williams sisters.

This 34-inch story (with jump) went into the background of the Williams sisters and their history of playing one another. Then on page D1 in the sports section there was another story, by Lisa Dillman, with two more pictures of the Williams sisters. This told us more about the background of the sisters and the mawkish recital (for the 25th or 30th time) of how they grew up playing tennis on the cracked tennis courts of Compton with the dead tennis balls .... In this 25-inch story, Dillman did spare about four inches in passing to mention the actual matches, with one-half inch lost to the Serena-Martina Hingis contest and 21/2 inches (wow!) sacrificed to the Venus-Jennifer Capriati matchup. I looked elsewhere without success for a story about the two matches themselves.

Are the people assigned to cover tennis tournaments ordered to compete with People magazine and the National Enquirer?

Harold D. Watkins

Studio City