' Two out of four aint bad'

Julia Child was an American gourmand who introduced Americans, via a public broadcasting network, to the delights of French cooking in the 1950s and 1950s. In a television series about her life, there is a scene where she travels to New York from Boston to receive an accolade. At a gala dinner she meets Betty Friedan, one of the pioneer feminists of post-war America. On that point, RIP Gloria Steinem. Friedan chastises Child for having made thousands of American housewives bound to the kitchen by requiring them to regularly produce haute cuisine: “whatever happened to good old meatloaf?” she asks.

Well, there is the American staple and there is Meatloaf the former singer. Australian sporting fans well remember him for his appalling pre-game performance at the 2011 AFL Grand Final. A singer who truly belted out a ballad, possibly his most famous lyrics were: "I want you; I need you, but there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you" are from the classic 1977 song "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.”

As the Grand Slam season ends, both the new US Open champions might be tempted to say, “Two out of Four aint bad.” Especially, Alex Zverev. For years the bridesmaid, Zverev has been in three of the four Grand Slam Finals in 2026 and has won two titles in Paris and New York.

Rybakina, similarly, has won two titles: Australia and New York. Between them, they have won three of the four as has Rybakina who now only needs a victory in Paris to complete her Grand Slam quartet. Similarities continue: Both players dropped a set in their finals, and both won their deciding sets 6-2.

Rybakina is now the world’s No.1 ranked female player. Zverev continues as the world’s No.2 behind Sinner, whilst defeated Men’s finalist, Ben Shelton, had his “breakthrough moment”, defeating Carlos Alcaraz en route to his first Grand Slam final. Defeated Women’s finalist, Sabalenka, had her typical breakdown moment after the final. Denied her third title in a row, the brittle Belarussian has now lost four of her last five Grand Slam finals and has racquets smashed post-match at courtside to prove it!

Even in a city that never sleeps, Shelton’s match against Alcaraz pushed the limits of reasonable. The match did not finish until 3.33 a.m., but such was the drama and intensity of the match that adrenalin seemed to flow both on and off the court, decided as it was by a fifth set match tie-break.

There was also a significant achievement in the Women’s Doubles. The victory of Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, delivered them a complete Grand Slam trophy cabinet.

Regrettably, the fortunes of Australian tennis remain depressingly predictable, with no success enduring beyond the middle of the first week.

Conversely, American tennis enjoyed a renaissance: Three of the five finals featured an American, with the stars and stripes winning both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles.

Of course, the place of the stars and stripes in world politics has been a dominant theme of the post-World War 2 era.

Presently, many would see America as a ‘rogue state,’ wilfully removing itself from obligations to global organisations and global governance that were seen as holy writ following the establishment of the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, NATO, the World Health Organisation et al. The irony- one of many of the Trump Presidency-is that the President believes he is creating a “bigger and stronger America”, whereas most see his Oval Office as creating a more inward-looking country, with scant consideration of the wider world.

This can be seen in Trump’s latest act of preposterous populism. At the recent Republican convention, the President announced that if his Republican Party retained control of the Congress following the forthcoming mid-term elections in November then all Americans would receive a $5000 payment.

A blatant bribe by any estimation. It will add one trillion dollars to America’s already unimaginable national debt. It is clear that the President has not considered the economic effects of such a deficit on any other countries. Not to mention the illusory benefit for Americans themselves.

Other states, away from the Oval Office, are seeking to project themselves more vigorously onto the world’s consciousness.

From the redecorated Oval Office to the most important sphere of all. Last week Togo successfully proposed a resolution at the United Nations to change how the world looks at itself. Literally. The UN has retired the hitherto definitive Mercator projection of the world. Togo argued that the Portuguese cartographer’s projection of the world’s countries onto a sphere caused countries on the edges to appear far bigger than they were. In other words, countries were not appearing to a realistic scale. In an original Mercator map, Greenland appeared as large as Africa.

Now, we have the ‘real world’ map. The relative size of Greenland has shrunk. Maybe, it is no longer an appropriate conquest for President Trump? The Anglosphere of Western Europe has also diminished.  Now maps, along with art, imitate life! Africa is very much enlarged, but this is appropriate for a continent where its most populous state, Nigeria, is predicted to have a population equal to America’s by the end of this century.

Away from the global ambitions of the United Nations, countries wrestle with their own domestic politics. In the West there is much commentary about how remarkable the state of politics is now. Commentators cite the fraying of traditional support for major parties, the rise of extremist parties, the growing cynicism of younger voters about the virtues of democracy and the reluctance of the ‘great and good’ to consider careers in politics.

Could there be a counter-argument which states that the current malaise of so many democracies is not so much remarkable as it is predictable? If the key aim of democratic governments is to promote the economic and social security of their countries, then voters have many reasons feel disenfranchised from their representatives. The emancipation and education of the citizenry has made most realise that governments that recklessly spend money they do not have to burden future generations with debt deserve to be condemned.

Similarly, governments that become ideologically hijacked by messianic missions such as creating the net-zero world, which leaves the present world struggling to be economically productive and paying the increased costs of such policies, are resented. Who can even afford meatloaf when inflationary pressures and environmental zealotry take even meatloaf off the table for many families?  Who is not perturbed when a zeal for multiculturalism leaves societies fractured with disparate cultural outlooks and where well-intentioned respect for the person is often seen to usurp the rule of law?

And who would enter political life knowing that your personal utterances, past and present, will be cross-examined through a politically correct filter that not even St. Francis of Assisi would pass through?  The people will respect the political process much more if they saw good politicians, with all their flaws, develop good policies. As simple as holding serve when serving for a championship! Look at Zverev- he focused so much on winning, he didn’t realise he had!

So as the world turns its back on another Grand Slam calendar, we realise that nothing is entirely as we thought it would be. Injuries to Alcaraz and Sinner have derailed their domination. Zverev has achieved more this year than all others on the tour. Rybakina has had a resurgence that many thought was unlikely following her 2022 Wimbledon triumph.

That is the point of tennis and politics.  None of us truly know which way the balls are going to bounce; however, we should always keep questing and playing to improve our results.