Siren #135: Riding the Australian Open wave, Sam Stosur and Naomi Osaka + all things Siren x ABC Sport, book club and "She Kicks Goals"
A Women in Sport Collective
This week we’re still feeling the buzz of an exciting Australian Open and putting the spotlight on tennis!
Over the coming weeks, we’ll have dedicated newsletters to spotlight a few different sports highlighting special themed content from our wonderful women and non-binary sports media community.
In this issue, Siren co-founder Kasey Symons spoke to Australian tennis royalty in the great Samantha Stosur about her post-playing career, getting more involved in sports media and her exciting appointment as Australian Billie Jean King Cup Captain.
Those of you who follow Kasey on the socials know she is a bit of a bookworm and also spent her summer reading women’s sports books (her fave!), which gave her the chance to review the new Naomi Osaka biography by Ben Rothenberg.
We’ve also rounded up some great tennis content from the tournament from some women in sports media we very much admire.
Catch up on the latest from the Siren Sport X ABC Sport partnership
Our partnership with ABC Sport is off and running for another year and we’re excited to share another published piece with you!
Last week Danielle Croci wrote about how exercise is encouraged during pregnancy — but it's not always easy for expecting parents to know what to do in the prenatal period.
It was great to also see more pics from Siren co-founder Megan Brewer in this one. Megan’s photography work always captures the heart of the story.
Samantha Stosur is ready for her next challenge in tennis
By Kasey Symons
Samantha Stosur’s retirement isn’t keeping her from tennis. She speaks to Kasey Symons about new media opportunities and being named Australian Billie Jean King Cup Captain.
Book Review: Naomi Osaka — her journey to finding her power and her voice
By Kasey Symons
Kasey Symons reviews Ben Rothernberg's new book “Naomi Osaka: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice”.
Want more tennis? We got you!
Here are some of the moments and pieces of tennis content that caught our eye over the tournament.
Shout out to all the journos and content creators who put in very long nights and worked in the heat to deliver the goods! The Australian Open is a full-on tournament to cover so we appreciate all you do to ensure great coverage of women’s tennis and broader issues of women in sport around the event.
Recently, Australian number one Arina Rodionova cracked world top 100 at the record-breaking age of 34. Emerson Jones has climbed to a career-high world No.3 in the latest ITF World Tennis Tour junior girls’ rankings.
It was also very cool to see Evonne Goolagong Cawley honoured at the tournament celebrating fifty years after lifting the iconic Australian Open trophy for the first time.
Sarah Burt looked at mothers returning to sport through Naomi Osaka’s experience for ESPN in her article ‘Why Aussie women's sport needs to talk about fertility.
Code’s Linda Pearce profiled Zheng Qinwen in the lead up to the final. Linda also wrote on the scheduling issues that unfairly impacted two women’s grand slam winners.
Linda has long covered tennis and we’ve had the pleasure to publish some of her work on Siren previously. Take a dip into our archives and see how Linda saw the 2021 Aus Open playing out.
Fiona Purcell also reflected on unforgettable moments of the Australian Open — from epic rivalries to our home-soil heroes for ABC Sport.
Of course we were thrilled to be able to commission this great story from Kate Robinson, featuring pictures by Megan Brewer, on Taylah Preston, one of Australia's most promising tennis juniors as part of our Siren Sport X ABC Sport partnership.
The Age’s Marnie Vinall was also providing some excellent insights on the masthead’s live blog! Re-live Sabalenka’s victory here through Marnie’s engaging thread.
And we’ll always remember this moment. A beautiful gesture from Aryna Sabalenka and Jelena Dokic that used the platform of the Australian Open perfectly to continue to raise awareness of survivors of family violence. Legends.
Siren Book Club: Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven
Lucky news for all you sports book loving folk: we are running our Siren Book Club all through 2024!
Our first book for the year is Ellen van Neerven’s Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity!
We’ll be meeting online via Zoom on Tuesday 12 March at 7pm AEST.
Register here to book your spot and we will email you the link closer to the date.
We’re hoping to do more book club sessions in 2024 so if there is a book you’d like us to include, let us know? We’d love to hear from you!
Sydney Women in Media event - She Kicks Goals
In this Olympic and Paralympic year, our friends at Women in Media NSW are launching 2024 and discussing its upcoming calendar of events with the "She Kicks Goals" campaign which aims to raise the profile of women working in sports media.
On Thursday 15 February, WiM NSW will be joined by a star panel of women in sports media:
Ann Odong, Media and PR Manager at Football Australia
Abbie, founder of HERWay
Elizabeth Wright, ABC sports journalist and Paralympic medallist
Tickets are $25 and include food and drinks, generously hosted by Meltwater in their function room at Level 9, 50 Carrington Street, Wynyard (Sydney CBD).
WiM supports those in need, should you wish to attend and require financial assistance, please email nsw@womeninmedia.com.au
Siren is now on Patreon!
You heard it hear first —Siren i son Patreon. Our Patreon supporters will get exclusive access to some very cool things in 2024 so if you can, sign up now!
Funds from our Patreon go towards:
commissioning and paying writers and content creators
running our Emerging Sports Writer Programs
creating opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media
The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough.
You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.
