Hailey Baptiste just handed Nike a perfect story
Just don’t expect them to do anything with it.
In a normal, capitalist society, what Hailey Baptiste pulled off yesterday in Madrid would be a sponsor’s dream come true. Playing the best match of her career, she beat the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka after saving six (!) match points—including an especially gutsy save with a serve-and-volley.
The story writes itself. Sabalenka is seen as inevitable in most of the matches she plays—it was only her second loss this year. Very few people (call them uncreative!) expected the world No. 32 to take her down.
But when she did, it acted as a reminder of the beauty of sports and tennis in particular (one I frankly needed after feeling a little bored lately). As photos of Baptiste celebrating took over my various feeds—some of them spliced against the artful shot of her breaking a racket in a match against Belinda Bencic just a few days prior—al…
