I used to like Seles a great deal as well – loved her unorthodox double-fisted strokes and the fact that she could hit winners from anywhere on the court. Wasn’t a fan of the grunt though. I'm glad she's in the Hall of Fame 
We discussed this objectification of women in a journalism class once – and it is really infuriating to think that with women objectification comes before the sport, almost always, be it Danica Patrick or Serena Williams.
That Whitlock piece is absolutely ridiculous, as is the rule that appearance determines who plays on Center Court at Wimbledon, of all tournaments.
Though I do think women players may not help the case against this sort of objectification when they promote such an image of themselves sometimes – such as Sharapova doing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Such actions tend to shift the conversation from sports – not that people like Whitlock out there wouldn’t do it anyway. I didn’t catch the interview but I’m guessing (and hoping) that the appearance aspect was more in relation with her “Dancing with the Stars” stint?
In part, but they also talked a lot about her apparent struggles with compulsive eating (born out of the depression she suffered after the stabbing). She learned to deal with it, and overcame her horrible eating habits, but they couldn't help but do the "she's lost weight and looks great now!" bit (combined with her stint on Dancing with the Stars).
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