BRAVEHEART MURRAY RAISES THE HOPES OF HIS SPORTING NATION
The sun came out. The tenacious English clouds vanished, and so seemingly did the hopes of the British nation.
The land that gave us the modern game of tennis annually hosts the singular tournament of this sport. Still in all the years since 1936 – during which Sir Winston gave inspirational words, a war was won, a wall fell and the Beatles gave us songs for the ages – not a single rosy-cheeked British lad had lifted the Wimbledon trophy.
Summer after dreary summer, generations of sporting fellows, whether named Timothy or Jeremy – failed to deliver. And, after Spaniard David Ferrer collected the first set of his quarterfinal match against Andy Murray and was up a break and serving for the second, it seemed that British tennis was in for yet another big letdown. This time it would be delivered by a relatively little man, a 5’ 9” power-scrambler who hoped to bring back memories of the days when “Little Big Men” were atop the game. After all, diminutive Aussies Rod Laver (who sat in the Royal Box) and Ken Rosewall combined to win 19 majors. Over the decades, short players would amaze. Fast, tenacious, inventive – we were astonished when, in 1989, 5’ 9” Micheal Chang brought down the much taller Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg to win the French Open. We took note when 5’ 5” Olivier Rochus beat the gigantic 6’ 10” Ivo Karlovic, and France’s Fabrice Santoro was simply a wizard. But no short player – 5’ 9” or under – has collected a major since Chang.
Ferrer seemed poised to at least get to the Wimbledon semi.
A tenacious retriever who always makes his foe hit an extra shot, he is surprisingly offensive, if you know what we mean. He is serving better than ever, his forehand is a weapon, he volleys with conviction and, in case you didn’t notice, he is a fighter like few others.
Sure, he has long been in the considerable Spanish shadow of Nadal and he is a hefty notch below the Big Four – Djokovic, Fed, Rafa and Murray. Who isn’t? But don’t underestimate “The Little Beast,” who as a junior was (in order to learn some vital lesson) locked into a shed by his tough-love coach.
Now on Centre Court, Murray was getting a message. The man who had beaten him in their last two meetings (at the ATP World Championships in London and at the French Open in Paris) and who had reached the semis of all three of the other majors, was schooling the Scot. Coming off Wimbledon wins over Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro, the man who had more match wins than anyone this year (as well as four titles) forced Murray to sprint corner to corner. Ferrer blasted running forehand winners and displayed his dazzling defenses as he hit one “get out of jail” shot after another.
But Murray, the three-time Wimbledon semifinalist, did not crumble.
Yes, his fans were shaking with their usual (“oh no, here we go again”) trepidation. Commentator Andrew Castle told us, “Whatever the cause – wind, sun, the moon in the wrong place,” the home favorite was in trouble. Journalists called out, “This isn’t clay, get your rear to the net.” A voice from section 317 said, “Forget the drop shots.” Another fan simply yelled, “Attack.”
All the while, his new wonder-coach – tough guy Ivan Lendl – was a rock: expressionless and dour, a fierce presence in the friends box. Maybe he knew this was a different Murray. For we saw little of the Scot’s sullen self-pity. There were few signs of a meltdown. Yes, from Centre Court to a packed Murray Mount to the Scottish Highlands, it was presumed Murray would again falter.
But he didn’t. It was Ferrer who blinked. He served to take a commanding two-set lead, but an errant forehand ruined his chance. He was up 3-0 and 5-2 in the critical second-set tiebreak, but the surprisingly mature, emotionally composed Murray displayed confident body language and delivered a massive backhand to win the second set.
Tenacious at last, the brave Brit had righted the ship. Somewhere in the Kingdom a British historian was thinking, “Sink the Armada!”
Ferrer would have one break-point opportunity after another, but Murray stepped up, lifted his game, seized the moment and gradually wore down the once-bounding scrambler as he uncorked step-in returns of serve and monster forehands and backhands. When, after a 25-minute rain delay and 3:52 minutes of fierce play, Murray stroked an ace to claim a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (9) victory, he was now in his fourth Wimbledon semi, a feat which equaled Tim Henman’s British record.
Here his nemesis Rafa Nadal would not be lurking. Instead, he would face both the hard-hitting Frenchman Jo-Willie Tsonga and the long-lingering expectations of a victory-starved nation that both hates and yet somehow also adores to lose; a land which seemed to be telling their Braveheart, “Okay young lad, 76 years is quite enough. End this rather bothersome national nightmare. Win for Queen, win for crown, on this sacred ground.”
ANDY MURRAY – “I’M EXTREMELY STRESSED OUT RIGHT NOW”: When IT asked Murray to explain why Wimbledon is so important in Britain, he explained that, “It’s probably the biggest sporting event that we have. It’s been around for so long. So many great athletes … have obviously played here … Everyone gets into it when Wimbledon comes round because they understand how big a competition it is … The support that I’ve had over the last five, six years here has been great. I’m trying my best to win the tournament for myself obviously, but also for everybody else.” The Scot added that, “Subconsciously I’m probably extremely stressed out right now, but I try not to feel it … When the tournament’s done there’s normally a pretty big release … I just don’t want to be on the court for a few weeks.” When asked to compare what he is going through to other sporting events, he replied, “It’s like LeBron James … He obviously is a great basketball player. He came very close to winning quite a lot of times … Him winning this year … was massive. For me as a basketball fan it was nice to see … I guess it’s a similar situation. I’ve been close a lot of times and not quite made it. You know, just have to keep putting myself in the position, and hopefully it will click. There’s a lot of people out there that didn’t want him to win. There’re a lot of people that said he would never win … There’re a lot of people who said he never played his best in the Finals. In the fourth quarter of games he never steps up. Then you see how he played the whole of the Finals, the whole of the playoffs. Sometimes it takes guys a bit longer than others.”
OMG, EVEN THE ESTABLISHMENT IS FOMENTING REBELLION: BBC broadcaster Andrew Castle addressed the thousands on Henman Hill and said, “You were told not to run and you ran anyway, good for you.”
HEY, ISN’T THERE NO COACHING IN TENNIS?: Deep into the third set of his humbling loss to Roger Federer, the Russian vet Mikhail Youzney turned with a rueful expression to a bald man in a white suit in the front row of the Royal Box and said, “Help me.” Later he joked that he asked Andre Agassi for advice two sets too late. When IT asked Youzny, with a smile, whether he thought that his question to Andre was “a complete violation of the sacred no-coaching rule in our sport,” Youzney quipped, “I’ll take the fine.” The Russian now has an 0-15 record against Fed, the worst of any player on tour. Youzny said Roger is just as good as he was five, ten years ago.
THE FED FILE: Federer has reached quarters 33 straight times, but he lost in each of the past two years to Tomas Berdych and Jo-Willie Tsonga … Roger has retired just once in his career, when he was a junior in Belgium.
NOT EXACTLY WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED: With her semifinal against Victoria Azarenka scheduled for Thursday, Serena first practiced and then played two intense doubles matches with Venus. She didn’t get off the court until well after 8:00.
NADAL UPDATE: Since losing in the second round, Rafa provided a ton of autographs just after his defeat. The night of his loss he invited eight or ten kids into the garden of his Wimbledon home to hang out. Speaking of “out,” he had his wisdom teeth removed and has been relaxing poolside. He pulled out of his huge charity match with Novak Djokovic in order to rest up for the Olympics and let the tendonitis in his knees heal up. Nadal had hoped to sell 80,000 tickets for the charity exo which was slated for a Madrid soccer stadium and supposedly would have broken tennis’ all-time attendance record.
SOUNDS LIKE JUST ANOTHER BORING TENNIS MATCH: Gigi Salmon said the Serena–Victoria Azarenka semi was going to be a “thumping, heavyweight contest: it is going to be noisy, loud, vicious, no love will be lost. Balls are going to be flying around the court in all kinds of directions. It’s going to be fun, ugly at times, beautiful in places.”
QUOTEBOOK:
“The day for me was like 40 hours.” – Agnieszka Radwonska, after her quarterfinal win
“What is that strange phenomena. It must be the sun.” – David Mercer
“[Rod Laver] would have owned this place in the ’60s if he had allowed to play.” – John McEnroe
“You’ve got to lose to learn how to play.” – Johan Kriek
“It’s that maddening mixture. Blue skies and rain within.” – BBC
“Go Queen Victoria.” – A fan calling out to Azarenka from section 321
“We are a little bit scared of Azarenka. She is a whole lot terrifying. Her match against Serena will be a heavyweight encounter of the highest proportion.” – Radio Wimbledon
“Agassi’s changed … His wife doesn’t change a bit.” – BBC
“She has just blindsided us with how well she is playing.” – A German journalist on Angelique Gerber
“He’s going to earn his supper tonight.” – Radio Wimbledon on Bob Bryan who won his men’s doubles match with his brother Mike in five sets and then played won a 1:40 mixed doubles match with Liezel Huber
“If there was a tennis musical it would be called ‘I’m playing in the rain.” -– Coach Alina Jidkova
HEADLINES
MURRAY WORRIES: FEARS HIS MUM’S TOO THIN
FRIEND BECOMES FOE – MURRAY FACES FERRER
QUEEN VICTORIA READY FOR SERENA
WILLIAMS REVELS IN THE ‘WHOOSH AND POP’
WARRIOR QUEEN OF SW19 BLASTS CHAMPION OUT
SERENA SORTS OUT ‘RIFF-RAFF’
TSONGA FRIES WET FISH
MURRAY: I’LL REIGN IN RAIN
MURRAY HAS TO TAME THE LITTLE BEAST
ANDY IS PERRY GOOD
JUST STRINGING IN THE RAIN
ROYAL LINE-UP: Yes, a week ago Prince Charles came to Wimbledon for the first time in 42 years. Still, the Royal Box had its best day of the fortnight. On hand among others were Prince William and Kate Middleton, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Rod Laver, Pam Shriver, Todd Martin, Ion Tiriac, Richard Krajicek, Vijay Amritaj, Swede Jonas Bjorkman, Mal Washington, Mark Philippoussis and Peter Fleming.
NOVAK’S ANNIVERSARY: Today is the one-year anniversary of Novak Djokovic winning Wimbledon and becoming No. 1. The day after his triumph he went home where 100,000 Serbs met him. Novak said, “We are a little country and we have gone through a lot of war and difficulties but [wins in] sports is something our people are relying on.” Novak has been No. 1 ever since winning Wimbledon in 2011, and he has won two Slams since. He will now play Federer in the semis. He has won his last three matches against Roger including his win at last year’s U.S. Open, when he came came from behind and stroked a cross-court return of serve when he was down match-point. He and Roger (who will be playing his first Wimbledon semi in three years) have never played on grass.
