LONDON — Sports fans endure slumps. Tennis lovers are familiar with droughts. But this is something else. England is the font of tennis. Wimbledon is the mother church. But for 72 years, a Brit had never reached the final. Okay, it’s not a national disgrace. It’s not an annual humilation for God and country.
It’s just an astounding, dumbfounding, inexplicable streak. A nation of 60 million with a bank full of funding for tennis development has gotta be able to produce some tennis geniuses.
Before finally beating Bjorn Borg, Vitas Gerulaitis famously proclaimed, “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.” Sadly, after Rafa Nadal‘s merciless 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-4 victory over Andy Murray, someone Britain failed to hoist aloft the trophy for the 74th straight year.
Ouch!
No wonder before the semi, the eager nation dumped all their hopes on the shoulders of the Dunblane fellow who has been ranked as high as No. 2, reached two Slam finals and seemingly had put behind him all the dreary, passive play he had displayed since losing to Federer in January’s Aussie Open final.
At Wimbledon, in part thanks to a user-friendly draw, he swept to the semis past the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Sam Querrey while droping his serve just four times. But playing in front of the Queen against Jarrko Neiminen in the second round is a tad different than facing the No. 1 player in the world, who had swept through the clay court season to win four tournaments including Roland Garros and had a 12 match winning streak at Wimbledon.
One other thing. For all his public relations savvy, for all his deference to others, Nadal — the Admiral of tennis’ Spanish Armada — (who in no way was concerned that the British Navy ignomiously sunk his country’s fabled Armada in 1588.) It was more that Murray had downed him in their past two Grand Slam encounters —January’s Aussie Open and the ’08 U.S. Open.
While pay back was on his mind.
Britain craveded redemption.
So not surprisingly, the headlines proclaimed the significance of the day. “D-Day at Wimbledon,” “Murray Fired Up,” “Com’ On, Andy” they blared. There were few details Murray Maniacs didn’t want to know. Andy consumed 4,000 calories a day in six meals and his fave food was Sushi. And then there was the elephant in the room. Don’t tell no one, but there would be a Roger Federer-less Wimbledon final for the first time in eight years.
Full of conviction and hoping to reverse the painful semi-final loss he suffered to Andy Roddick he suffered at last year’s Wimbledon, Murray came out cranking his flat groundies, hitting backhand volley winners and, as usual, running like a deer in a battle of the two best “chasers” in the game.
But then disaster struck — British disaster!
Deep into the seemingly even first set Andy blinked, giving Nadal a critical break when he hooked a forehand deep into the alley. Now, the Murray Maniacs hoped their man could do what he did against Tsonga in the quarters — turn around and collect three sets and a “W”. But Rafa, with his seven Slams, is no ordinary foe.
Fierce and persistent, fearless and more than unrelenting — Nadal senses when to just play defense, when to stay the course, when to grab control. when to pounce.
And in the second set tie-break — after gifting Murray a set point with a rare double fault — he saved the day with a brave low backhand volley and then secured the pivotal set with a laser backhand that ticked the net and skipped over Murray’s racket.
If Wimbledon is said to be a religion, as many claimed, why do the tennis gods look askance on the Brits?
But, in the third set, there was a ray of hope. Murray immediately and with surprising ease, broke in the first game. A victory in the third set would set Union Jacks flurring throughout the island land. Instead, Nadal simply jacked up his game and broke back to tie the score at 4-4 when Murray flubbed a makeable forehand volley. Feeling the pressure, Murray’s forehand faltered badly in the next game and when he mishit a short Nadal floater, the match was lost, the hopes of a nation lay in ruins.
England — which suffered a humbling World Cup debacle and didn’t have a single male player in the draw, quickly offered Scot Murray plenty of advise (“Get better and come back next year and win,” said Tim Henman who has foiled the pipe dreams of more Englishman than any other human in the annals of Anglo-Saxon history). And, as is their wont, the English promptly exported their loser. After all, the lad is British when he wins and English when he loses.
WIMBLEDON NOTEBOOK
A CULTURE THAT IS NOT EXACTLY IMBUED WITH THE ‘ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL’ ETHOS: Alastair MacLeod of Newton Popple, Devon wrote the Daily Telegraph: “Sir, Sadly, I think that a professional British athlete who even considers not bowing to the Queen exhibits a lack of the maturity to be a champion.”
CURIOUS QUESTION: “Serena, can you rank your doubles loss, Venus’ loss in singles and your questionable bow to the Queen, in terms of which was the most painful to deal with?”
MAKES SENSE: Serena Williams said she would rather play her sister Venus in the final “because at least I know for certain one of us is gonna win something and take something home.”
TALK THERAPY: When asked how she developed her massive serve, Serena said, “my dad taught us… Always at the end of practice, we would just serve. Venus and I would serve with each other. We always talked a lot. I don’t remember serving; I just remember talking. Lord knows what we were talking about, but we never stopped talking, unless my dad was looking, then we would serve. Then when he wasn’t looking, we would just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, so…”
IN DEFENSE OF EMOTION: Vera Zvonereva, who is in two Wimbledon finals, is known for her colorful meltdowns. She defended her passion, telling IT: “Tennis is an emotional sport. If you don’t have any emotions, you’ll never be able to win. You go out there to give your best…It doesn’t mean if I break the racket I’m going to stop playing…No, with experience and maturity, I learn a lot about myself. When I have to pump myself up and when I have to calm myself down. Emotions, they’re good. They should be there. It’s sport. It shows that you care, that you are trying your best.”
SAY WHAT?: Next year the WTA is putting a tournament in Washington in the same week as the Bank of the West Classic in Palo Alto. (Note: Washington will be a small tournament now, but …)
NO ‘ISTAN-BULL’, PLEASE…ARE WE TALKING TURKEY HERE?: Instead of just saying ‘we moved our season ending championships to Istanbul to get a barrel full of Turkish lira, WTA CEO Stacey Allistar said, “We look at it as a fantastic opportunity to build the fan base in Turkey …”
