Wimbledon Buzz: 'You Don't Touch the Floor'

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REVELATION OF THE FORTNIGHT: The BBC informed us that “most rain is wet.”

THE BARON OF BUZZ KILL: First the low-profile German Philipp Kohlschrieber, who has been on the circuit for nine years, dismissed Nadal-slayer Lukas Rosol, then he ended the Cinderella story of the tournament by beating Brian Baker, who had been off the tour for six years.

SOMETIMES EVEN ‘GOD’ DOESN’T KNOW: When IT asked Wimbledon officials whether the five singles matches on Centre Court were a record, they emailed us that they had “spoken with IBM and they believe that this is likely to be the first time that 5 singles matches have been played on Centre in 1 day. They are sure that that is the case since the roof has been in existence and feel that is is logical that due to light restrictions this would not have happened in the past, but can not be 100% sure that there wasn’t a catchup day one year when they rushed through 5 games. Seems unlikely, but they will not be able to confirm or deny that tonight.”

‘YOU DON’T TOUCH THE FLOOR’ – JO WILLIE TSONGA AND THE JOY OF TENNIS: He has an infectious smile and a glint in his eye. He plays without a coach, which he says gives him a greater sense of freedom. And when France’s Muhammed Ali look-alike, Jo Willie Tsonga, was asked about pressure he said, “I don’t have an approach to pressure … In my life I try to stay positive, to have the smile every time, to enjoy every moment I spend on this earth. I know there are a lot of people who suffer a lot … [but] I’m not suffering in any way.

“I’m healthy. I hit well every day. I play tennis in beautiful places like this. My family is OK. I have everything to have, the smile every time. Even when I lost one set, yeah.”

As for his opponent Mardy Fish – who he beat in four sets and who recently had a surgical procedure to correct a racing heart, Tsonga said, “That’s what I talk about. He had many problems. It’s not about tennis now, it’s about life. When you have some problem like this, you try to enjoy a bit more the life. So I’m sure he will enjoy.

As for playing without a coach, he said, “When I practice there is nobody to tell me what to do, but I have an idea of tennis. When I watch video I can say here I’m not good, so I improve my backhand. I serve maybe a bit better. I’m more consistent.”

Amongst all this goodness, what does Jo Willie like the most about the world of pro tennis? The Frenchman told IT, “It’s ‑ how you say ‑ the goal. You have one goal and you have to reach it. This is why I’m so excited, just because I have to reach a goal. It can be tennis but other things. But for the moment, for me it’s tennis.”

Finally, we wondered, what goes through his mind when he leaps high with ecstatic joy in his singular post-match celebration. “It’s something special after a big win or a victory in tournament,” he said. “You feel like you don’t touch the floor.”

HEADLINES

BREAKING NEWS: FEDERER IS AS HUMAN AS YOU AND I

WIMBLEDON CHIEFS RAIN ON MURRAY’S PARADE

A GLORIOUS SUMMER OF SPORT. AND WE MIGHT EVEN WIN SOMETHING

NEW CLAWS PLEASE: TENNIS HAWK STOLEN

A VICTORY SOOTHES FEDERER’S ACHING BACK

THEY THINK IT’S SHARAPOVA … WELL, IT IS NOW SHARAP-OVER!

SHARAPOVA’S HOPES FOR WIMBLEDON TITLE SUDDENLY GO WHOOSH

IT’S PLAIN WAILING FOR ANDY

STARS IN PERFECT ALIGNMENT FOR DJOKOVIC

GAME, WET AND MATCH … WIMBO WASHOUT WEATHER LASTS ALL SUMMER

BRUTAL END, BUT KIM STILL SMILES

SECURITY FOR SERENA! QUEEN OF MEAN IS MOBBED BY FANS ON COURT NO. 2

AND THE WIMBLEDON WINNER IS … THE RAIN

SAY IT ISN’T SO: A Mardy Fish serve blasted a lineswoman in the eye and she had to leave the court.

QUOTEBOOK

“Some of them are just the Daily Murray.” – Barry Flatman expressing his view that many a British paper focus their tennis coverage almost exclusively on Andy Murray.

“It’s relaxed until you play John McEnroe. Then all of a sudden it becomes very serious.” – Pat Cash on the sometimes laid-back senior circuit.

“I will try and irritate him.” – German Florian Mayer on his strategy when facing Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

“If I don’t have a definitive answer in my own mind, then it is going to be tough for me to articulate a definitive one.” – Andy Roddick to a reporter who was pressing the Texan to tell him whether he was going to retire.

“I don’t deserve to play every match on Centre Court.” – Andy Murray

“We just are not in good form right now … But we lose well.” – Australian fans from Adelaide on their country’s awful Wimbledon results

“I think you have to start wrapping your players up in cotton threads. They are having tough times” – Rob Northman on the many injuries in tennis now.

“He has a life experience that has helped him on the tennis court. Because he looks completely fearless. He looks like he belongs.” – Mats Wilander on Brian Baker

HONEY, THERE’S A FOX BARKING IN THE GARDEN: Jane Bunner of Chipstead Surrey wrote this letter to the editor: “Sir – I was watching Wimbledon while my husband wrote in the study. He suddenly leapt up to look out into the garden for a fox barking. But it was only Maria Sharapova’s service.”

SERENA – “NOBODY KNOCKS ME DOWN”: Yesterday Serena Williams talked about the swarming throng (what the tabloids called a mob) which crowded around her as she walked the almost 200 yards from Court 2 to the locker room. She said that she wasn’t scared and added, “nobody knocks me down.”

“Exactly,” thought a press room filled with worldly writers.

Serena imposes.

Well, then again, yes and know.

The foremost player of our era effortlessly brings her “mean street” sensibility to court. The large lady with those linebacker eyes and in-your-face glare, can intimidate. Maybe it’s best not to cross her.

But actually, in her career Serena has been knocked down many a time.

On court, movement is not her strength. Many another No. 1 – Henin, Clijsters, Wozniacki – have moved more adeptly. Time and again, like some boxer down on the mat – we see Serena floored in a heap on the court, slowly untangling her distinctive body parts, figuring just how to get up and resume the battle.

In the bigger picture, perhaps no other elite tennis champ has struggled to recover from more blows that have brought her down. Let’s see, there were hostile crowds, deaths and divorce in her family, a train wreck of a social life which she now admits is in “a shambles,” a serious knee injury, very public critiques which claimed she didn’t care, psychological depression which called for a family intervention and therapy, a freak injury when she stepped on glass, her sister Venus’ autoimmune illness and a blood clot which almost killed her.

Plua, there were those not-so-pretty meltdowns at the U.S. Open and, in May at Roland Garros, she suffered a shocking (not quite as bad as Nadal) first-round upset to France’s Virginie Razzano. At Wimbledon, in the fourth round, she narrowly escaped the (nasty on grass) groundies of China’s Jie Zheng 9-7 in the third. Then she struggled mightily to prevail against the No. 65-ranked Yaroslava Shvedova, 7-5 in the third.

Simply put, Serena didn’t look like Serena. Yes, she unleashed a record 23 aces against Shvedova. But she often seemed sluggish and adrift. Off-balance, glum and irritated, Serena herself admitted if she didn’t step it up she would be in trouble.

But Serena often steps up and upgrades her game as a tournament gets to its business end. She said, “I had to weed out the riffraff and just get serious. I had a good talk with my dad … He motivated me and my sister, as well. I had a talk with Patrick [McEnroe] too. It was great. Like all three got me really motivated to do better.”

Then as Pam Shriver noted, “Serena’s tough when she wants revenge.” And last year, en route to winning Wimbledon, a then-unknown 21-year old Czech lefty-blaster named Petra Kvitova whomped Serena 7-6, 6-2 in the semis.

Serena remembered. In today’s quarterfinals she seemed transformed. She not only unleashed 120 mph serves, she seemed to roll back the years: her body language crisp, her balance fine. Back on Centre Court, and playing under the roof for the first time, she relished the sound. “It’s kind of like a whoosh and a pop … it’s almost like a video game … it kind of flies through and you hear it when it lands. It’s really cool.”

Starting fast, she put pressure on her Czech foe and returned well. Hitting hit clean winners, she by far played her best ball of the tournament. With a great return, she saved a key break point at 5-5 in the second set and promptly went on to secure a 6-3, 7-5 win.

Going into the semis, Wimbledon’s defending champion and the No. 1 seed, Maria Sharapova, were both out. There was no one left in the draw who had reached the Wimbledon semis, except Serena herself, the four-time champion.

“Now the title was hers,” said a veteran American broadcaster. After a two-year drought, she certainly would collect another Slam.

But not so fast.

Serena, who has more ups and downs than the stock market, was supposed to destroy Sam Stosur in last year’s U.S. Open final. She came out flat and, amidst controversy, lost in a thud. What a downer.

“Obviously no one tries to have ups and downs,” said Serena. “Sometimes … you have absolutely no control over it … [and] it’s how you recover from that and how you handle the downs even more than the ups [by which you] can really judge your character.” And there is no greater character in woman’s sports than a sometimes struggling, sometimes imposing thirty year old named Serena who hopes this Saturday to leap high and claim her 14^th Grand Slam.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT?: Mardy Fish talks about the importance of sleeping at home, but he is not scheduled as of now to play L.A., even though he is a two minute bike ride from the venue.

TRENDING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Victoria Azarenka’s first press conference last year wasn’t until after the quarterfinals. This year it was after the fourth round.

GERMANY RULES THE EU AND … : Germany is far from ruling tennis, but their two players who are into the quarterfinals – Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer – are twice as many as any other nation. Plus, German Angelique Kerber beat her fellow German and longtime rival Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 to reach the semis.

HARD TO TELL APART: Blonde hair, requisite ponytail (dangling just below the shoulder blades,) olive skin tone, white tennis dresses, a youthful – still in their early twenties – beauty: thank goodness Angelique Kerber is a lefty and her fellow German Sabine Lisicki is a righty.

A PRIMER ON GOOD MANNERS: A letter to a London paper suggested that, “It was disappointing that the Benneteau-Federer match was held up by the crowd’s self-indulgent obsession with a Mexican wave and the consequent applause that the crowd absurdly gave itself. Good manners applies to crowds as much as players.”

NUMBERS

3 – Number of operations Brian Baker has had on his hip

33 – Number of Grand Slams both Serena and Federer have reached, except Roger did it consecutively.

139 – Fastest serve, John Isner

23 – Most aces in a match – Serena Williams

8 – Most challenges – Maria Sharapova (None correct)

200,000 – Glasses of Pimms expected to be sold

250 – Number of ballboys

CURIOUS QUESTIONS: The young Ryan Harrison is progressing very nicely. But Christopher Clarey wondered when you are just 20, “Is it better to be patient or impatient?” … Serena was asked, “How does it feel to dethrone the reigning champions?”

GO FIGURE: German Florian Mayer last reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals eight years ago

ALLERGIC TO FISH: After Mardy Fish’s loss a leader of the American press corps issued a ban on all Fish puns.