Still Breathing

“It was nothing to do with me. It was just her tackling her own fears.”

This was the explanation that Lucie Safarova’s coach, Rob Steckley, gave to WTA.com this week when he was asked to explain his player’s recent, belated rise up the rankings. That statement, coming as it did from a Canadian, probably included a fair bit of modesty. But after Safarova’s 7-5, 7-5 semifinal win over Ana Ivanovic on Thursday in Paris, it’s obvious that Steckley was also telling a fair bit of the truth. The 28-year-old Czech reached her first Grand Slam final in 41 tries by conquering her fears just a few minutes after she had caved into them.

Safarova, a 12-year veteran who cracked the Top 10 for the first time this week, had certainly earned the chance. Her draw hadn’t been an easy one, but she had negotiated it without dropping a set. She began with a two-tiebreaker win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and then beat 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki in the third round, defending French Open champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round, and French Open specialist Garbine Muguruza in the quarters. Safarova won by moving forward, doing more with mid-court balls than she typically has in the past, and going after her forehand. As Sharapova said, Safarova took the rallies to her.

Against Ivanovic, though, Safarova began nervously and defensively.

“I was slow on my feet,” said Safarova, who went down 0-3, 1-4, and 2-5 in the opening set, “and Ana was playing well.”

The unintended consequence of Ivanovic’s aggressive early play was that it helped Safarova, who thrives on pace, work herself into a groove. At the start of the first set, Ana was dominating with her forehand; by the end of that set, it was Lucie's inside-out forehand that had taken over.

But it was nerves that ultimately defined and decided this match. Up 4-1 in the first, Ivanovic squandered three break points that might have sealed the set. From there, signs of vulnerability appeared—the service toss wobbled, the forehand misfired. She was broken at 5-3, and again at 5-5, and at 5-6 she started the game by stoning the easiest possible volley into the net. The meltdown was complete.

When it comes to tightness, though, what goes around comes around—no one escapes. In the second set, it was Safarova’s turn to wobble. At 3-1, she squandered her own chance to go up a double break when she sent an easy backhand return long. Serving at 3-2, she missed two easy forehands on her first two game points. The theme of the match was threatening to go from “Oh, Ana,” to “Oh, Lucie.” But by that stage, Ivanovic was in no position to capitalize.

And that remained true until the end. Safarova served for the match at 5-4, double faulted three times and, in a long and deliriously nerve-wracking game, was broken. But Ivanovic couldn’t hold her own serve at 5-5. After spending most of the changeover staring up at her player box and trying to remember how to breathe, a calmer and more composed Safarova came back out and held without much drama. Her last inside-out forehand winner, on match point, was hit with authority.

“I think when I realized I can finally be in the finals, I got a little bit tense there,” Safarova said. “The game at 5-4, I was really overthinking and fighting with everything on the court.”

Afterward Safarova danced, or attempted to dance, with her coach and her doubles partner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, in the hallway under Chatrier. Her Canadian coach and American partner each qualify, by tennis standards, as free spirits, and they seem to have helped Safarova loosen up, play with more aggression and enthusiasm, and make the most of her weapons. But as Steckley says, nobody could help her tackle her nerves at 6-5 in the second set on Thursday. She did that herself.

“It’s slowly sinking in,” Safarova said later, “it’s just amazing, and the happiness is unreal.”

When it was over, Safarova celebrated by falling to the court in joy, and the tennis world followed suit at home. One of the game’s most popular players finally had her moment in the clay.

If Michael Jordan can have a “Flu Game,” it only makes sense that Serena Williams can, too, right?

On June 11, 1997, Jordan, pale and sweating and likely suffering from food poisoning, climbed from his hotel bed at the last second to lead the Chicago Bulls to a crucial win over the Utah Jazz in the fifth game of the NBA Finals.

On Thursday, June 4, 2015, Serena Williams, coughing up a lung on changeovers and walking slowly between points, shook off what she said was the flu to beat a game Timea Bacsinszky 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. It was the fourth time at this event that Serena has dropped the first set before coming back to win, but this may have been the most impressive of all of them. Down a break at 2-3 in the second, fighting illness and nerves, Serena suddenly began to connect on everything. While the world was busy wondering what was wrong with her, she climbed out of her sick bed and won the last 10 games of the match.

Is this what it takes to win the French Open these days? Last year’s champion, Maria Sharapova, went the distance to win her last four matches; Serena, if she’s in the mood, will have a chance for a fifth three-set victory. This year, Sharapova was felled by the flu when she lost to Safarova in the fourth round. Can Serena one-up Maria in a whole new way by fighting off sickness to beat Safarova in the final?

Whatever happens on Saturday, Serena’s win over Bacsinszky was one for her career highlight reel. The image we remember from Jordan’s flu game is of him being helped off the court at the end by his teammate Scottie Pippen. Serena’s version was a long post-match hug that she shared afterward with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

There’s still one more match to go for Serena, just as there was for Jordan and the Bulls after Game 5 in ’97. They won, of course. What are the chances Serena won’t do the same?