Trying Her

It was the start of Independence Day weekend in the U.S. on Friday, but the rebellion came from the British side this time. Heather Watson, a 23-year-old native of Guernsey, England, nearly pulled off the upset of the year over world No. 1 Serena Williams in the third round at Wimbledon. The eruptions from the Centre Court audience shook TV sets all the way across the pond. Maybe it was the shock of seeing the 138-pound Watson calmly and cleverly push Serena to the brink of defeat, but the crowd was every bit as exuberant as the one that cheered Andy Murray to the title two years ago. On the other side of the grounds, Henman Hill was rechristened Heather Hill.

“I was playing a lot of opponents,” Serena told the BBC after her 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory. “I’ve had some tough losses here, but that was probably my toughest match here, playing Heather in front of her home crowd.”

At one point, as Serena questioned chair umpire Kader Nouni about a call, a few of those opponents began to boo. “Don’t try me,” Serena said, apparently to the entire stadium, as she wagged her finger. It was that kind of day inside Centre Court, a day like few before.

Serena often talks about how she has to face more than one opponent, the second one being herself, and that was true again on Friday. Yet that’s not how this match started. Serena dominated with ease in the first set, moving forward at will and knocking balls into what looked like acres of open court. While she has been plagued by nerves of late, it didn’t look like the 59th-ranked Watson was going to find a way to make her feel any pressure.

Then, as the second set progressed, Watson began to dig her way underneath Serena’s game. She stayed low as she scrambled across the grass, and kept the ball even lower with well-measured slice forehands and angled backhands. She forced Serena to hit up from the baseline, slid the ball at her feet when she came to the net, and deftly deflected passing shots into the corners. That was all it took to get Williams out of her rhythm. She stood flat-footed and struggled to swing smoothly; while the scorekeepers at Wimbledon are famous for being generous in how they judge unforced errors, there was no mistaking these. If the ball wasn’t sailing off Serena’s strings, it was being smothered into the net.

Watson also surprised Serena with the pop on her serve. Up 5-4 in the third, three points from victory, Watson hit an ace to save a break point. Serena nodded her approval.

“She played unbelievable,” Williams said. “I think she should have won the match at this point. She was up two breaks—she really gave it her all.”

As Serena said, Watson was up a double break and had a point on her own serve to make it 4-0. Things were so dire that Serena’s mother, the famously unflappable and occasionally sleepy Oracene, was on the edge of her seat. This appeared to be the match that she had been waiting for the last 15 years to watch.

If it hadn’t been for a stray particle of chalk dust, Oracene may have had to watch her daughter lose. That’s about as much of the sideline that Serena’s smash caught when Watson had game point for 4-0. It should have been the easiest of putaways, but Serena, who was reeling at that stage, nearly managed to miss it.

Those are the shots that turning points are made of, and this match soon turned Serena’s way. She broke for 1-3, held for 2-3, and played one of the great games of her career to break again for 3-3. Watson began by going up 40-0; Serena hit two forehand winners to make it 40-30. On the third break point, you could see Serena’s confidence and her nerves dueling with every swing. Finally, confidence, as it usually does with her, won out. She pushed forward and terminated the rally with a backhand winner. Two points later, Serena broke with a swing volley winner and raised her first to her player’s box.

Yet it wasn't enough to bury Watson. The Brit recovered to hold for 4-4, break for 5-4, and then, serving for the match, save two break points to reach deuce. She was two points from the match. The ball was in her hand, the crowd was on its feet...but Serena was on the other side of the net. Watson never reached match point. Instead, a few minutes later, she found herself facing three of them. On the last, her short-hop backhand from the baseline flew long. It was one of the few loose shots Watson had hit in the last hour.

Watson betrayed little emotion on court, and claimed no moral victories afterward.

“I was two points away from winning that match, so I’m pretty disappointed,” she said. “The atmosphere was fantastic and pushed me on, but I just wished I could have closed it out.”

Asked if this had been the best she had ever played, Watson said, “I wouldn’t call losing the greatest day of my career.”

Before the tournament, I wrote that, at some point, a sluggish start, a mid-match lull, or an attack of nerves would cost Serena. Today she was a chalk-dust particle away, but sometimes that's all you need in tennis.