LONDON—Sometimes tennis just takes over. That’s what happened Wednesday, when Johanna Konta and Donna Vekic commanded Centre Court for more than three hours on a scorching afternoon. There were other, bigger names on the schedule for the day: Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams. But all of them ended up playing second-fiddle to the Konta-Vekic classic.
Part of it was the setting: You felt like this wasn’t just a great match, but a match that belongs to a century-long tradition of them in this arena. Part of it was the fans’ rooting interest in Konta, as well as the sense that there were probably millions of people around the country who were getting a long look at her for the first time. Part of it was the emotion and anxiety etched on Vekic’s face as she kept coming close to breaking serve, and kept failing to do it.
The biggest part of it, of course, was the way both women fought and played down the stretch. When a match goes into overtime, in front of a big crowd at a Slam, I start to think of the players as two acrobats walking out on a tightrope together; you know that one of them, at some point, is going to make one wrong move and fall off. In their match in Eastbourne last week, it was Konta who had fallen; this time it was Vekic, who lost 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8. Either way, it was a performance for tennis fans to let linger in the mind. For those three hours and 10 minutes, the sport felt satisfying.
But the important question for this column is: How did the tabloids celebrate the moment? The only way they know how: With a little something extra. As The Sun put it:
KONTA’S BUZZING AFTER 3 HOUR FIGHT AND FLYING ANTS
