by Pete Bodo
After running out of steam and losing the last two sets to Vera Zvonareva in the Wimbledon ladies' semifinals today, Tsvetana Pironkova said of the winner: "All of her strokes were really powerful: forehand, backhand. She made very good net approaches. Her serve was very consistent, also. So I think she did a very good performance today. And, of course, she has a chance for the finals...yeah, she has all of the chances."
The praise for Zvonareva's forehand and backhand, her net approach (as well as the unstated proficiency she shows at the net), was both kind and warranted. But Pironkova left out the most crucial bit, the part about what you might call Zvonareva's brain, her fighting spirit, or her competitive mettle—or what takes shape in a player when all three of those elements work in unison. It's what makes a player capable of playing her best tennis when it most matters.
That's where Zvonareva has always been unconvincing, despite having one of the most versatile games on the WTA tour. And that's where she will be most vulnerable when she plays for the Wimbledon title against Serena Williams, a woman who could conduct an adult-education class: Tennis Truculence 101.
It looks pretty grim for Zvonareva, at least on the surface. But then, Zvonareva is a pretty good student, and an enthusiastic one, as Bobby Chintapalli informed us a few days ago in this piece. We're not talking some cream-puff Internet course of study here, either. Zvonareva is enrolled at The Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sounds both a little scary (if you've been following the unfurling spy scandal in the U.S.) and pretty danged serious. When Zvonareva was asked if she conducted her studies online, she replied, "No, I have to take classes over there and I have to take my exams when I'm coming back there." First, though, she'll have a tough exam here.
It's too bad she has such a formidable assignment, because she's had an outstanding tournament. But you know what they say about a reputation—it's the easiest thing to acquire and the hardest thing to shed.
However, tennis has at times leavened its harsher realities by offering forgiveness and redemption; who can forget Andres Gomez winning the French Open in the twilight of his career, or even Goran Ivanisevic finally bagging the Wimbledon title he spent his entire career lusting after—and winning as a banged-up and seemingly washed-up veteran, in on a pity...er, wild card.
The more appropriate comparison, though, would be with Jana Novotna—perhaps not coincidentally a winner here. Surely you remember the saga: Novotna was a skill player, more like a Zvonareva (although she served-and-volleyed more often) than a Monica Seles or Steffi Graf. In 1993, Novotna experienced, literally, a championship meltdown against Steffi Graf on Centre Court. Novotna lost the first set in a tiebreaker, then rolled to a 6-1, 4-1, 40-15 lead before she came unglued. Graf stormed back to win the title, and Novotna wound up shedding tears on the shoulder of the cream-colored suit worn by the Duchess of Kent during the presentation ceremony.
Four years later, Novotna made another Wimbledon final, losing to Martina Hingis. But the following year, she survived a tense quarterfinal with a youngster named Williams (Venus) and went on to take the title over a surprise finalist, Nathalie Tauziat. Novotna, to be sure, was a more accomplished player than Zvonareva (she appeared in four Grand Slam finals, but won only one—the one that mattered most). She was also ranked as high as No. 2 in the world (1997). Zvonareva might think about setting aside that Russo-Canadian Relations, 1940-1960 textbook in favor of some video of Novotna at Wimbledon in 1998.
Still, Zvonareva took a large step toward off-loading her reputation as a poor competitor today, coming back from having lost the first set for the second round running. It's good practice for the sort of test she'll soon face. Tomorrow, she could take a final, giant step and bury the head case rap on her for good. Just think, no more Vera the headcase, mistress of the meltdown, queen of the quivering lip and the quaking right hand.
It's been tough on her; it's also given her a thick hide. As she said today, after slashing her way to the first Grand Slam final in her 30th major (only Zina Garrison and Tauziat played more majors before vying a title): "I don't care what people say around. I can break the racquet, but it doesn't mean I'm not there in the match. I'm trying all the time. But I think right now experience helps me a lot. I've been in a lot of different situations in the past of my career, and I think I know how to turn the matches around much better now. Even if something is not working, I think I know in my head that I just have to take it one point at a time and just keep trying. In the end, we will see what's going to happen."
!102562670 One scenario would not be terribly pleasant, or helpful in Zvonareva's quest to iron out the kinks in her temperament. That one has Serena Williams raining down aces on Zvonareva and denying her a chance to even get into the match. It could happen, regardless of Zvonareva's mental or physical condition. In her win over a game but short-winded Petra Kvitova today, Serena ran her ace total to 80, a mind-boggling 50 aces better than her nearest rival—her sister Venus—and nearly triple Zvonareva's output.
Kvitova played a very solid first set. She broke Serena's serve (it was only the third time that's happened in the entire tournament) and built a 4-2 lead, but the inevitable caught up with the improbable a few games thereafter, and in the ensuing tiebreaker, the southpaw Kvitova succumbed to a problem all too familiar to so many left-handed players—an erratic forehand. But even though Serena broke back, Kvitova played boldly and crisply. She seemed bent on doing to Serena what her Czech countryman Tomas Berdych had done to Roger Federer yesterday, and tried to do it with the same tools—smoking-hot serves, and penetrating, flat ground strokes.
But let's face it; Federer surrenders a significant amount of firepower to men like Berdych, while not a single WTA player can match the power of Serena. Maria Sharapova and even Venus may come close, but in order to beat Serena you need some help from Serena. And she hasn't been in a very charitable mood.
Serena had no fear of suffering the same fate as Venus, Clijsters, or Roger Federer, despite the viral manner in which upsets sometimes blossom. If it happened, she would have treated the loss philosophically. "I'd know I was in good company."
Serena had her right shoulder taped yesterday, for her doubles. She and and her partner Venus were beaten in the quarterfinals, by Elena Vesnina and. . . Zvonareva. Some might take that as an omen, but when asked if the taping was preventive or indicative of a problem, Serena sighed and replied:
"Yeah, I had hit too many aces."
Somehow, I have a feeling there are plenty more of those left in her arm.