Keeping Tabs: July 1

On Friday I said that I was attending a family reunion this weekend. That was the idea, anyway, until what I’ll call the Lukas Rosol of storms rolled through the Mid-Atlantic the night before and upended everything. Power was out through the region, and I was forced to turn around in the middle of my train trip to Baltimore. Which means I’m back with a special Sunday edition of the Tabs.

I will say that following Serena Williams’ win over Jie Zheng yesterday on Twitter as I traveled through New Jersey was pretty suspenseful. It’s nerve-wracking scrolling up through the Tweets and getting closer to the finish with each one.

That match was just the start of another long day at SW19. Here’s what the papers had to say about it.

Muzza at the Buzza
The Mail hands Andy Murray an unlikely nickname:

MURRAY BEATS THE CLOCK IN HIS NEW ROLE AS CINDERELLA

There's a curfew at Wimbledon? Is this a left over law from World War II? The word was that Murray’s match with Marcos Baghdatis was going to be stopped precisely at 11 P.M., but officials later said they let it go a couple of minutes past because “an end was in sight.” It was nice of Baghdatis, who offered little resistance down the stretch, to make it so clear what the outcome was going to be.

—Elsewhere in the Mail, former player John Lloyd believes that:

IVO MUST BE PUNISHED OVER CHEAT CLAIMS

Lloyd cites the criteria for Unsportsmanlike Conduct in the 2012 Grand Slam Rule Book. It includes making statements “detrimental to the best interests of the tournament and/or the officiating thereof.”

Sounds like a fine is in order for Dr. Ivo, who said he had been cheated and asked for an apology from the tournament and even the BBC. Though Karlovic did allow that the 11 foot faults he counted in his match with Murray may have been on the high side. The number, it turns out, was seven.

Checking In, Checking Out
After Lukas Rosol’s miracle fifth set, Jimmy Connors dubbed him the quintessential “stopper,” a player who could stop a seed but go no farther himself. Jimbo knows his stuff. As the Telegraph put it

BUBBLE BURSTS FOR SORRY ROSOL
The conqueror of Rafael Nadal bows out with a whimper on Court 12 to German world No. 30

Here’s the *Independent*’s version of the events:

REALITY BITES FOR RUSTY ROSOL
After upsetting world No. 2 Nadal, the Czech is blown away

How quickly things can change. Rosol was on Court 12 this time. It sounded a little sad out there.

“Unlike the show court with a closed roof," the Independent reported, "the wind blew and the sun dazzled; with the television cameras trained elsewhere, a far smaller crowd was heard only in isolated bursts and soon grew disappointed.”

Rosol is proof of the power of the Moment in tennis, and how, for most of us, confidence remains safely out of our control.

Or maybe he just didn’t spit enough this time.

We Can Rebuild Him
The Express hands out a nickname for American Brian Baker, who was a winner yesterday:

FAIRYTALE COMEBACK OF BIONIC MAN BRIAN BAKER

But the paper saves its most interesting analysis for his opponent Benoit Paire’s “childish histrionics.”

“Paire was a moody menace and was jeered by the crowd when he sulkily dropped a towel on the grass and demanded a ball boy pick it up.”

Subtext: He's French.

The Roof is on Fire
Or at least on the hot seat. As Chris Clarey writes in the New York Times, the “roof is changing the tenor—and outcomes—at Wimbledon.”

This year, as rain has come and gone and matches have lasted late into the evening, each of the Top 4 men has played at least one of theirs indoors. The upside is that it makes for great theatre and atmosphere, and keeps the tournament from getting behind. The downside is that it turns Wimbledon at least partly into an indoor event, which it isn't meant to be. On Friday officials closed the roof early in the day as a precautionary move, because of forecasts that called for rain. But the sun kept shining through the afternoon. Is this a slippery slope towards more indoor matches? There must be a temptation, with England’s changeable weather, to simply keep the thing closed all day.

It wouldn’t be as bad if the roof at Wimbledon functioned like the one over a grass court in Halle, Germany. There it takes two minutes to close; sometimes it’s done as a match is being played. At Wimbledon it takes 45 minutes to close the roof and de-humidify the arena. Why one takes so much longer than the other isn’t discussed.

Striking Gold
When Yaroslava Shvedova gets on a roll, she really gets on a roll. Before yesterday, Shvedova had come the closest of any woman in the Open era to achieving a Golden Set—winning all 24 points. She had won the first 23 against Amy Frazier in 2006; losing the 24th must have been traumatic, because after finishing off that set, she didn’t win another game.

On Saturday, Shvedova redeemed herself by going the full 24 in her first set against Sara Errani (Shvedova also won the match this time). It was the first Golden Set at a Grand Slam, and the first since Bill Scanlon did it against Marcos Hocevar at Del Ray in 1983.

One tidbit about Scanlon’s. He had been trying to make the switch from wood to graphite at the time, but was struggling. The morning of his match with Hocevar, Scanlon warmed up with Rod Laver, of all people, using a mid-size Wilson Ultra. He couldn’t keep the ball in the court with the graphite stick, and Laver started to razz him about it. (“You'd think he would have had more sympathy,” a hurt Scanlon said). Billy was so rattled by it all that he drove back to his hotel, picked up his trusty Jack Kramer woods, and won 24 straight points in a 2 and 0 win. The irony is that, after that match, Scanlon claims he couldn’t find the confidence to make the switch to a bigger frame, even as the rest of the tour was passing him by using the new equipment.

The whole Golden Set thing has bittersweet overtones for me. In the first round of a 16-and-under tournament in State College, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1980s, I won the first 23 points of the first set. On the 24th, I had a forehand and an open court down the line. I hit it wide.

As for Shvedova, she plays Serena next. She won't be golden in that one, but she certainly sounds dangerous at the moment.