This one’s brutal. You have to feel for Pat Mac, Darren Cahill, and Chris Fowler—how much yammering were they prepared to do when they got over there? The whole ESPN crew has started to look like they don’t care how they appear or what they say. They’ve tapped Brad Gilbert for all of his stories and sartorial inventions—what did he have going to today, a dinner jacket?—and played all the historical parlor games they can play. And I don’t think anyone needs to see Serena Williams bashing her calf again.
It’s been raining in London. I know this is not news, but I’m getting close to agreeing with the always forthright Nikolay Davydenko that Wimbledon is boring. With all the matches backed up, one of these days we may get the greatest day in tennis history. (Of course, there’s supposed to be heavy rain Wednesday.) Before the damn breaks and this tournament finally begins in earnest, let me go over the scraps we’ve gotten lately.
The Nadal-Soderling moment: How long has this match been going? Four days now? Do you think they make eye contact in the locker room every time they go back there together? The look on Nadal’s face after Soderling mocked him for his wedgie-picking, and the crowd began to laugh, was sad and priceless. He kept a totally straight face but still managed to look hurt, embarrassed, pissed, and dignified all at once. Soderling just looked like a tool.
Vaidisova-Ivanovic: They’re making strides together and beating better players on a regular basis. Taking down Mauresmo and Petrova in three sets in the fourth round at Wimbledon on the same day is another step in a long-running WTA changing of the guard. Both of the teens have always hit big, but I thought they moved better than usual on grass today and were just more energetic and hungry overall. From what I saw, all Mauresmo had working for her was her serve. It was Vaidisova who had the all-court game, including the touch around the net that you normally expect from Mauresmo. The Ana-Nicole quarter is a toss-up, but I’ll stick with Vaidisova based on her slightly bigger game and reliable serve (no small thing on the women’s side).
Serena: It was so predictable. Serena screaming and looking ready for a wheelchair, then getting off the mat and beating a terrified Hantuchova. It all seems like it should be so much easier for Serena, but it did make the national sports news, so I don’t mind the drama (the tennis was another thing; that was about as bad as pro ball gets from Hantuchova’s side). It was also fun to see the two sides of the family in the stands: Richard conducting events in his shades, and Oracene, the face of perspective, quietly shaking her head on the other side of the player’s box. I’ll take Henin in the next round.
Jankovic: I missed it. What happened to her?
Venus-Maria: I’ll stick with Maria, but the fact that Venus has been surviving will help her confidence in the tight moments. When she gets her teeth into a tournament, she’s even harder to put away than usual.
Juan Carlos: Nice to see him back and going deep on grass; too bad his run is about to end. I’ll be watching him more closely this summer. He’s got a pure, appealing game that I’d forgotten about in the constant race for the new face.
Baghdatis-Davydenko: I’d love to see this, as well as Gasquet-Tsonga. I think Baghdatis will win a back and forth match in five. Still, are we starting to see the belated emergence of Davydenko as a consistent Slam threat, years after he was written off in the big ones? He’s a nice addition, if so.
Retractable Roof: TENNIS' editor, James Martin, just mentioned something interesting and perhaps scary to me. If the roof over Centre Court takes the normal amount of time to open and close—which is a while—how often will officials be sure enough of clear skies to take the time to open it again once it's closed? On days like today, you'd be looking at Wimbledon becoming an indoor grass tournament for the top players.
That’s about all I’ve got. I’m playing tennis tomorrow with my buddy Don at our club, the fancy-sounding, but not at all fancy, Knickerbocker Field Club, in the heart of Brooklyn. It’s 120 or so years old and used to include a golf course. That’s long gone, as is the huge old clubhouse and its bowling alleys (arson in the late-1980s, what else?). But there are still five clay courts wedged in between the outdoor Q-line subway tracks and a wall of apartment houses.
Don’s a professor and a smart guy who likes both Federer and Nadal (see people, it can be done). He always has an insight about the game. Last time we tried to decide whether it was worse to hit into the net or over the baseline. I said the common answer was into the net, but that Pete Fischer, Sampras’ original coach, thought it was worse to hit long. He thought there was no reason to, because if you were hitting in that direction you wouldn’t be able to hit a winner anyway—it was much better to miss wide, because then at least you were trying to create something. Don countered that when he misses long, at least he feels like he’s a hit a shot with single-minded conviction. It just overshot the mark. When he misses into the net, he feels like he was thinking of two things at once and wasn’t clear-headed about what he wanted to do with the ball, and you can never succeed from that starting point. I think I agree.
Enjoy the 4th and pray for miracles—sun in England being one of them.