A new national holiday should be declared in the U.K. on this 7th day of the 7th month, the day the 77 year drought of having a British Wimbledon champ ended. The tension was palpable as Andy Murray served for the championship at 5-4 in the third set. Having three championship points at 40-love it seemed like it was a done deal. However, #1 ranked Novak Djokovic is never one to back down, no matter how unlikely a comeback looked down two sets to none. But it seemed in a heartbeat it was suddenly break point instead, three times to be exact, which Murray fought off with everything he had. When his 4th championship point came along he took it, raising his arms toward the press in exhilaration. After the tears and disappointment last year when he had been so close in his loss to Roger Federer he had finally done it, bringing fans all across the United Kingdom to their feet in joy and relief. For all of history he will be remembered as the man who brought them another Wimbledon crown after what seemed like (per Roger Federer a few years ago) 150,000 years.
I had the privilege of watching the final with a friend who grew up in Scotland, who even brought some strawberries and cream for us to enjoy to commemorate the event, so I got to be even more involved in the joy the country was experiencing after such an extended time. Now that it's over I think they would say it was worth the wait.
Though the match had its moments of stress for Murray fans in the long rallies, breaks back and forth, and especially the last service game, overall it could have been a lot more stressful. Surprisingly Andy was able to win this in straight sets, which I never would have guessed from the start. Djokovic just seemed a bit weary out there, probably worn down from his epic match with Del Potro, and simply didn't have the same ability to fight it out this time. Andy played some very strong and smart tennis and fully deserved his straight set win to etch his name forever with the champions of Wimbledon.
Marion Bartoli was also a first time Wimbledon champion this weekend, as well as being her first major title. I'm sure there was hardly a person in the world who would have had her name in the winners box in their draw before the tournament started. It doesn't matter that she didn't have to beat a top ten opponent - no one will remember that in the history books - and that her opponent took out both last year's champion and finalist. It's the last match that counts and Bartoli played determined tennis, while her opponent, Sabine Lisicki, emotionally exhausted from all that the fortnight had required of her, simply didn't have what it took to hardly even make it a contest. You couldn't help but feel for her as she struggled with tears at different times during the match. But in the end, no matter who you were cheering for, how could anyone not be happy for Marion Bartoli, the joy evident in everything she did, including her climb up to the player's box to collect hugs from her team. She is also the first person who plays with both hands on each side to win Wimbledon. Since I also play the same way, that novelty couldn't escape my attention.
And finally, history was made again by the amazing Bryan Brothers, who now hold all four grand slam titles simultaneously, as well as the Olympic gold medal. What an incredible achievement by these highly talented and very likeable guys. And now in a couple months they will have the opportunity to go for a calendar year grand slam at the U.S. Open.
So Wimbledon is over for another year and soon we will be fully into the build-up to the final hard court slam of the year. More stories to be written, more curiosity as to who will hold the next trophy, but in the meantime history has been made in several ways and we will long remember many of the stories created in this wacky and wild fortnight.
It was Davis Cup weekend, with matches taking place all over the world. Though I don't always like the idea of Davis Cup every year, several times during year, with the players having to choose whether to expend even more energy to play in a couple more best of five matches in an already exhausting season, it can make for some pretty high drama. There were several examples of that on this occasion.
Since I'm from the U.S. I will start with that. On Friday team USA and team Serbia ended up splitting sets, with John Isner losing to Novak Djokovic and Sam Querry pulling out a high intensity five setter against Victor Troicki. Most people assumed, with the #1 Bryan Brothers playing the doubles rubber against Nenad Zimonjic and virtual unknown Ilija Bozoljac, that it was almost a given it would soon be 2-1 USA. Many were saying Bozoljac was the weak link and assuming straight sets. They didn't bargain for the incredible fight the Serbians put up, taking the first two sets in tiebreaks. The Bryans came back to level it in the next two sets and then the match really began. With no tiebreak in Davis Cup in the fifth set it became a battle of wills to hold serve and each team did their job with amazing veracity. It was quite nerve wracking watching from my couch as the score crept higher and higher. Finally, in the 27th game of the set, the Bryan Brothers faltered and the Serbian team came up with a break. In spite of tremendous crowd support for the U.S., team Serbia pulled off an incredible victory, clinching it at 15-13. All credit to them for an amazing win against the best doubles team of all time.
The drama continued the following day for the Serbian team. Djokovic was due to play Sam Querry. Though Querry has beaten Djokovic before, it still appeared it would be a fairly easy win for world #1 Novak Djokovic. However, in only the 2nd game of the match Djokovic turned his ankle mid point. He continued on to finish the point, only to fall to the ground as soon as it ended in obvious pain.
The big question was would he be able to continue. When he was barely able to get off the court it certainly didn't appear he would be able to. But the responsibility he felt in getting a victory for his country propelled him on and with some extra wrapping on the ankle and pain pills he continued to put forth great effort and energy. Though he did drop the second set, soon he was on a roll and easily completed the victory for his team. There is certainly speculation now, however, as to what this means for him in his next couple scheduled tournaments beginning the clay court season.
It was quite an exciting weekend for Canadian tennis fans. The Canadian Davis Cup team has reached a new milestone - a trip to the DC semifinals, something they had never achieved before. After splitting matches with visiting team Italy on day 1, their doubles team of Nestor and Pospisil did what the Bryan brothers weren't able to do - they closed out another five setter with the exact same fifth set score as the American-Serbian match - 15-13, giving Canada a 2-1 lead. Milos Raonic had the honor of clinching the winning match for Canada, which will take them to Serbia in the fall for their first semifinal. You can tell what the victory meant to Raonic.
And finally I have to give some props to the team from Great Britain. They were playing against Russia, not in the main draw of Davis Cup but in one of the lower tiers trying to gain entry into the elite group for next year. Without their main man Andy Murray, they were playing with low ranked players who haven't been able to do much at the normal ATP level. Down 0-2 after the first day of competition, their chances were pretty slim. But at that point what did they have to lose? After getting the doubles point to give them a slight chance, first number 214 James Ward came back from being down 2 sets to 1 to pull off the 5 set upset against Dimitri Tursonov. But the likelihood of world number 325 Dan Evans, with all the pressure in the world sitting on his shoulders, beating someone ranked 245 places above him seemed virtually impossible. Yet it turned out to be a fairly straight forward straight set win for an inspired player trying to get his team back into the World Group again. Incredible effort by team Great Britain.
Quite an inspiring weekend to lead us into the clay court season.
Federer fans will be pleased to hear this morning, as we begin the exciting week of the World Tour Finals, that Roger continues another amazing streak of winning the Fan Favorites award for a 10th straight year(with 57% of the vote), and also winning the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award for an 8th out of 9 years. To me this latter one is the most impressive award he could win because it is voted by his peers. As fans we may feel like we "know" him pretty well by all that we are allowed to see and observe of his life on and off the courts, but his fellow players truly do know him and see how he acts in all aspects of life. To continue receiving this award year after year (with only one break, going to Nadal a few years ago) just shows what great character he has and why we as fans love him so much!
Other notable recipients were, of course, Djokovic and the Bryan Brothers ending the year as #1, most improved Marinko Matosevic, newcomer of the year Martin Klizan (maybe Janowicz would have gotten it if the Paris tournaments would have been a couple weeks ago, as he has now moved up to 26 in the world!), comeback player of the year Tommy Haas (yay!), Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award to Djokovic for his work with various charities including his own foundation, and doubles fan favorite was the Bryan Brothers for a record 8th year.
We have a great group of tennis players that we are privileged to follow. And unlike being a fan/follower of an actor or actress where we mostly see them playing roles, we get to follow the real person and often hear from them what they are thinking and feeling about different aspects of life. I particularly feel so fortunate to be able to participate in this period of time where the great Roger Federer is playing, and to have been able to watch him in person on a couple of occasions.
