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.
Christmas is over and for tennis fans we know what that means - the tennis players are leaving the wintery weather and heading for the sun drenched land down under! And even though New Years Day is still close to a week away, top names will be dusting off their racquets and getting in their groove to prepare for the important first major of the year, beginning in a little over two weeks time.
Many have been much anticipating Rafael Nadal's return to the court after a six month hiatus. His plan was to play at the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament to try to shake off the rust and get himself slowly back into form in what is a prestigious event, yet doesn't count for any points on the tour. However, he was ordered by his doctor to withdraw after catching some form of stomach virus. He is still scheduled, at this point, to take part in next week's 250 level tournament in Doha. Still participating in the exhibition, which begins the 27th of December, will be top players Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer, Berdych, Tipsarevic and now Almagro in Nadal's place. Noticeably absent from the event this year is Roger Federer, who reportedly was not asked to participate as he "hasn't won the event before."
Speaking of Federer, he is choosing not to play a warm-up event to the Australian Open this year, preferring to spend the lead-up in a large block of practice time instead, which will hopefully pay off for him, as he said he didn't have enough time to practice in the busy 2012 season. Given that he also played six matches this month in his South America tour, hopefully this has also kept him somewhat in form.
There are several tournaments leading up to the AO, one of them the Hopman Cup, which is a fun no-points event played between countries, one man and one woman playing for their country, also with a mixed doubles match thrown in. Some notable participants are Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic playing for Serbia, while Venus Williams pairs with John Isner for the U.S. There are also several small tournaments for both men and women individually in such places as Brisbane, Chennai and Sydney to name a few.
With a longer off-season this year, it actually felt pretty short to me given that there were the fun events from Federer's South American exhibition tour. That really helped to get through what would have been a very long stretch with no tennis. My intention to watch several of the past Federer grand slam wins didn't end up happening as much as I anticipated, so at this point I am itching for some competitive tennis once again. I can't wait to see all the scenarios begin to play out for the 2013 season ahead.
First of all, congratulations to Novak Djokovic who, through gritty determination was able to win the World Tour Finals, coming from behind in both sets to defeat Roger Federer. It was a high intensity match with twists and turns in the plot from start to finish. Though it seemed certain to go three sets when Roger was up 40-15 at 5-4, all of a sudden it seemed to be championship point at 5-6.
For Federer fans it was a disappointing end to be sure. It took me a while to come to terms with it. However, to be honest, I hadn't really expected him to win this tournament from the start. The fact that he was able to pull out a win in the semifinal against Murray and get to the final was incredibly exciting. This match against Djokovic was played at the highest level. Sure there were some errors that gave points away, but there were an awful lot of jaw dropping points also and not a boring moment of the match. Novak did what he does so often - hang in there when he's not playing as well and then through sheer determination snatch the match back. But the fact that he had to fight so hard, bloodying up his elbow in the process, against a guy six years his senior, shows the level that Roger Federer is still at, and anyone who is still asking if he is going to retire soon should be ashamed of themselves!
While maybe at this point I should be showing interviews and media blitzes from Novak, this is primarily a Fedfan blog, so while I definitely give much credit to those who do well, my heart is always with Roger. So those who are in the same boat should take much comfort and enjoyment in the fact that he had more wins this year than he has had in quite a few years, he won six titles this year (including 1 GS and 3 Masters 1000s), got #1 back for a record 302 weeks, and overall simply was amazing, making his fans proud. He is very deserving of some beach time, which he loves, with his three girls and hopefully feeling rejuvenated and ready for a new season to set more amazing records.
Here is a video of some behind the scenes stuff after his match. Love his laugh! I think he is doing just fine after his loss:
Though the 2012 season is mostly over there is still Davis Cup this weekend, plus quite a few exhibitions that maybe we will get to see some of. I will still continue to give updates whenever I find some fun or interesting tennis tidbits. Tennis is never truly over!
What an amazing comeback from the GOAT Roger Federer in his semifinal against Andy Murray. He started the match by immediately getting broken and just had the kind of flat, tired look to him that he had in the Gold Medal match and the Shanghai semi that he played against Murray. I admit that I didn't really like his chances. To me it just kind of felt like he was tired from a long season and didn't have enough left, and Murray seemed inspired, ready to make his first final in London. How wrong I was! Unlike yesterday, he converted on his first break point to get it back on serve again, and unlike yesterday, though he got down a minibreak in the tiebreak he come back from that and played some great points to take the first set.
Losing the first set seemed to really discourage Murray, not to mention the great crowd support Federer was getting, and it all went downhill for him from there. And Roger was on fire with the momentum of that first set. It was a very happy day for Federer and his fans and he now has the opportunity to win his seventh World Tour Finals, his third in a row.
Novak Djokovic had a comeback of his own after losing the 1st set to Del Potro. Who will triumph in this final pitting #1 against #2?
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.
Wow, what a match! When I saw the wind once again and how that was affecting play in the first few games I really didn't know what to expect. Novak Djokovic was obviously out of sorts from the start, not able to figure out how to overcome this disruption to his style of play. It turned out to be a see-saw affair, however, as one would take advantage while the other was down, only to see the other turn it around. Their rallies they had were incredible, with the longest being a 54-shot rally, and several in the 30s. Even when they ended with an error, often from the wind, it didn't diminish the, dare I say, ridiculousness of what they were accomplishing!
The first set tiebreak was incredible! I had stupidly scheduled my own tennis match that day, thinking surely there wouldn't be a Monday final for the fifth year in a row. I needed to leave during the tiebreak but I thought maybe I could get through it and be a couple minutes late. When Murray hit a fairly easy ball into the net on set point at 6-7 I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish it and had to wait through my own match (walking past the TV in the club with everyone gathered around without looking). Talk about having problems concentrating on my match with that going on (though I did manage to win our first long set and leave it on serve in the second). I digress - that tiebreak was very important for Murray's confidence and belief that he could do it. I won't go through each set, but when he lost the 4th, with Djokovic rallying and taking control in the 3rd and 4th sets, I was getting pretty nervous for him that he was going to go away in the 5th. He came out with fierce determination, however. I can almost see his mind working, that he is NOT going to lose again. He came out the much stronger player and Novak was obviously losing energy, surprising for someone who has played incredible back-to-back matches of endurance in previous majors. Murray held strong through the whole set, really not showing any nerves, and closed it out at 6-2. With a very muted celebration, and some hidden tears, Andy Murray finally stopped the drought of Great Britain grand slam winners and became the fourth different man to win a major in 2012.
Though I'm certainly not a big Murray fan, I really wanted him to win this one and get past this huge hurdle in his career. So now we will have four long months to wonder who is going to emerge in Australia (assuming they get this pay issue worked out) after each of the big 4 winning one this year. It will be truly fascinating. And before that, who will end up as #1 at the end of the year? Will Roger have the energy to defend all those points from last year and hold on to #1? Or will this loss kick Novak into gear to try to have a strong finish to the year and gain it back? It all remains to be seen.
And I would be remiss not to mention Serena's great win on Saturday. I was so pleased that this wasn't just another blow-out women's final, which gets so boring! Victoria Azarenka really fought back and made it a great match. Surely she must have been disappointed that she wasn't able to close things out when she served for it, but she also knew Serena is a fighter and wouldn't let it go easily. I think they each did themselves proud and gave the New York crowd a great women's final. Good to see some Americans come through, along with the Bryan Brothers winning their 12th grand slam trophy and breaking the record for the most major wins.
Time to take a bit of a tennis hiatus with some family stuff going on for the next week. We'll see if I even get any Davis Cup watched or not. All in all it was a great U.S. Open in spite of the disappointment of Roger losing in the quarters, and looking forward to next month already!
