The first week’s most competitive matches are supposed to happen on the outer courts, while the blow-outs go on in Centre, right? That’s not how it worked out at Wimbledon this year. On Thursday Rafael Nadal lost to Dustin Brown; on Friday Serena Williams barely survived Heather Watson; and on Saturday, in a fitting close to the opening week, defending champion Petra Kvitova was sent off by the normally less-than-grasstastic Jelena Jankovic.
I’ll start my recap of the day’s events with that stunner, and work my way to the side courts from there. It was a day when some Wimbledon lovers, as expected, rose to the occasion, while others saw their stay at their favorite event cut heartbreakingly short.
Not surviving, not advancing
“Survive and advance” is how a seasoned competitor gets through a big tournament. That’s your only job; you don’t have to play well or beautifully, you just have to make it to the next round. On Friday, the No. 1 contender for the women’s title, Serena Williams, survived her first serious scare, from Heather Watson. On Saturday, the No. 2 contender, Kvitova, succumbed to hers, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. That, as much as anything else about their games, is why one of them has 20 major titles and the other has two.
Like Serena on Saturday, there were no warning signs in the first set that Kvitova might be facing trouble. She controlled the points with her serve and forehand, and didn’t show any hints of the inconsistency that troubles her everywhere but Centre Court. Her serve in particular was key. Kvitova doesn’t blast aces, but she does have a heavy lefty slice. Grass, which speeds a curving shot along its path faster than any other surface, helps pull that serve away from her opponents. When Kvitova hooked one down the T and held for 4-2 in the second set, she appeared all but into the second week.
Unlike Serena, though, Kvitova was facing an opponent who had once been ranked No. 1 in the world. Jankovic is no fan of playing on grass—“It doesn’t come natural to me,” she says—but she had beaten Kvitova twice in the past. JJ wore a sponsorship patch for the website lastminute.com, and it would prove apt, because she found her form at the 11th hour. JJ has always been a great absorber and redirector of pace, and that’s what she began to do with Kvitova’s ground-stroke missiles. By the end of the set, it was Kvitova who was on a string, chasing the ball futilely from sideline to sideline. Her face flushed from nerves and exhaustion, she lost control of her serve, the set, and ultimately the match.
Many WTA fans had been hoping to see a Serena-Kvitova final. But just as many fans wanted to see the ever-entertaining, 30-year-old Jankovic do well. Who else but JJ would make the most of a bathroom break of her opponent by bantering with the crowd, and even, it appeared, helping them start the Mexican Wave?
Many of us may feel a sense of remorse if there’s a less-than-stellar women’s final on Saturday, but for now it was worth it to watch Jankovic hammer home a brilliant backhand return on match point, and drop to the court like she’d just won the whole thing.
Opposites, attracting
Let the record show that the best point, set, and tie-break of Wimbledon’s first week came early on Saturday on Court 2. That’s where Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber met for their third-rounder, and their second match at a major in a month. From a stylistic perspective, the Spaniard and the German are perfectly matched: Muguruza is an aggressive walloper of the ball, while Kerber is a relentless defender, and neither woman hits with much loop. Muguruza had won their match at Roland Garros, but Kerber, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2012, seemed likely to turn the tables here.
The upshot, for the first hour and 23 minutes, was a glorious stalemate. The rallies in the first set were pure laser fire. Muguruza leaned forward and attacked, Kerber gave as good as she got, and any shot left hanging was dealt with severely. Kerber reached set point nine times, and watched as Muguruza wiped all of them away, often with line-painting winners. It was Muguruza who, after living on the edge for so long, won the first-set tie-break 14-12. The two women were so dialled in, or perhaps so dazed and exhausted, that they repeatedly forgot when they were supposed to switch sides.
Garbine Muguruza
Kerber, despite winning the second set, never fully recovered from those squandered chances. When Muguruza closed the match out in the third set, both women were on the verge of tears. It had only been a third-round match, but each of them knew that their section of the draw offered a path to the semi-finals. When Kerber found out later that Kvitova had lost, and left a path all the way to the final for Muguruza, she may have cried a second time.
Done and dusted
Four straight years, four straight early losses for Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, and now four straight losses in the following round for the men who beat him. Lukas Rosol, Steve Darcis, Nick Kyrgios and Dustin Brown: all sent Rafa packing one day, only to head for the exits themselves two days later.
Brown lost to a more-than-respectable opponent on Saturday, Viktor Troicki, 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3. Tennis’s most famous dreadlocks did their share of flying, and Brown managed a few of his trademark diving stabs and spectacular winners, but the magical energy he generated on Centre Court on Thursday never materialised in the quieter, more obscure confines of No.2 Court.
Everything was back to normal, which was bad news for Brown against this opponent. Troicki, who is ranked 78 spots higher than Brown, returned his serve without much trouble, passed him when he came to the net, and didn’t, like Rafa, offer many high-bouncing short balls to feast on.
Against Nadal, Brown served out his upset with swagger; on Saturday, he ended by foot-faulting in his final service game, and double-faulting on match point.
If Brown could somehow manage to make every shot as difficult as possible, he might be No.1 in the world. Alas, some of them have to be routine, and that’s where he can struggle. On Thursday, Brown was the king of Centre Court; next week he’ll be playing club matches in Cologne – this how the sport works. There may be no time to celebrate now, but you get the feeling that the politely upbeat Dreddy enjoyed his moment. He promises, when the season is over and he’s home again, to hoist a Red Stripe to his day in the Wimbledon sun. I’m guessing the memory will still taste good.
