Monday Net Post (Featuring no Rain!)
[Editor's Note: Because of timing issues, this post is going up after today's Crisis Center. Please keep discussion of play at Wimbledon at the Crisis Center (next post down). Many thanks to Ed for delivering another meaty MNP - PB]
Last Week's Tournament
The Championships, Wimbledon (ATP & WTA - Grass - Wimbledon, England)
- Gentlemen's Singles Bracket
- Ladies' Singles Bracket
- Gentlemen's Doubles Bracket
- Ladies' Doubles Bracket
**By the Letter
T**...orn stomach muscle forced Tommy Haas to withdraw from Wimbledon before his fourth round match with Roger Federer. The four-time defending champion will now have four full days off until his quarterfinal contest.
E...xclusively reported at TennisWorld earlier in the week, Pete Sampras declined a wild card invitation to this year's Championships.
N...ot entirely sober, Jonas Bjorkman still went out on court to play against Jose Acasuso in last year's Davis Cup, the Swede toldCafe magazine. The Swedish team did not intend to play on the third day of competition (Argentina had already clinched the tie 3-0) in order to protest the unfair crowd conditions, said Bjorkman. However, he did indeed play - and lost - 6-0, 6-1.
N...umerous terror threats in Great Britain have led to additional security roadblocks for fans at Wimbledon. Coupled with the unending rain throughout the first week, this Grand Slam hasn't ran very smoothly for those in attendance.
I...talian town of Reggio Emilia also hosted tennis (a Challenger event) this week, and featured a final between two players who have been in the news of late. Olivier Patience (who won 7-6, 1-6, 7-6) made noise for his performance against Novak Djokovic at the French Open, while runner-up Felix Mantilla was lauded for his return to the tour after a battle with skin cancer.
S...isters Venus and Serena Williams, along with Lisa Raymond and Vania King, were selected by Fed Cup captain Zina Garrison to represent the U.S. against Russia in their semifinal match on July 14 & 15. Russia has until July 4 to announce their team.
W...TA Championships will be moved to Doha, Qatar in 2008, and then to Istanbul, Turkey in 2011. The relocation will also lead to a significant increase in prize money - next year's event will have a $4.5 million purse, up from the current $3 million that is awarded.
O...n the heels of the "ATP Doubles Revolution" (if you have the Tennis Channel, you've surely seen the half-hour promo), the newest marketing effort for the format was unveiled by the ATP at Wimbledon, called "Doubles Rules".
R...oddick's quarter of the men's draw could just as easily be called "The French Quarter", as three of the four remaining players hail from France (Paul-Henri Mathieu, Richard Gasquet, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga). Appropriately, Andy wears French clothing (Lacoste) and wields a French racquet (Babolat).
L...onger matches have come to define Patty Schynder of late - after playing three three-setters at Roland Garros (including a tough defeat to Maria Sharapova in the fourth round), she needed three more to advance to the fourth round of Wimbledon, where she'll face Justine Henin.
D...egree in tennis will now be available for students to study at the University of Central Lancashire, much to the delight of the Lawn Tennis Association in Great Britain. The program is believed to be the first of its kind.
McGrogan's Heroes
ATP - The distinction for hero of the week on the men's draw is too close to call at the moment, as I feel that two player's achievements at Wimbledon both deserve equal praise. However, since these two will be playing each other in the upcoming fourth round, the matter will ultimately be settled rather quickly. The play of Juan Carlos Ferrero and Janko Tipsarevic has been one of the main story lines of the opening week (after the rain, of course!). It was followed closely by Tim Henman's memorable match with Carlos Moya.
Tipsarevic is the forgotten Serbian, even more so after the semifinal berths of countrymen Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Jelena Jankovic overshadowed his third round performance at the French Open. He's actually had a pretty nice year so far, which got turned around way back at Indian Wells. I recall watching him play lights out against Lleyton Hewitt in that Masters Series event, which he ended up winning in three sets. Since then, he's won a Challenger in Zagreb, reached the quarters in Den Bosch, and upped his world ranking from 100 to 62. And although he's needed the full five sets in each match to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, it's his career-best performance in London, during which he's beaten the number five seed Fernando Gonzalez. Maybe he'll even tattoo the Wimbledon insignia on himself if he wins it all.
The other player in this discussion is Ferrero, who looked like it was 2003 all over again when he played James Blake in the third round. A lethal serve and accurate ground strokes prevented the American from even winning a single point on Ferrero's serve in the second set; a near impossible feat to accomplish at this level of tennis. I've been hearing a little more noise from Ferrero over the past few months, most notably in the bigger tournaments.
Since reaching the final of Cincinnati last year, Ferrero has made it to the fourth round at Indian Wells, the semifinals at Monte Carlo, and won a pair of matches each at Hamburg and Roland Garros. They aren't Federer-like streaks, but it's a significant improvement for a former World Number One whose imposing presence on the tour seemed to vanish shortly after. He'll have a chance to advance to his first ever quarterfinal at Wimbledon if he can get by Tipsarevic on Monday. The winner of that match will also get a chance to stack up their grass game with the zenith of lawn tennis, as Roger Federer awaits the victor.
WTA - The French Open has never been very kind to Amelie Mauresmo, in large part due to the tremendous pressure she's had to shoulder from the Parisian crowd. But many of her shortcomings on the terre battue were forgiven after she won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006. Interestingly though, even as the defending champion, Mauresmo's name has scarcely been mentioned during the build up to this year's Wimbledon tournament.
Tennis chatter has instead mostly centered around Justine Henin (looking for the final puzzle piece to compete the career Grand Slam), Serena Williams (due to her sometimes unstoppable game on grass), and the Serbian duo of Ivanovic and Jankovic (after their breakthroughs in Paris). I'd almost say that I've never heard less talk about the defending champion of a Grand Slam than I have with Mauresmo this year. She's actually become an afterthought or a "wild card" in the eyes of many.
Maybe this has all been for the best, though - in Amelie's first three matches at the All England Club, she's simply dominated. Mauresmo has only conceded eight games in the six sets she's played, which came against fairly strong competition for the opening rounds of a Grand Slam (Jamea Jackson, Yvonne Meusburger and Mara Santangelo). Not even Henin, Serena, or Sharapova can say that they've surrendered fewer games than Mauresmo. Her opponents in upcoming rounds should probably take note of this, considering that Amelie has reached the semifinals or better in the last four Wimbledon Championships she's played in. If the path to a successful title defense continues in this manner, I'm sure Mauresmo wouldn't even mind this somewhat silent treatment.
This Week's Tournament
The Championships, Wimbledon (ATP & WTA - Grass - Wimbledon, England)
(As the Grand Slam lasts a fortnight, "Last Week's Tournament" and "This Week's Tournament" are the same event. For the brackets, please see above.)**
Beyond the Bracket**
You know, I really wanted to delve into the origin of the omission of play on the "middle Sunday" at Wimbledon - especially because of all of the rain this year - but my research simply yielded the same nine-letter word that I inevitably ended up with last week: tradition. After trying unsuccessfully to track down much substantial information of the many traditions at the All England Club, I've come to the conclusion that an authoritative chronicle of Wimbledon would surely be a tennis historian's opus, but they might die trying to achieve it.
Instead, I want to touch upon a subject that, while not specifically of the Wimbledon mold, definitely has an interaction with lawn tennis. In fact, one of its main qualities is that it isn't lawn tennis.
What I'm talking about is "real tennis", which is the earliest version of the game of tennis that we play and watch today. This brand of tennis, which uses a different style of court, racquets, and balls than "regular tennis", was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries with the English and French aristocracy. Players play in an enclosed court that features different style "ends" and "sides", as there is actually only one end of the court that players serve from. This picture gives a better idea of the playing surface, although it's tough to discern the geometric irregularities from it. For the racquet/ball variations, check this photo out.
The rules of the game are similar to tennis of today, although as you may expect, there are some important differences. The United States Court Tennis Association (USCTA) has an excellent primer on these variations, and to be honest, I'd really like to play this game after reading up on it. It sounds like an odd combination of tennis, racquetball, and squash. Has anyone played real tennis (or court tennis, as it's sometimes referred to) before? I'd love to hear testimonials.
I also bring up this topic as the USCTA, which was cited on last week's "Beyond the Bracket" is one of a few organizations that devote themselves to preserving court/real tennis. For some of the others, take a gander at this list. If you're interesting in learning more about the sport, any of those websites would be a fine place to start.
And if you want to play? Well, finding a court will be tougher than spotting a clay court in upstate New York, but this atlas will point you to all the real tennis courts remaining in the world. Play now - they're going fast!
- Ed McGrogan