The Anomaly

I went out to Suzanne Lenglen late this afternoon with high expectations; it seems that everywhere I turned in the past few days, I couldnt escape the praise for Carla Suarez Navarro, the Canary Islander whose height is such a well kept secret that neither the WTA nor the Roland Garros websites dares publish it. It took me an annoying 10 minutes to finally find it posted at the ITF Fed Cup site, so I can happily report that she's a diminutive 1-foot-6 and weighs 58 pounds.

Wait. You say that's meters and kilograms? Ah, now I see. That would make her a shade under 5-3, 127 lbs, but today she played a lot smaller. She was blown out of the French quarterfinals by Jelena Jankovic. And it was drizzly. And cold. Waaaahhhhh! The only bright spot on the day was Jankovic's smile; I always did like the fact that this Serbian girl really seems to enjoy playing before -and to - a crowd. Players who believe they need to shut out the audience in order to play their best are fine by me, but sometimes it's nice to be relieved of the reminder that this particular quarterfinal in Paris (or Sopot, or Bali, wherever. . .) isn't necessarily a matter of life or death.

Although in this case, it was. They fitted the black hood over the poor little Spanish girl's curly black hair early and the next thing you know she'd been prefunctorily executed, 6-2, 6-2. I'd put down as another ninety minutes of my life wasted, were it not for the fact that I enjoy watching Jankovic make faces, mumble at her mom, laugh with (or is it at?) the crowd. I like watching her game too, even though it's fundamentally not the sort game that's supposed to win over the connisseur. Which brings us back to Suarez-Navarro.

Unlike many of the technical romantics around these parts, I'm no longer enchanted by the one-handed backhand. Lately, I've take a lot more pleasure out of the two-hander, because you don't really have to hit around that stupid obstacle called your body. The one-hander may be the classic backhand, but the two-hander seems a more classic motion: brother to the tee shot, sister to the prodigious swing in baseball, cousin to the hammer throw. All in all, and all other things aside, the two-hander seems a shot with a simpler narrative.

But many of the aesthetes here have been proclaiming the beauty of Carla's one-handed backhand, and I went to Lenglen thinking I might have to bring back a report on the next Justine Henin. I was, frankly, disappointed. I don't want to be mean here (and I'm glad Suarez Navarro doesn't speak or read English), but I was stunned that this 20-year old had found her way into a Roland Garros quarterfinal.

More power (and all credit) to her for that; nobody sells or barters or awards so distinguished a berth. But the player I saw - and remember, I only saw her today - was truly puzzling. Suarez Navarro is built on a platform similar to Svetlana Kuznetsova's; she has a load of torso and thick thighs. Her upper body, with those rounded shoulders, is suggestive of anything but a tennis player. But where Kuznetsova has that loose, rolling, athletic manner. Suarez Navarro is more of a plodder. She simply lacks the mobility and quickness of a Kuznetsova. The notion, floated around a bit here, that she may be the next Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario is patently absurd.

If you saw this girl at the Starbuck's in Las Palms de Gran Canaria (her hometown) and somebody told you she was a Roland Garros quarterfinalist, you'd be hard pressed to believe him. But then, she's a gifted striker of the ball, no doubt it. She has terrific hands; today she hit the best drop shot I've seen during this event. But despite having a good volley, excellent touch, and an eye for the attack, she plays with signature, Spanish topspin. She's a grass court player trapped in a dirtballer's game. This is bound to present her problems on fast surfaces, because as crisp and powerful as her backhand is, she hits with an enormous backswing and follow-through - and we saw how far that kind of preparation got Gustavo Kuerten and Tomas Muster on grass.

As Jankovic said in her presser: "She hits a very strong topspin, you know. It's a typical Spanish game. If you let her play her game, you know, it can be very difficult because her ball can be quite heavy and she can push you, you know, very far back in the court. So I had to be very close to the baseline and try to get all those balls on the rise, and try not to let her play what she wants to play."

Still, you have to give Saurez Navarro credit for determination and hope. She's working with all kinds of handicaps, starting with her size and ending with the clash between her technique and her most natural inclinations. She's an anomaly; no doubt about it. In a way, that's refreshing, and it increases my wonder at the diversity of this game.

She said today, "It's true that I have a bitter aftertaste after this last match, because I was not as relaxed as I was during the other matches.  I was not having as much fun and pleasure on the court. It's also true that the previous matches had had an impact on me.  It's also true that I was playing the No. 3 in the world.  But I continue working, training, practicing, because I really want to win this tournament one day.  So I'll go on working."

I'd say the the ambition has Sisyphean overtones.