Your Call, 11.28
Good morning. I hope that everyone who's been celebrating has enjoyed Thanksgiving. Pete's away until the beginning of next week, so I'll be providing daily Your Call posts so that the Tribe can keep on talking.
I'll be covering the BlackRock Masters from the Royal Albert Hall next week (among others, Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg will be there), but we'll have a few weeks in TW with no pro tennis to watch and comment on. I'd like to do something similar to what we've done during previous quiet periods, so until Pete returns (and maybe afterwards), I'll be putting up pictures that represent "Moments of 2008". Today's picture is my own first choice. I took it myself as the players were walking off court after the Wimbledon men's final, and it's special to me for several reasons.
First, as some of you will know, I lived in Wimbledon for a number of years. When I lived there, I used to drive past the AELTC almost every day. Of all the Slams, Wimbledon is closest to my heart - it's the one I grew up watching on the BBC as a child, and it's the first tennis tournament that I was ever taken to visit. I would probably think that it's the world's greatest tennis tournament even if many other people didn't agree with me. It's also true that, more than any other, the player that first compelled me to watch tennis was Bjorn Borg, and I have always seen parallels between the young Borg and the young Nadal. Before Nadal achieved the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double this year (taking in Queen's Club in between), Borg was the last man to do this (in 1980), and during the final I could see him sitting in the Royal Box, watching.
Wimbledon 2007's final was an exciting, unpredictable match in its own right - the result a shining sporting achievement for the winner, Federer, and a tough loss for the then two-time finalist, Nadal. I said at the time that it was the most painful sporting loss that I'd ever witnessed. Winning Wimbledon 2008 was not only a reversal, but the moment (for me) when my favourite player of the last few years broke through to win a Slam on a surface other than clay for the first time, and looked like the future number one player. For a long time, it had looked as though it might never happen - only weeks before that, both in Hamburg and at Roland Garros, Nadal had been fighting off the challenge of Novak Djokovic to preserve his number two ranking.
Finally, the feeling that evening on Centre Court Court was like nothing else I have ever experienced - truly momentous. I arrived at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club that day not knowing whether the final would be played that day - or if it was to be played, whether it would finish. We all know the quality of the match that unfolded. The atmosphere was gloomy and oppressive during much of the day, there were two lengthy rain delays, and well before the final ended, light was becoming an issue - I could see the ball, but the lines were less easy. After the final point was played in deep shadow, the court and the players were lit up by hundreds of flashbulbs going off, and when I looked up while it was going on, the sky looked black. It felt something like bonfire night, with fireworks. I don't know whether Centre Court will have lights next year, but it will have a roof, so such a finish to a Wimbledon final is unlikely to be seen again.
Other that the Wimbledon men's final and its outcome (and putting aside the majestic run of success that Rafael Nadal enjoyed over the late spring and summer, all of which was noteworthy for a fan), my own outstanding moments of the year included Noval Djokovic winning the Australian Open (becoming the first Slam winner other than Federer or Nadal since the Australian Open of 2005), and Andy Murray's triumph in Cincinnati, winning his first Masters Series shield, followed by his progress to the US Open final, and a second Masters Series shield in Madrid. Spain's unexpected triumph in the Davis Cup final also deserves a mention, as does Elena Dementieva's Olympic Gold Medal.
This post is open for off-topic comments, but I'd like to invite all members of the Tribe to nominate their own favourite tennis-related moments of 2008, and to say why they were special. I'll try to provide pictures of some of them in the days to come.
-- Rosangel Valenti