Keeping Tennis Flagship afloat
Fortunately, this year the Men’s draw had the old soldiers to keep the flame of Wimbledon Tennis burning. Wimbledon is the flagship Tennis in the world. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Kevin Anderson, John Isner, Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic have made it to the Quarterfinals. It gave credibility to the event’s ‘Gentleman’s singles’.
Unfortunately, it was not so on the Ladies side. None from the Top 10 of the Seeded players made it to the Quarterfinals. It is of concern to the game.
On the Tuesday of the 2nd week, the frontrunners were Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber, both former World No.1, and now in their 30′s, returning to the game. Apart from that, Jelena Ostapenko, the surprise winner of last year’s French Open, was the other prospect. Is it the adaptation to grass or, even more so, there is room to think the top ranked Women’s performances have been very inconsistent this year? In fact, one sees very little difference in the quality of their Tennis between the Top 5 and the 20th ranked player. The Top 10 seem to have had a bad day, almost by turns.
Winning on a bad day
Rodney George Laver is the last man to win the Grand Slam, which is winning the 4 Majors in a calendar year. The last time he won was 49 years ago in 1969. Laver won it twice in his career. He revealed the secret of his success. He declared, no player plays well all the time. To win the Grand Slam, a player must know how to win on a bad day. This could be the ‘missing link’ in Tennis today. It falls on to the personality factor, to perform, and not mere possession of good Tennis skills.
Overplay and injuries affect Women more than Men. Together with the intensity of the game and the frequency of events into the second half of the calendar, the performances have dipped. If a player does not have the ‘personality’ to adapt to play well on a bad day, winning to register their presence in history will not happen.
Praiseworthy Romanian
A phenomenon described in sport as ‘maturity’ is a complex combination of skill, motivation, physical ability, disciplines and much more. After the loss to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei ranked 48, Simona Halep, current World No.1, was courageous enough to say that she lost because she was not ‘professional’ on court. One has to give full credit and praise to this Romanian for stating it in such a high place as the Wimbledon post-match interview. This should go on record, and it shows she has the character to bounce back. Her maturity will be rewarded one day.
Grass Tennis and Rankings
Grass court needs adaptation. Most of the top players are not comfortable on grass and do not have the critical ‘Serve and Volley’ game needed. On Women’s Tennis there is hardly anyone who can control a match with ‘Serve and Volley’ combination. It was the Australian brand of Tennis that dominated the world, up to the time Bjorn Borg of Sweden appeared. Outside Australia, among Women, American Billie Jean King [Moffit] and Czech-American Martina Navratilova dominated the world with it in Women’s Tennis.
An argument is brewing as whether there should be a Ranking for each surface. That is Hard, Grass and Clay. In a way, it already exists. Event organisers always weight their player Seeding according to the surface.
Another argument is whether the ranking points awarded are an exaggeration in Grand Slam and in top money events. There is no way to equate this to the realities of professional Tennis of today. After the entire field is vast and differences in playing ability is becoming thinner by the day. The observation that could be held true is that good players like of Rod Laver, Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Rafael Nadal and among women Billie jean king, Margret Court, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova do not appear all the time. Considering the number starting Tennis and becoming an icon, it is one in a one hundred million chance. If at all less.
Expectation from Wimbledon
In comparison to the past, this year has been not so attractive till the middle Sunday. The news was always another Seeded player going out. This year’s 1st week will be remembered for the total annihilation of the Women’s Ranking for the first time since 1961. It all began when Garbine Muguruza, current title holder, lost in the 2nd round.
There are more rest periods in the second week between matches. The 1st week had close to 300 matches. The 2nd week has less pressure from the Open events. Sportswriters who found it difficult to write a good piece, will be happier in the 2nd week.
The Wimbledon Championships is the Flagship of Tennis. It is everyone’s concern that it goes well. For the players, winning matters, not only in prestige, but the money too. This year’s total purse is 34 million Pounds Sterling. Women’s and Men’s winner will go home with over 2 million Pounds Sterling, and Wimbledon will have to keep the Tennis flagship sailing.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of German Federation; National coach Sri Lanka & Brunei, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– contact 94 77 544 8880 geodano2015@gmail.com –