Post-Wimbledon Thoughts

Tennis reminds me of what boxing used to be- except for the punches.

It’s Mano a Mano.

You can’t hide

Your mannerisms, tics, and habits reveal so much.

Think about it.  What other sport is like that?

As the great sportswriter Sally Jenkins penned, “there are no sweating throngs of teammates to hide among, not even a caddie to blame”.

It continues to be a sport featuring shot-making at lightning speed, deft touches that change pace of speed and spin, and powerful serves that can either connect as aces, or miss outside the lines or slam into the bottom of the net.

Only now it seems more dazzling because of the increased, speed, talent, and resilience of those who play at the highest level.

Wimbledon was the third of four major tennis championships held last week.

It is the only one played on a grass surface, and it is the oldest, founded in 1877.

Last year, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, at the age of 20, stunned Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who at 36, had been one of the three dominant men’s players alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

The trio were the very best fore two decades, collectively winning 66 major singles tournaments, with Djokovic leading the way with an all-time record 24.

When young Alcaraz defeated Djokovic in five sets some thought it was the signal of a changing of the guard in the sport.

But it was apparent all that was premature. He was far from done.

Djokovic, who has stayed in remarkable condition and able to continue to compete at the highest plane, didn’t go away.

In fact, he was a factor in virtually every tournament he played.

He secured the year-end world #1 by winning the 2023 ATP Finals. He defeated Alcaraz in the semifinals, and then downed Italy’s Jannik Sinner for the title.

This year, he lost to Sinner for the third time in three months in the Australian Open, had to pull out of the French Open suffering a right knee injury during his fourth round match.

He tore a cartilage in his knee and had to undergo surgery.

This was 25 days before the start of Wimbledon. There were huge questions as to whether he would even compete up until the start of the championships.

He said he would only play if he could go deep. He played, and he did.

Alcaraz, meanwhile, was unable to use his Wimbledon triumph as a springboard to what many, including myself, felt was a destiny that would propel him to become a successor to the Big Three as perhaps the greatest in the game. He looked that good, and he was only 20 at the time.

But instead, the Spaniard fell prey to several of the on-coming younger contenders who also had superior talent. That, and a plague of injuries affecting his ankle and wrist slowed him down.

He often was overly aggressive, not always playing the smart shot, and he began looking like a mere mortal.

We’ve mentioned Sinner, only 22, as being a major player in the new wave of those who can win any tournament, and any championship at any time.

In fact, Sinner became the world’s #1, and was top-seed at Wimbledon with Djokovic #2, and Alcaraz, dropping to the third-
Sinner beat Djokovic in the Australian Open for his first major crown.

Then, after losing to Alcaraz in the semifinal of the French Open in five sets, he was beaten at Wimbledon by another threat, 27-year old Daniil Medvedev also in five sets after a medical timeout for illness during the third set.

Alcaraz went on to win the French Open.

So, it came down to Carlos Alcaraz vs. Novak Djokovic once again for the Wimbledon championship.

The match is now history, of course, but there are points of emphasis that are worth noting in looking back.

For one, this was Alcaraz at his best. He rose to the occasion, starting with the very first game when he finally broke Djokovic’s serve that took 14 minutes to play.
Normally, matches take their course with the ebb and flow proceeding.

But this first game set the tone.

Alcaraz was overpowering. For someone who, even when he wins, rarely stays at a high level for an entire match, this was his best showing. Did Djokovic look old? Did he look like he’s finally lost it?  Not at all.

At 37, 16 years younger than Alcaraz,  he exemplifies the term- warrior.

After criticizing the crowd earlier for what he termed disrespect, he found the audience cheering him on when he trailed by two sets, wanting what he wanted, a more competitive duel.

There was one major slip for Carlos. With leading 40-love and needing only a point to close it out in the third set, Djokovic battled back to win the next six points to take his first lead in a set.

But the likable kid from Spain never lost his cool and won to create a tiebreak game in which he prevailed and captured his  second straight Wimbledon title and 4th Grand Slam in straight sets.

When it was over, Novak Djokovic said of Alcaraz, “he’s as complete a player as they come”.

He is now set apart by becoming on the sixth man to win the French on clay, and Wimbledon on grass in the same year.

The others: Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Enough said.

There is no limit to what Carlos Alcaraz can accomplish. But it’s far more difficult now with so many young challengers who have the ability to beat him if they play well and Alcaraz is off his game.

It seems that tennis, perhaps more than ever, is about handling adversity, where strategy and a plan of action are necessary, but pure instinct often takes over.

It is about willpower, and stamina.

All the good ones can make the shots.

But who can hang in there and wait for an opponent to experience a drop from a  high level of play and then take advantage of it?

Like boxing, as I remember it, you face your foe. There’s no one else.

You make your shots and you play the point.  It goes back and forth. Truly a game of inches.

Nothing is automatic. One of the players dig deep and survive.

Is there anything else like that?  I don’t think so.

There was a surprise winner in the women’s Wimbledon championship.

Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic captured the title over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.

The big favorites all were eliminated creating an improbable matchup for the final.

The emotional story here was that Krejcikova wrote a letter to one of her idols, Jana Novotna from the same country telling her she couldn’t decide whether to pursue a professional tennis career. Novotna who won Wimbledon in 1998 told Krejcikova she had the talent and should stick with the sport. Novotna became a mentor until she died of cancer in 2017.

“Before she passed away,” Krejcikova said, “she told me to go and win a Slam.”

Undoubtedly this was the most heartwarming story of the Wimbledon fortnight.

This talk of tennis whets my appetite for a traditional, and annual event locally.

It’s the John Russell tennis tournament for Community Betterment. It’s coming up soon.

July 26th. Learn about it- www.communitybetterment.org/alexandriabay.