Tennis Icons – Serena and Murray
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Evolved to near perfection in Tennis skills, tactics and personality, USA’s Serena Williams and Great Britain’s Andy Murray outclassed the field to win the 2016 Wimbledon Championships last weekend in London. Undisputedly, their understanding, exhibition of the game and the clinical precision in its execution will be a sought-after reference in the future of the game. Both players also lived up to their seedings. Murray, winning his second Wimbledon title, takes his place alongside legendary compatriot Tennis player of the 1930’s, Fred Perry. As for Serena, she has equalled Steffi Graf’s Grand-Slam record. These make them icons in their countries and in the Tennis world.
In the finals, they overcame the full fledged challenges of Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the Women’s Singles and Canada’s Milos Raonic in the Men’s. These two matches will be remembered for the suspense and thrills they produced. Considering this Wimbledon was played in the most testing conditions, players accommodated the challenges and did a great deal of justice to sport. It is a reassurance, at a time when sport and its virtues are questioned from all sides, for its validity, social role and its existence in the modern world.
The winning game
On many occasions Serena’s services touched 130 miles per hour and was the winning tool in the final. Having lost to Kerber this year in the Australian-Open finals, Serena was never at ease. Except for her service and return, Kerber excelled in all other departments. Kerber’s stamina, speed and even the occasional appearance at the net were well rewarded, and Serena had to produce great Tennis to stay on top. In the end, just two bad games by Kerber gave Serena this win to equal Steffi Graff’s 22 Grand Slam titles record. This is the best Tennis Serena has exhibited since her infamous loss in the US-Open of 2015 to Italian Roberta Vinci, which denied her the Grand-Slam.
Up to now, it has been a great year for Angelique Kerber too. She won the Australian-Open this year, beating Serena Williams, a couple of titles in Europe, then beat 5-time Wimbledon Champion Venus Williams in the semi-finals, and played a final at Wimbledon. It looks like she will be the successor to Steffi Graf’s legacy in Germany. In this final, her positional play from the baseline was not effective. She positioned to rally a little too far behind the baseline, to accommodate the pace at which the match was played, which gave Serena more time to hit winners. The advantage Serena had over Kerber on the grass court was profound.
Men’s Wimbledon final
Right through the championships Andy Murray gave a good many signs to take home the second title. In the entire tournament he lost only one set to Frenchman Tsonga. With Djokovic and a few other favourites being knocked out of the draw, the 77-year-old ‘hoodoo’ on the All England Tennis Club courts ended for Britain. So many women and men from England created good impressions this year, which includes qualifier Willis. His spirited and entertaining performance against Roger Federer was unforgettable. Britain’s 24-year-old Heather Watson and her Finnish partner Kontinen won the Mixed Doubles title. The final between Murray and Raonic can be considered the modern formula for grass. Murray’s and Raonic’s serve at times reached 140 miles per hour.
The court being 78 feet long, these services gave just about 1/3 of a split second to sight the ball, decide and execute the shot. Whenever such serves were well placed, neither of the players was able to return them. So, to win, it became an issue of who gets more first serves in, and Murray clocked 87%. Another reason why Murray was able to win without dropping a set was his ability to cover the court very effectively and play well at the net. His well calculated moves to reach the net, whenever the opponent was stretched, paid good dividends right through the Championship. Raonic did the traditional slicing and reaching the net and made some good finishing volleys. It was a successful formula, but Murray read him well and passed him too many times.
Professional Tennis
Big serve and punishing returns, hanging in tough mentally, effective net-play, power-packed ground stroke winners and being clinically tactical is the professional formula to win at this level. Just a handful of players are able to achieve this. The few players who succeed are building teams to stretch their winning streak to maximize earnings. This scenario leaves a burning question to countries like ours – Sri Lanka. Are we anywhere close to producing such players?
Unless a good team comes together and find a formula, as in the case of France in recent years, many countries in the lower tiers will be left to having local events which only serve the ‘local billboards’ and ‘amusements’. Our ceremonial approach in administration, only exhibits distracted, weak management and in turn, extremely poor initiatives.
Rio and US-Open
The next big sporting events are the Olympics followed by the US-Open – the last of the Grand Slams. Serena Williams and Andy Murray will be seen and followed with keen eyes. Both are Gold medal prospects in Rio.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. georgepaldano@yahoo.com