Wimbledon ‘Fever’ begins
Tennis started on the English lawns ‘stealing’ some of the popularity of their traditional lawn games such as crocket and Bowling. In the hundred over years of Tennis, it has overtaken the popularity of most other sports. The Wimbledon championships as the gentleman’s game, fostered Tennis keeping the dress code to strictly white. Even the events are named as Gentlemen’s and Ladies events’ and not men’s and women’s. To keep the development to suit the original surface it has gone to the extent of creating a type of grass most suited for modern intense use of courts. Grass courts demand formidable amount of work to maintain and Wimbledon courts are the world’s show-pieces.
Wimbledon is the All England Tennis championships and is the premier Tennis event of the world and is over 125 years old. Along with the three other Grand-Slam events – Australian-Open, French-Open and the US-Open, Wimbledon enjoys a special status and has a whopping prize money package.
Tight change over time
The time between the French-Open and Wimbledon is just few weeks. French-Open ends in the first week of June and the Wimbledon is in the fourth week of June. In this period, players will have to shift their game from ‘slow clay’ to the fastest surface – grass. In reality very few succeed. Even on clay open-Tennis is super fast but grass is faster and the best game for Grass is the ‘serve and volley’. Tactically it gives the best advantage. Wimbledon’s newly developed special grass is slower than the original grass courts. Even so it is still faster than hard courts and the bounce is low but consistent.
The popular grass events before Wimbledon in England are Queen’s Club and East Bourne. Both are in London. In the last few decades the number of grass events has increased with Germany stepping into the grass court season with Stuttgart and Halle. Their popularity is due to their timing. Grass court events really have to limit their entry as the court will not withstand a heavy schedule. For players, changing the game to grass, is a massive challenge. Already in these pre Wimbledon grass court events, big names have been beaten. It includes Roger Federer and goes on to Stan Wawrinka and Garbine Mugurusa.
Sri Lanka has the one and one grass court in the island at the Victoria Golf and Country resort in Digana and the main man behind this development is Tony Whitham. The last two grass courts were at the Queen’s Club at Bauddhaloka Mawatha [Bullers Road] Colombo, up until the mid-seventies.
Grass court game
To hit a pass shot on clay court is somewhat easier because the bounce is high with a low speed. It is the opposite on grass courts. This encourages players to use the net game more. Serve and Volley as a tactic came to being on Grass. Many, especially the Spaniards do not seem to change the game too much simply because the grass season is so short in the tour calendar.
New generation and Dominic Thiem
Austria’s Thiem won the fourth title for the year at the Stuttgart event. Many would remember Novak Djokovic as the most successful player now. Digging deep into our memory we would recall him struggling behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for almost four long years. It is never easy to reach the top and to remain at the top is even more difficult. This year Djokovic has lost three times in early rounds before the finals. Dominic Thiem is the fastest rising-star at the moment. The 22-year-old has game good enough to shake even the best. As one of the new generation players he is making a mark and signs are that he is good enough to place your bets on for the top slot.
There is a set of new generation players pursuing to take the top slots. They are Japan’s Kei Nishikori who shows improvement all the time, Australia’s Nic Krygios even with his boisterous temperament his Tennis is good and the other is Belgian’s David Goffin. It was Goffin’s presence in the Belgian Davis Cup team that took them to the finals last year.
Among the women, Garbine Mugurusa has shown the best potential for the top slot. Simona Halep peaked two years ago but since then she went through a breast reduction surgery and changed her coach a few times. She did well in the French-Open and has a respectable position in the top ten of the world. Switzerland’s Timea Baczincski too is impressive. She too has moved up into the top ten. Women being mostly baseliners Wimbledon could be a tough adjustment. The new grass permits reasonable leverage for ground strokes. The outsiders who are very likely do well on Grass are England’s Zonta, Belgium’s Berten and USA’s Rogers.
Weather conditions
French-Open weather challenged players’ resilience and made tournament directorate unpopular. Wimbledon is equipped to accommodate bad weather better with a covered court and if the rain stays away in the first week, the Wimbledon challenge will not be from the weather but between the players themselves.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. georgepaldano@yahoo.com