The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Federer's charge to the final halted by rain

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Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Federer's charge to the final halted by rain

By Nirmal Shekar

LONDON, JULY 2. It takes an act of nature to stop an irresistible force. At the 118th Wimbledon championships, where no player has so far managed to remotely threaten Roger Federer's domination, rain has gleefully stepped into the breach to throw up a few anxious moments for the defending champion.

Even as the Swiss top seed took charge early in the semifinal match against the Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean on Friday afternoon and suggested that he might sprint towards a place in Sunday's final, persistent rain washed over his ambitions.

A sun drenched centre court welcomed the players and Federer broke Grosjean's serve in the Frenchman's opening service game to go up 2-0. Although Grosjean grew in confidence to hold his next two service games, Federer was leading 3-2 and 40-30 on serve when the rain arrived at 1.27 p.m.

The players were back on court shortly after 2 p.m. but even as they were hitting, the rain returned to send them scurrying back into the dressing room. The third time they came in was at 3.40 p.m. and then again it began to rain three minutes after their entry.

Few Wimbledons in recent memory have been quite as badly affected by poor weather as this one. Except for two days — the first Thursday and Friday — play has been interrupted every single day at the championships.

While a total washout, as happened on the first Wednesday and Saturday, is not uncommon at the game's premier championship, seldom does it rain as often through an entire fortnight as it has this year.

Spectators cowering under umbrellas, over-crowded bars and restaurants, Alan Mills standing at the players' entrance on the centre court and staring at charcoal grey skies...all familiar sights this year every single day barring two.

And this famous summer ritual may have a few more replays before a roof settles on the top of the centre court in the year 2008.

Fighting victory

On Thursday evening, the defending champion and the top seed in the women's championship, Serena Williams, teetering on the very brink in the second set of her semifinal match against an inspired Amelie Mauresmo of France, simply refused to contemplate the inevitable and staged a comeback worthy of a Jimmy Connors.

Serena's 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 victory in two hours and 27 minutes of gripping, seat-edge drama on the centre court earned her the chance to become the first woman since Steffi Graf to win three straight titles when she takes on the 17-year old Russian Maria Sharapova on Saturday.

``I didn't have a game today. I just had a heart,'' said Serena, who spent eight months away from the game after last year's championship and has played very little tennis this year.

But close contests on a big stage are more often than not won by virtue of a big heart rather than shot-making skills.

And, on a day when she was nowhere near the form that saw her humiliate Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals, Serena drove herself on pure adrenalin to post a memorable victory.

Mauresmo, one of the most talented players never to have won a Grand Slam title, played perhaps the best grass court match of her career.

While serving and volleying in a style reminiscent of the great Martina Navratilova, the French-woman dominated from the back of the court too with her audacious shot-making.

``I feel I am coming out of the court here playing some great tennis,'' said Mauresmo at the post match press conference. It was a brand of tennis that would have seen her past almost every player in the woman's game — every player but one.

For, Serena is as good a fighter as the woman's game has seen in recent times and the fact that she has not won anything of significance since Wimbledon 2003 has given her a ravenous appetite for the kill this fortnight.

The champion served for the first set in the ninth game but was broken by Mauresmo who went on to take control of the tiebreaker before opening up a 3-1 second set lead. ``It was very exciting at that point,'' said Serena.

"I said to myself, OK, I lost that first set. I shouldn't have lost that first set and if I carry on like that I could be going home. So I kept fighting. That was all I had — fight.''

More often than not, that — the ability to fight one's way out of a deep hole — is good enough to embrace glory. Playing the big points with tremendous courage and skills and backing herself to bring off the big winners when she needed them, Serena broke in the 12th game of the second set to knot up the match.

But this was a day when Mauresmo, who has always found the mental edge rather elusive, was not going to cave in. She fought all the way till the 10th game of the decider when her nemesis — the monster within — resurfaced even as Serena stepped on the pedal in sight of the finish.

``It was pretty exciting tennis,'' Serena said today, looking back. "It meant a lot (to women's tennis). Both the matches were pretty exciting. There is a lot of excitement in women's tennis.''

Mixed doubles marathon

There was no dearth of excitement on court No.13 either. Well past 9 p.m., every single seat in the stands was taken as four inspired players were locked in a fascinating battle for a place in the mixed doubles quarterfinals on Thursday evening.

Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova had first got on court for their contest against Wayne Black and Cara Black of Zimbabwe on Wednesday evening. The defending champions, up a break early, had gone on to lose the first set in a tiebreak before play was halted because of bad light.

This evening, the roles were reversed as Paes and Navratilova came back from a break down in the second set to win the tiebreak. What is more, in the third, the experienced Indian and his 47-year old partner had two matchpoints in the 10th game on Wayne's serve.

And their best chance to close out match was lost when Navratilova missed an easy forehand up the line on the first matchpoint. From there, it was fighting tennis from both teams until 10-10 when the chair umpire Jeremy Shales suspended play for the day in the gloaming. The clock read 9.10 p.m.

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