Sport

A humiliating lesson in speed

— Photo: AFP

POWER GAME: Russian Anna Chakvetadze, though not one of the bigger hitters, gave glimpses of what hard hitting is all about.

Sometimes the only way to knowledge is through the road of humiliation. Or so I recently discovered when briefly facing off against a 128-pound girl who fired shots that looked to me as if they should be declared illegal under the arms act. In other words, I played a couple of points against world No.6 Anna Chakvetadze, just to get a fleeting taste of one thing: what does fast mean in professional sport.

Everything in sport, as the Australian Open will demonstrate again, is incredibly fast, but mostly we can’t tell. To say Andy Roddick produced a first serve at 246 kmh is meaningless, for it is a number impossible to relate to.

Only if you put your face to the netting, about 15 feet behind the batsman, do you have even a vague idea of how quick Brett Lee is. Only if you strap on layers of armour and stand in the goalmouth can you tell the velocity of a hockey penalty corner. Otherwise, we have to rely on television, except this brilliant box fails to translate speed for us. Which is why, I hesitantly asked the sporting and lightweight Chakvetadze to play a few shots with me. And it is telling. The sound of the ball coming off her racket is pure, almost musical in a way, not that ugly “kerplunk” that comes off mine, and her strokes, polished for hours, are effortless and clean.

Then she is asked, do you mind just beating the %$#@ out of my serve. Just smack your return, Miss, burn the fuzz off the ball. So twice she swats back serves and only this much the mind remembers: The ball was a hissing blur. It passed the net and like some guided missile dipped towards my ankles. It was upon me before my body had arranged itself for a response, or my mind had contemplated a reply. It was frighteningly fast.

Apparently, not really. Because Chakvetadze explains she was hitting at only “60 per cent” of her capacity. Then she adds, grinning: “And I’m not even a big hitter.”

Who is the biggest hitter brings a somewhat surprising response from her.

The answer is a Williams, but not the Williams you think. “Venus,” she says. But adds, “Serena is close behind.”

Men hit even harder, like Fernando Gonzales who arrives from a different planet of speed than Chakvetadze, and it is incredible that athletes can move this fast, think this fast, create this fast, respond with millimetre-perfect replies this fast. Federer is the most astonishing for what he does is akin to doing embroidery on skates. More and more the divide between the professional athlete and the amateur sportsperson is growing: the equipment is similar but they play a sport we are unfamiliar with.

The speed of the game plays hell with linespeople, for where a skidding ball lands is hard to tell. Marat Safin defended the quality of officials this week, saying: “The game is too fast for the people to see, so you can’t say the people are getting worse and worse — it’s just the game is getting faster and faster. It’s impossible to see some of the balls.”

Yet, in this blurry world, Chakvetadze believes there is room for players like her, who do not exist purely on speed. When the Williams’ ruled tennis, she says, the game was all “just power.” Now, she points to the Top 10 list as evidence of change, for she rests besides competitors who are powerful but not purely power players, such as Jelena Jankovic (No. 3) and Marion Bartoli (No. 10). Even Justine Henin (No.1), whose shots have surprising sting and heft, is aided greatly by her versatility.

Still, Chakvetadze must compensate for a lack of voltage by playing what she calls “smart” tennis. It means tinkering with pace, adjusting spin, staying consistent, displaying variety, counter-punching. Her repertoire is fine enough to reach the top 10, but some might say it will be difficult to triumph at a slam with a game so unmuscular.

Perhaps, but for one writer whose serve she dismissed with a yawn, the Russian remains the biggest hitter on the planet.

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