Johnny Wattersonon how the twin peaks of the men's game are not arriving at Wimbledon with their accustomed untouchable aura
FOR THOSE looking for twists in the road, this year’s Wimbledon might oblige. For seven years the not unpleasant spectre of Roger Federer has dominated and enhanced the landscape, and cast as number one seed this year, the All England Committee are not about to quibble with the six-times winner’s traditional reservation.
For the first three wins Federer played like Messi in a school playground but since his bulkiness, Rafael Nadal, came to grips with the slower grass it has been less a process procession at SW19. But this year the twin peaks of the men’s game are not arriving with the same untouchable aura to which we have become accustomed.
Last week Federer was beaten in the final of his regular Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Halle. The perpetrator was Lleyton Hewitt, a mongrel of a player who won in Centre Court in 2002 but whose tormented body is, at 29-years-old, past its best. The Australian’s felling of the top Wimbledon seed for the first time in 15 meetings is only the second time in more than seven years Federer has been beaten in the narrow window that is the grass-court season.
More hurtful to his previously unshakable reputation is Federer’s poor season to date. He has lost to 33rd-ranked Marcos Baghdatis at Indian Wells, to 20th-ranked Tomas Berdych in Miami, to 40th-ranked Ernests Gulbis in Rome, to world 34 Albert Montanes in Estoril, then Nadal in Madrid, Robin Soderling at Roland Garros and Hewitt in Halle. After winning the first Grand Slam of the year in Australia, the Swiss has not won a single tournament since, while Nadal, with his fifth French Open title pocketed on clay in Paris, sloped out of the Queen’s tournament last week at the quarter-final stage to his friend and compatriot Feliciano Lopez.
Judging by the Queen’s tournament there might also be an essence of America affecting people’s tastes. With Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish playing out a final of giant serves, the USA players along with Andy Roddick might see this as their best chance in some time to break the hold of Swiss and Spanish duo.
Querrey beat Fish 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the tournament that is often used as a marker for its bigger brother. But the 6ft 6ins 22-year-old has never ventured farther than the second round at Wimbledon.
Realistically, Roddick is the main American threat. The world number seven and fifth seed fell 16-14 in the fifth set to Federer in last year’s final, his third defeat in a Wimbledon decider to his Centre Court nemesis. A former US Open winner, Roddick at least understands what the thin air in the second week of a Grand Slam is all about, even if it has confounded him in London.
Outside the top five seeds of Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roddick there are a number of names with a reputation for causing upsets but not necessarily closing the deal.
Hewitt, a former winner is there and so too is Soderling, seeded five. Soderling almost did it on clay when he beat Nadal last year only to lose to Federer in the French Open final, then beat Federer this year before losing to Nadal in the final. Tough break.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga seeded 10 and the talented Marin Cilic at 11 are also readily capable of taking a scalp. It was the Croatian Cilic who some players picked as the player to watch a few years ago. Maybe now the door is ever so slightly ajar.
So too in the women’s side of the draw doors are opening and players at the ready to rush the space. As an ever-present threat the Williams sisters will arrive with their grunt and horse power like two Humvees at a Mini Cooper rally. But last month Francesca Schiavone broke through to become the first Italian to win a Grand Slam at Roland Garros by beating Samantha Stosur.
One of the few on tour to use the one-handed backhand, Schiavone represents the changing state of the women’s game more than anyone. Beneath the top two seeds, Serena and Venus, is an array of nationalities that have ousted the Russian dominance of only a few years ago.
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, Australia’s Stosur, Poland’s Agnieszka Radawanska and former Grand Slam winner Kim Clijsters are settled in the top grouping of seeded players. Way down at 16 and 17 are Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin, not quite relics but without the hunger and menace of maybe three years ago.
Who ever it is who breaks the sister act might not be the player to win the tournament. As the Williams traditionally arrive from their American base undercooked for the grass, the two hope their feel and power will come to them quickly and the first week is always fraught for both. The statistics sheet is a scary read in the opening matches, with the unforced error count invariably going off the register.
Not since the US Open in 2009 has anyone defeated both sisters on their way to winning a Grand Slam. That tag belongs to super mum Clijsters, whose humble attitude and amiable nature is a fetching anachronism. But her game is not. The London crowd like simplicity and old-fashioned verities. With her splits, her fetching power and honest game she will be a crowd favourite. And probably close to the mix in the second week too.
