19 June 2003
Forget Beckham. Forget the Confederations Cup. Forget even the newly-published fixture list, which gives Bolton a run-in as gentle as any you could wish for, and always puts the Blackburn match just after the United match, for double derby delight or double derby despair. Forget the addictive football show, The Rumour Mill, on Five Live tonight. Forget football. It’s tennis time.
Less than two weeks after the clay-court Grand Slam at Roland Garros, the world’s elite move to grassy Wimbledon. This means no more long rallies, no more red dust everywhere, and far less Spaniards and Argentineans doing well. Instead we get big serving, great volleying, numerous ‘upsets’ as clay-courters (lit, those who court clay) stand at the baseline and watch the volleys fly past.
(Well, in theory, because the last Wimbledon final featured a clay-courter and this French Open final just past had a big-serving Dutchman. And two of the favourites, defending champion Lleyton Hewitt and world number one Andre Agassi, are essentially baseliners. But no matter, it still moves quicker than on clay.)
So this is the time of year when the toffs go to Henman Hill to cheer on Timmy, contributing to Henmania. The Daily Mail will doubtless write a misty-eyed editorial saying that if only Tim won Wimbledon, we could return all these nasty immigrants with a thunderous backhand down the line. (Perhaps we’d chip and charge to show-off our grass-court game?) His every move on court will be scrutinised anxiously by thousands of English fans, hoping, praying for a sign that this will be the year for ‘Tiger Tim.’
Amongst all this, there will be plenty who dismiss his chances, the sophisticates and the cynics. They’ll point out that many, if not most, of Henman’s supporters at Wimbledon aren’t actually tennis fans, that he’s had an injury-troubled season, and that there’s no point in going so bloody silly over a tennis player who’s never going to win anything important because he hasn’t got the killer instinct. Tiger Tim? He’s robotic, emotionless, and his ‘trademark’ fist-clenching feels forced. He never has, and never will this tournament, you idiots.
And there are people like me. We like tennis and appreciate that, although not the most naturally talented of players, Henman’s one of the best grass-court players around. His serve isn’t the biggest, but he gets into the net quickly behind it and is a fine volleyer. He’ll have the crowd behind him, which will be both help and hindrance. It’s a sad truth that, unless they see some signs of fight in the player who’s losing, even one of their own, most crowds will find it hard to rally themselves. They’re powerful but need constant encouragement and attention.
This season has been troubled by injuries, but he actually had a decent French Open, and never really had a hope of beating eventual champion Juan Carlos Ferrero. At Wimbledon he’s got a great record. No, he’s never won it, and I’ll come to that, but he’s reached the semi-finals four times in the last five years, losing to Ivanisevic (champion) once, Hewitt (champion) once, and Sampras (legend) twice.
As mental toughness goes, he’s right up there. He can’t rival the sheer bloody-mindedness of defending champion Lleyton Hewitt or the phenomenon that was Pete Sampras, but compared to more talented players like Malisse, Federer, and Rusedski, he’s a rock. OK, he had a poor Queen’s. But he still gritted his teeth and got the time on court, eventually handing the semi final to Grosjean, who in turn capitulated in the final to ‘A-Rod’ .
What’s that you say? He’s never even made the final? Well, so what? There’s been a trend in recent years (in the men’s game at least; the women’s game is depressingly lacking in quality players) for surprise winners in Grand Slams. Thomas Johansson at the Australian Open, Albert Costa at the French, a Pete Sampras incapable of moving sideways at the US Open. Greg Rusedski’s not as mentally strong as Henman — tennis is one of those sports where, at a certain level, it’s basically about mental toughness — and he made the US Open final.
In fact, Greg Rusedski’s looking in incredible form considering his injuries, but as ever, he’ll either be ‘on’ and a joy to watch, or ‘off’ and an embarrassment to himself. Being Canadian-born and not having an English accent, the media don’t pay as much attention to him. I’ll admit that’s like saying the media don’t pay much attention to Michael Owen in comparison to David Beckham.
The pool of likely winners for Wimbledon is so small that Tim and Greg almost have a chance by default. Andy Roddick’s been hotly tipped for the title, but I don’t think he can serve as well as he did at Queen’s for seven games in a row. There’s something about his game that I find a bit predictable, too little variation and tactical play, although of course Brad Gilbert will be helping that. He’s also got a tough draw, with Ancic, Rusedski, and Srichiphan all lurking before the quarter-final stage.
Other potential winners are Hewitt and Agassi, who’ve both been sporadically good lately. This lack of consistency will hurt Hewitt less than it’ll hurt Agassi, but you can’t write either of them off. Having said that, I’ll write Agassi off here and now: he will not win Wimbledon this year. Federer has also been tipped, but his technique isn’t as good as his smooth style would suggest and he’s plain flaky mentally. Mikhail Youzhny is probably my favourite non-British player, solid and with a formidable backhand return. He uses his height well to deal with kicking serves, as Pat Rafter found out. But Youzhny, as the second seed, lost in the first round at Nottingham. Perhaps his game, like that of so many others, isn’t quite working yet. This is directly attributable to the bone-headed decision not to give an extra week between Roland Garros and Wimbledon, giving players a maximum of two tournaments after the end of the French Open to prepare.
In conclusion: I’m looking forward to it and don’t really fancy anyone to win it, because there’s no one player who’s looking that much better than the rest. I’m just looking forward to the tennis.