With Wimbledon 2014 in the books, lets look back at the tournament and see what we learned over the past two weeks.
9: Tim Henman is better at football than punditry
Tim Henman is not particularly renowned for being the most charismatic and insightful pundit in the tennis media industry and it appears that Henman has more dexterity with his feet and a tennis ball than he does in the commentary box after the BBC’s ‘Copa-Uppy’ competition during this year’s Wimbledon. The competition, which consisted of keeping up a tennis ball instead of a football, involved the likes of Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, who did 78 and 20 keepy-uppy’s. But their scores were dwarfed by the performance of Tim Henman, who impressively kept his tennis ball up 92 times and after he had finally dropped it, he flippantly dismissed Andy Murray’s meagre efforts, challenging him to “keep practicing”.
8: Jimmy Connors is a tennis player turn fashion icon
Men’s finals day at Wimbledon is a very special event on the tennis calendar; Jimmy Connors brought the best out of his wardrobe just for the occasion – sporting a rather dashing sea blue blazer that caught the eye of many. It’s only a matter of time till the Connor’s blazer will become a worldwide trend. Probably.
7: Canada are enjoying a Golden Era of tennis
This Wimbledon Championships may have been a pretty diabolical one for the native British players, but Canada has enjoyed an outstandingly good fortnight on the grass at SW19 where they have seen success across the board. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard reached the final in the Ladies Singles where she may have been humbled by Petra Kvitova, but had proved that she was made of grand slam-winning stuff in the previous rounds. Canada’s very own Milos Raonic also performed above expectations, reaching the semis of the men’s despite having never passed the second round previously. Then in the men’s doubles, Jack Sock and Canadian born Vasek Pospisil triumphed over 15-time grand slam winners the Bryan brothers. Pospisil, who was also seeded 31 in the singles draw, has partnered fellow Canadian Daniel Nestor in the past who was likewise successful at Wimbledon this year, reaching the semi-finals of the mixed doubles. Wimbledon will be in Toronto by 2016 at this rate.
6: Dimitrov aka Baby Fed has grown up
Grigor Dimitrov has had the nickname ‘Baby Fed’ follow him round the tour since he first came onto the scene and he has expressed his dislike of it. But that didn’t really stop anyone. However now, that name can be well and truly cast off as the Bulgarian battled his way to the Wimbledon semi-finals and has sparked ominous prophecies that the Big Four’s days are dwindling (something that I am admittedly susceptible to later in this article). And rightly so, Dimitrov knocked Murray off his Wimbledon pedestal in an almost casual fashion. He even dealt with the hardship of facing Alexandr Dolgopolov at his most unorthodox and outrageous. I think it’s fair to say that the apprentice is finally breathing down the neck of the master.
5: Tennis players appear to be scared of the dark
Something that usually strikes with children during their earlier years, being scared of the dark has now become a fear that is prevalent amongst tennis players. Every night, throughout the two week period of Wimbledon from about eight o’clock, players could be seen begging to their chair umpires for play to be stopped because of the dark with such a degree of gusto and urgency that one might think that their lives depended on it. One of the more pitiful of these displays came from Ana Ivanovic, who, if my memory serves me correctly, started to plead to the umpire just on the stroke of 8:20pm on the night of the middle Saturday during an encounter with Sabine Lisicki.
4: The pressure was just too much for Andy Murray
In the end, the pressure was too much for Andy Murray to do it again and the Scot fell quite tamely at the quarter final hurdle to Grigor Dimitrov. I hate to be cliché but he did have the weight of a nation on his shoulders; possibly more so than last year having played Roland Garros this time around. And this ‘weight of expectation’ was clear in the way Murray played, who cut a figure of frustration and was very tetchy throughout his clash against Dimitrov, a plausible side effect of nerves. But there was a little consolation for the British spectators on courtside: they got an exclusive, one time only, running commentary from Andy Murray, who kindly updated them on his mental state throughout the match. Priceless.
3: There is no longer fear of Serena Williams
World No.1 Serena Williams went out prematurely in SW19, the 3rd round, adding to her similarly early exits in the Australian and French Open. Alize Cornet defeated Williams in 3 sets and put in a gutsy performance which has confirmed, for many, that there is no longer a fear of playing Serena. Players now look like they relish rather than fear playing Williams and it seems that that intimidation and psychological advantage Williams had is beginning to erode. In previous years, when Williams came across one of those rare occasions where she was playing below par, she would get through the match using her pure bullishness and overwhelm her opponents with a compilation of grunts and screams. The lower players are not playing by the book now though, and Serena Williams’ dominance is under scrutiny.
2: The Big Four’s days are numbered
The optimistically named Big Four (more like the Big Three really) are finally coming under threat. Over the past half-decade there has been the odd player knocking on the door of this formidable trio: Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. But now there is seemingly a whole group of players that could seriously challenge them, and this Wimbledon has epitomized that possibility, with Kyrgios, Dimitrov and Raonic all making substantial forays into the tournament and even doing a few giant kills along the way. This group is also very young and will only improve over the next few years, whereas the players that have dominated the tennis world for so long now will only be aging. And if the youngsters can already come close and even beat the Big Four, you wonder where they’ll all be in a few years’ time.
1: Djokovic is the King of the grass… for now
It was an epic final between the two best players of this year’s Championships, and Djokovic was the one who came out on top. There is no one quite like the Serbian; no one who can turn a grass court into a clay court by sliding to retrieve balls, and only at the expense of a few tumbles. Djokovic fell at the last hurdle last year, but he rectified that with a relentless performance that well and truly warranted him the Wimbledon Crown. Could Federer likewise make that final step next year though after the disappointment of finishing runner up? And I’m pretty sure that Murray will be up for atoning for his errors, as will Nadal, who will want to shake off what seems to be a curse on him at Wimbledon, even if a longer stay does mean less time on the boat… It’s going to be another enticing fight for the most prestigious title in tennis.
I don’t know about you but I’m missing Wimbledon already.
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