The Wait and the Weight - Murray Wins Wimbledon

  I originally wrote a long piece on Murray’s victory in the Wimbledon final from the perspective that some people may not have known what happened in it. This was, in hindsight, rather naïve.  Given that everybody saw it, has read about it and/or heard about it from the screaming maniacs who gathered to watch proceedings on Henman Hill, I thought I would share a few thoughts about the match.

Thousands of people in London who don't own a tv.

On the morning of the match between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, news reports surfaced of the thousands who were desperate to get on to Murray Mound/Henman Hill. Hundreds had been waiting all night, camping in a traditional British queue for the chance to sit on a grassy hillock and watch a big screen of the match. It was announced that at 10.30 the gates would be allowed open. Hours were spent waiting, then a rush, a spasm of action, a seat on the hill was taken and then the waiting began again. What is a few more hours waiting if you have been waiting for 77 years?

This seems a perfect analogy of a British fan’s tennis year; the yearlong wait followed by a momentary fortnight of hope and desire, followed again by disappointment and a return to the long wait. Thematically this year’s championship challenge by Andy Murray has been framed in terms of the 77-year wait for a British winner. The media, especially the BBC, have found innumerable ways to illustrate how long ago 77 years really is, (my favorite was that when Fred Perry won Wimbledon, tennis was played in trousers rather shorts.) What the media has failed to highlight is the weight of the pressure that the wait brings with it.

For the many previous British challengers the pressure to end the wait has always been too much. The famous, odd couple duo of Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski were able to use the crowd for inspiration early in the tournament but were never able to overcome the very best in the latter stages. Henman was a four-time semi finalist, which suggests he was good enough to have won at least once. Rusedski had a perfect grass court game and made the US Open final in 1997. The support carried them to begin with but once it turned into expectation the weight of it crushed them.

This face doesn't change. At all.

To find a way to shoulder the burden of expectation, Murray hired Ivan Lendl to help him. Lendl is stony faced, a picture of stoicism and determination, a man hewn from rock. He also won eight Grand Slam titles. He wasn’t hired to coach Murray how to play, he was hired to coach him how to win. To do that Murray would have to overcome the athletic, grinding style of the world number one, Novak Djokovic.

It is almost certain that Djokovic tried to make Murray feel as much pressure as he could. Murray had crumbled under pressure before in Grand Slam finals, notably not winning a set until his 4th Grand Slam final. Murray would, Djokovic hoped, do so again under the expectations of a nation at Wimbledon. Djokovic would attack Murray’s weakness and exposed his second serve. Unable to consistently hold serve, Djokovic hoped it would culminate in the oft seen cycle of self-recrimination and frustration that can destroy Murray’s mental stability when things don’t go his way.

Djokovic implemented his plan, breaking Murray to love in the 4^th game of the match and squeezing the life out of Murray’s second serve. Djokovic won 58% of the points played on Murray’s second serve and broke him 4 times in the match. Murray could have cracked under such pressure but the mental toughness that he and his coaching team have worked on came through. The scars of the previous Grand Slam final defeats seemed well and truly healed.

Often accused of being passive in the crucial moments, Murray was brilliant in them, often outplaying Djokovic at the crucial moments. Murray took 7 of his break point opportunities (one more break than Djokovic had suffered in the entire tournament up until that point), hit more winners than Djokovic (36-30) whilst committing only half the unforced errors (21-40). In a brilliant all round display of tennis, the most impressive aspect was his calm under pressure.

Djokovic was not at his best in this match due in large part to his epic semi final showdown with Juan Martin Del Potro. The longest semi final in Wimbledon history really took a lot out of the Serb’s legs and he did not have the stamina and athleticism that we usually associate with him. Djokovic attempted to alleviate the pain of the long rallies by attacking the net or attempting drop shots but neither strategy tended to work. As the finish line came into sight though, the pressure rose with the expectation of the crowd and smalls cracks began to appear. Murray was up a break in the third and just needed to serve out. Up 40-0 in quick time it seemed nothing could be easier…

As is often the case when the pressure rises, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Each point from then on was an eternity, the quality of both players such that they both seemed to have an age to pick their strokes. With the heart of a champion Djokovic saved all 3 Championship points as the pressure threatened to overwhelm Murray. Even in victory the crowd was forced to wait. In a brilliant display of defensive tennis under extreme pressure, Murray then fought off 3 break points as Djokovic threw everything he had at Murray. It wasn’t enough. As Djokovic netted, Murray celebrated in the manner of a man who’s had a colossal weight lifted from his shoulders, arms aloft.

Murray Celebrates. 

Aiming much of his celebratory fist pumps towards the press box,  a group he has always feared fuelled the pressure and the expectation, Murray had done it. "It's hard. It's really hard. You know, for the last four or five years, it's been very, very tough, very stressful," Murray said. "It's just kind of everywhere you go. It's so hard to avoid everything because of how big this event is, but also because of the history and no Brit having won."

In his post match interview Djokovic was, as ever, gracious in defeat, only stopping to bemoan that, “I wasn’t patient enough.’ There’s that word again, patience. The British have needed plenty of it over the years when comes to Wimbledon. Now, thanks to Murray, the wait is over.

The Week in Sports I

Welcome to the first Week in Sport! This will be a regular Thursday piece that, as the name suggests, rounds up the big headlines from the week. This week I am looking at the transfer window, Wimbledon and glancing at a few other stories from around the world of sports. Please feel free to comment at the end and if you like the blog please share it with your friend(s)! 

The Return of the Transfer Window

July 1^st, as any Football Manager player will know, is the start of the summer transfer window/silly season in the premier league. It starts every year with hope and promise. The most exciting and simultaneously disgusting thing to do as a fan is estimate the amount of money your club is prepared to spend for your viewing pleasure. Your team has endless possibilities, a full war chest and a myriad of directions it could go in. Often however, it ends in disappointment and a sense of impending doom for the coming season akin to watching England in a penalty shoot-out. You know what is coming, it all seems to happen in slow motion and yet you can't do anything to stop it.

Andy Carroll is not usually this active on the pitch.

For a start, the hope you have is always tinged with the nagging doubt that your owner/chairman could, at any moment, turn into a chump. It has happened to the best of them; Man Utd’s David Gill signed Anderson for £20m in 2007. Anderson has played a mere 96 league games out of a potential 228 and his Wikipedia entry for last season relates mostly to his performances in the Capital One Cup. In 2010-11 Tom Werner of Liverpool pulled off a masterstroke, managing to rake in £50m for the empty shell of Fernando Torres and then spend half of that on the world-class Luis Suarez. [1] In a move that stunned English football he followed that up with the signing of Andy Carroll for THIRTY FIVE MILLION ENGLISH POUNDS. Werner went from genius to Muppet on the very same day.[2] Arsenal bought Antonio Reyes, Spurs have Emmanuel Adebayor and Fulham invested £11m in the “talents” of Steve Marlet.[3] All clubs have similar tales of woe and even the best chairmen make mistakes but some certainly seem to make them more often than others.

Another problem with the summer transfer window is the idea that your team could sell your favorite and/or best player. This can be a constant nagging fear in the back of your mind. As a Southampton fan this fear has not been unfounded in the last few years.[4] The constant idolizing of players by the media leaves fans in a pathetic state when they are sold. The player often then goes on to destroy any piece of goodwill that he had accumulated at his previous club by expressing his long-held, but previously unknown, desire to play for the new club. Every year, fans of a team losing a key player do everything from burning their shirts to refusing to renew their season tickets.[5]

Did he burn his shirt?

It is not only players that move on either. The summer transfer window can be a time of great upheaval and strain on football clubs and their owners. Expectation is through the roof and owner has to be convinced the manager is up to meeting those demands. Fifteen of the Premier League’s twenty managers were not in their current jobs in May 2011. Unbelievably, Newcastle’s embattled boss Alan Pardew is the second longest tenured manager in the Premier League after Arsene Wenger. Newcastle’s owner, Mike Ashley, has been desperate recently to force Pardew’s resignation by hiring the ridiculous Joe Kinnear over his head as director of football at St. James’s Park.[6]

Even past achievement has no bearing on managerial loyalty. All the managers that won a trophy in 2011-12 are no longer in that job.[7] Roberto Di Matteo was sacked a little over six months after his Champions League triumph to the well-documented disgust of Chelsea fans. If you are lucky the chairman, manager and scouting department are all pulling in the same direction and you end signing hidden gems like Michu. If you aren’t lucky you end up like the Toon.

Given all this, it is important for us as fans not to get too carried away with the speculation and outcome of the summer. Whether its Arsenal failing yet again to splash the cash, Southampton selling their best young starlet or Man Utd yet again failing to fix the creative hole in the centre of midfield, whatever happens to your club in the summer we should relax.[8] Shrug off that sense of impending disaster. There will always be another player. It is the summer. Nothing is decided yet. There will always be a chance to change things in January. All you have to do is just chill, watch cricket and hope your team doesn’t fall for a Geordie target man named Andy.

Laura Robson’s Breakout Wimbledon is Just the First Step

Arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time is Serena Williams. Her power game is the envy of virtually every player on the Women’s tour and is her greatest asset. At this years Wimbledon, Serena was hitting her forehand at an average of 70mph. Laura Robson was hitting hers at 74mph. Reminiscent of a young Lindsay Davenport given her heavy handed style, Robson has been tipped by many to become a quality top-10 player in near future. To achieve the desired rankings rise, what parts of Robson’s game need to improve in order to achieve this?

I refuse to make a joke about phwoarhands...

The first key improvement to be made is her movement around the court. Opponents also like to take advantage of her poor movement by bringing her into the net. Robson’s second round opponent Duque-Marino caused her all sorts of problems with drop shots and short slices. Robson was struggling to reach many of them and then, when she began to read Duque-Marino’s shot selection, unsure what to do in the unfamiliar situation leading to poor shot selection. A few times she went for an exceptionally difficult lob from her position at the net rather than the more fruitful and better percentage play of volleying down the line.

Some commentators have criticized the consistency of Robson’s shots and there is certainly some work to be done in this regard on her backhand but most of that inconsistency is a symptom of poor movement. Robson is slow to get into the right position for some shots forcing her off balance and causing some of her inconsistencies. As she stops growing and can start to focus on her fitness and body I would fully expect her to improve in this area. A key player in this will be her new coach Miles McLaggan.  As Andy Murray’s coach McLaggan was instrumental in changing Murray from a weedy teenager into the powerful athlete that he is today. Robson may never be nimble but if she is able to follow Murray’s lead then more genuine improvement may be just around the corner.

The one other area that needs work in Robson’s game is her ability to deal with pressure. Robson seems susceptible to pressure, amplified especially when she is expected to win. When playing higher ranked opponents the relative lack of pressure leads to her playing much more freely leaving her free go for lines and hit winners. As she becomes more experienced though she will have to learn to be aggressive whilst dictating play with her powerful ground strokes to overwhelm less able opponents without having to risk going for as many outright winners. The pressure often manifests itself in her serve deserting her, for example the mixed doubles final of the Olympics and serving for the 2^nd set against Duque-Marino. This will come with time and experience and her performances on the centre court of Wimbledon this year will hold her in good stead. I will happily predict that the next time she comes to Wimbledon she will be a seed.

Chaos In Corsica – An eventful start to the “TDF”

With 15km to go of a fairly uneventful first stage of the Tour de France, fate intervened. The buses that accompany the cycling teams approached the finish in the sleepy town of Bastia to get set up before the arrival of their riders. Gestured to go underneath the gantry above the finishing line the bus driver of the Orica-GreenEdge team seemed hesitant. At the insistence of the local Corsican organizers that the bus would fit under gantry he went for it. It didn’t. With the bus stuck and a danger to the riders, who were fast approaching, a quick decision needed to be made. With the oozing slowness of the Mediterranean, they decided to change the finish line to a place 3km before the original planned finish. The new finish had a dangerous kink in the road no less than a couple of hundred meters from the line and it was likely to cause a crash in a sprint finish.

Piss ups and breweries spring to mind... 

However it was no easy task to inform the peloton. Some teams grasped the situation whilst others did not. Just as some teams began to gear up and attack the finish the bus was unwedged from the gantry and the old finish reconfirmed. The riders at the front, who had been attacking, slowed down in the knowledge that the old finish was back in play. The riders following behind them, in the process of accelerating to catch up, crashed into them. Major sprinter Sagan and yellow jersey contender Albert Contador were victims. However their pain can’t be compared to that of Geraint Thomas of Team Sky who fractured his pelvis and decided to continue riding!

Will the Lions Beat the Aussies in the final test match?

No. The lions have had the worst of both Tests and were lucky to come away with a win in Brisbane. By dropping the previously un- droppable Brian O’Driscoll and replacing him with a less than 100% fit Jamie Roberts, Warren Gatland has made a huge call. Gatland appears to have picked a team with strong ball carriers (Roberts, Sean O’Brien, Mike Phillips and Manu Tuilagi on the bench) in order to get over the gain line and force the Aussies to go backwards. Without the injured Sam Warburton to secure the ball at the breakdowns however I see the Lions will turning over the ball cheaply leading to penalties for holding on and the loss of field position. My prediction is Australia to win by 9 points.

Did a drunk Sri Lankan Cricketer try and open a aeroplane door at 35,000 feet?

Yes. Priceless.

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[1] Were his early performances at Liverpool a sign of permanent class or an extended run of exceptional form?

[2] This years chumps are West Ham! Cumulative transfer fees paid for Andy Carroll now exceed £52m…

[3] Though Adebayor “only” cost £5m, his wages, estimated to cost £100,000 a week, (a sum of almost criminal robbery given last season’s performances), are crippling Spurs wage bill.

[4] Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Oxlade Chamberlain. Sold for a total of £34m. That would just about get you Bale’s right leg at the moment. Can you imagine them all in the same side?

[5] Not all sales are a bad thing. QPR’s sale of the monstrously overpaid and overpriced Chris Samba for a whopping £12m is by far the sale of the summer, giving QPR the financial room and flexibility to fire them back into the premier league next season.

[6] Why don’t they just sack Pardew? Due to the horrific expense (£10m) of getting themselves out from underneath the remaining years of the EIGHT-year deal he signed last September.

[7] Di Matteo at Chelsea won the FA Cup and Champions League, Mancini at Man City won the Premiership, Dalglish at Liverpool won the League Cup

[8] Arsenal appear to be about to spend their money, £23m, on Gonzalo Higuain. 

The Return Of “Serve and Volley?”

Ladies, Gentlemen, sports lovers and those just feeling sympathetic towards me, firstly let me say thank you for reading my first blog. Some of you have encouraged me to do this for some time because you think I have potential to be a writer, others because you just wanted to get me out of the room. Whatever your motivations, this is the result.

When I was growing up in my parent’s terraced house in Wimbledon, it was the era of  ‘Pistol’ Pete Sampras and his deadeye serve. The serve volley tactic he employed was a sure fire way to progress at Wimbledon as shown by his 7 titles. Huge servers and fast courts kept the points short and sharp. To some, cough Rafa Nadal cough, this aggressive tennis was an eyesore, something that should be disposed of as fast as possible. As courts have got slower (not only at Wimbledon), the ball didn’t drive through the court as much, instead bouncing higher and sitting up more. Baseline-hugging counter punching players like Lleyton Hewitt were able to become more effective on the grass courts as they had fractionally more time to make their ground strokes.

In a game of inches and milliseconds like tennis that was all the time that was needed. Rather than being a fearsome all-conquering swarm at the net, the serve and volley players became toothless tigers, constantly being outhit and outthought by the newly powerful counter punchers. Players like Federer changed their style to suit the new reality. When Federer won Wimbledon in 2003 he serve and volleyed 23% of the time, last year he serve and volleyed on 7% of his points. In essence the serve and volley tactic had gone the way of wooden racquets, the tennis headband and McEnroe’s hair. Until this year.

Then Steve Darcis beat Rafa Nadal.                                   

In the first round at Wimbledon. 

In straight sets.  

Steve Darcis, even he looks surprised.
smimg.net picture

The journeyman pro from Belgium, the virtual unknown and supposed lamb to the slaughter, beat the reigning French Open champion. He later said “I just wanted to play my own game, coming to the net and not playing far from the baseline.” This was surely a blip, a leftover of Nadal’s knee injury worries, or Nadal’s decision to play no warm-up tournaments. This was not the return of serve and volleying.

Sergiy Stakhovsky. Daily Mail picture.  

Amazingly, gloriously, this was not the last we would hear of serve and volley, (though it was the last we would hear of Darcis as he retired hurt with a shoulder injury before the next round), as Sergiy Stakhovsky shocked Roger Federer in the second round. Here are some stats to illustrate the magnitude of his win; Stakhovsky became the first player ranked outside the top hundred to beat Federer since Gasquet did it in Monte Carlo in 2005, the first player seemingly since the dawn of time to knock Federer out of a grand slam before the quarter finals. Ridiculously Federer had won more grass court tournaments in his career than Stakhovsky had won grass court matches. After a close first set which Federer won on tie break, Stakhovsky, playing an almost pure serve and volley game on his first serve, never gave up and closed out an incredible 4 set victory.

Top Cat roaring! USATODAY picture.

The improbable Rastafarian German, Dustin Brown proved too much of a mystery for Lleyton Hewitt, smothering the net with his enormous wingspan and freakish athleticism. Other serve and volley practitioners such as Feliciano Lopez, Nicolas Mahut and Michael Llodra all progressed past the first round. Is it just that these guys are great servers then and built only for grass?

Lets focus on the Stakhovsky Vs. Federer match to see how he did it. Unusually for a serve and volley player, Stakhovsky does not have a dominating serve. In the match against Roger Federer he topped out at 124mph, averaged at around 116mph on his first serve and served 17 aces. By comparison in the same match Federer hit 127mph, averaged 116mph with 16 aces. Both players served a similar percentage of first serves in with Federer actually out shining in this department 72% - 66%. Not really much of a difference there then.

The key here was aggression. By coming to the net repeatedly, Stakhovsky forced Federer out his usual role as the aggressor and forced Federer into a counter-punching role. Whilst Federer certainly has the shots and creativity to play this role, by forcing him out of his natural game, Stakhovsky was able to force Federer into uncharacteristic errors. Federer was also unable to find any rhythm due to the shorter nature of the serve and volley points instigated by Stakhovsky. The key here then was aggression; by seizing the initiative and forcing the match to be played on his terms, Stakhovsky was able to dictate the play and ultimately do enough to win.

Is this then the return of the serve and volley? Unfortunately I don’t think it is. Despite many of the most aesthetically pleasing tennis matches involving a contrast in styles, Sampras Vs. Agassi or McEnroe Vs. Borg, serve and volley will probably not be making a comeback. Serve and volley point percentage has only risen from 7% to 8% from last year and that may have a lot to do with the success of its practitioners this year. It is most likely then that this flair up of serve and volleying success has arisen due to novelty factor. Baseline dominant players have become unused to the short and staccato points dictated by the serve and volley game and are often able to get into their usual rhythm. It surprises me that players don’t adopt it more often as a disruption tactic when an opponent is on a hot streak. Many top players, David Ferrer springs to mind, are so foreign to the net and reliant on the western grip that they don’t seem to even know how to serve and volley.

Unfortunately the amount of quality serve and volleyers is continuing to decline, hastened by slow courts and unfavorable conditions. It would be a great shame if, as seems likely, the homogeny of baseline style become the only method of play. The players are all beginning to look the same, play the same and sound the same. This is the end of diversity. Soon there will be no more classic duels with contrasting styles, no more divergent body types, no more 6ft6 eastern Europeans in Wimbledon white with monster serves blowing people away. We should wave goodbye with fondness tennis fans because rather than the return of the serve and volley, this is its swan song.