The 2011 Wimbledon Wrap-Up
A DAY-BY-DAY ACCOUNT OF HOW NOVAK DJOKOVIC AND PETRA KVITOVA BECAME THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB’S KING AND QUEEN
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2011
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Wimbledon
21
5 Day 1
9 Day 5
6 Day 2
10 Day 6
Vera Zvonareva’s struggles would be a sign of things to come. Isner-Mahut II wasn’t the encore many had been hoping for.
7 Day 3
Kimiko Date-Krumm offered a rare antidote to power tennis.
8 Day 4
Not much separated Robin Soderling and 2002 Wimbledon champ Lleyton Hewitt.
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Andy Roddick’s days as a Slam contender continue to wane. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga treated fans at Court No. 2 to a serve and forehand master class.
12 Day 7
Serena Williams brought back edge-of-your-seat excitement.
13 Day 8
Sabine Lisicki reached the semifinals as a wild card.
14 Day 9
For the first time in 179 Grand Slam matches, Roger Federer lost after having taken a 2-0 lead.
15 Women’s Semifinal #1 Petra Kvitova’s reached her first Wimbledon final by hitting more than four times as many winners as Victoria Azarenka.
16 Women’s Semifinal #2 Maria Sharapova came back from down 0-3 in the first set to defeat Sabine Lisicki and advance to the Wimbledon final.
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18 Men’s Semifinal #1
Novak Djokovic’s win secured him the world No. 1 ranking.
19 Men’s Semifinal #2
Rafael Nadal dropped the first set to Andy Murray but came back for a convincing win.
21 Women’s Final
Petra Kvitova won her first of what may be many major titles.
22 Men’s Final
For the fifth time in five 2011 tries, Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal.
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2011
Wimbledon
Day 1 It was a surprise to see Vera Zvonareva’s first-round match against 118th-ranked Alison Riske become such a struggle—after all, the No. 2 seed won the first set at love. Yet the 20-year-old American replied with a 6-3 second-set triumph, prompting Zvonareva to retreat underneath her towel in between sets, looking—one can only assume— forlorn as ever. Even behind 2-0, 30-0 in the third set, Riske fought back to 3-3. But she soon punched herself out; three break points were too many to overcome down 3-4, and Zvonareva ended the upset bid with a love hold, finishing her 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win with an ace. In Eastbourne five days earlier, Zvonareva had narrowly defeated Serena Williams, who hadn’t played in nearly a year. On Day 1 of Wimbledon, what should have been a comfortable opener quickly morphed into a fight for survival. Such performances simply don’t befit a Wimbledon champion, something Zvonareva would end up proving four days later in a 6-2, 6-3 third-round loss to Tsvetana Pironkova.
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Day 2 John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, names that now go together like a harder-to-pronounce, Franco-American Laurel and Hardy, walked out to Court 3 in late sunlight at 6:15 p.m. on Day 2 of Wimbledon. Their names are announced, they’re smiling, they look up to the crowd and begin to wave. But there aren’t many waves back. The bleachers, surprisingly, have swathes of empty seats. “The atmosphere,” Mahut would say afterward, “was not as huge as we were waiting for.” The match’s first decisive moment comes in the first-set tiebreaker, after Mahut gets the score back from 6-1 to 6-4. He has a good look at a backhand pass, but he sends it well long. Isner goes on to win, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (6), in 2 hours, 3 minutes. “Everything was different today,” Mahut said afterward. Isner-Mahut I was all about the purity of the Fight. As Isner said after Isner-Mahut II, “No one is going to remember who won [last year’s] match,” they’re just going to remember the two players doing battle. What did the sequel tell us? That every event is unique; that, as Mahut puts it, “everything is different.”
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Day 3 Kimiko Date-Krumm resembles a desperate tennis housewife (4.0 NTRP division) living out a dream in which she gets to trade forehands and serves with the 20-something fashionistas and salty veterans (some, like Venus Williams, are both) of the WTA on the great tennis stages. Once, long ago and far away, Date-Krumm hit a career-high year-end ranking of No. 4 (1995). She then blew off the WTA for more than a decade, and sometimes it shows. On Wimbledon Day 3, however, the 40-year-old offered a rare antidote to power tennis in a narrow 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6 loss to Venus. Drawing upon some of the strategies that have always worked on grass, Date-Krumm took the ball early and was always looking to come forward. Her shots were flat and low-bouncing, with the intent to take time away from Venus. She made ample use of the drop volley and any number of chips and dinks, including a softly struck, inside-out, sliced-withsidespin forehand she hit for a clean winner on one critical point. “She played just one bad game,” ESPN commentator Chris Evert said. “Unfortunately, it was the last game.”
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Day 4 Not much separated Lleyton Hewitt and Robin Soderling and on Day 4 at Wimbledon, but there was one thing that unequivocally went the Swede’s way: He got to serve first in the fifth set. After he was broken early in the decider, Soderling still had a game to make amends, to prevent Hewitt from consolidating his break and possibly seizing the match. Soderling did that with an aggressive game plan, shifting the pressure back to Hewitt. As he was for most of the match, Soderling remained strong on serve, and Hewitt eventually cracked down 4-5, hitting four errors in his poorest service game of the day. It cemented the comeback at 6-7 (5), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. For all of the 30-year-old Hewitt’s ailments—he’s had surgeries on both sides of the hip, both big toes and one foot—the 2002 Wimbledon champion never submitted to the physical demands of the nearly fourhour contest. Rather, Soderling took it by committing to the bruising style of play that has helped him ascend up the rankings.
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2011
Wimbledon
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Day 5
The crocodile on Andy Roddick’s cap was swimming in a pool of perspiration as the American’s Wimbledon dreams drowned in a shower of Feliciano Lopez winners. Winless in seven prior meetings with the three-time finalist, a focused Lopez lashed 28 aces in a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 6-4 third-round victory. The sting of the loss will likely linger for Roddick, whose days as a legitimate Grand
Slam contender are waning. Although he’s just two years removed from his epic five-set loss to Roger Federer in the 2009 Wimbledon final, Roddick’s increasingly passive play has been a primary factor in recent major defeats to Stanislas Wawrinka (fourth round, 2011 Australian Open), Janko Tipsarevic before second round, 2010 U.S. Open) and YenHsun Lu (fourth round, 2010 Wimbledon).
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It proved costly in the second-set tiebreaker, where Roddick poked a slice backhand pass into net to give Lopez a set point at 6-2. The left-hander then ripped a service winner that rattled Roddick’s racquet to end the set and essentially the match—Roddick hasn’t come back to win after a two-set deficit since he rallied past David Nalbandian in the 2003 US Open semifinals.
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2011
Wimbledon
Day 6 Fans who packed Court No. 2 on Day 6 to see two of the game’s most explosive shot-makers couldn’t have resented the one-sided 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 score—not when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was treating them to a serve and forehand master class en route to a thirdround win over Fernando Gonzalez. By the middle of the second set, the Frenchman was serving at an utterly remarkable 90 percent, and Gonzalez’s famous forehand availed him nothing against Tsonga’s dazzling display of power tennis. Giving up a break in the second set after Tsonga unerringly targeted his weaker backhand, Gonzalez managed to save three set points on his serve, but he was mainly reduced to staring helplessly. Tsonga hit two aces and two unreturnable serves to take the second set, 6-4.The match’s final six games featured a stunning exhibition of Tsonga’s best tennis, reaching its apotheosis when he hit a remarkable one-handed, cross-court backhand winner with Gonzalez at net to reach deuce on Gonzo’s serve. Two points later—after 29 aces, 48 winners and 84 minutes—it was over.
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2011
Wimbledon
Day 7 Leave it to Serena Williams. Not to make herself a threat at Wimbledon immediately after coming back from a year on the sidelines, though she did do that. Not to show off, for the thousandth time, her knack for playing her best when she absolutely must, though she did that as well. Not even to make the press room a livelier place, though she certainly scored in that department. Asked if her loss today was a positive sign for the depth of the WTA, Serena said, “Yes, I’m super happy that I lost. Go women’s tennis.” Sarcasm was detected by some. No, what Serena brought back to tennis was the type of edge-of-yourseat, heart-in-your-throat excitement that you can only get when a player of her stature and persona is fighting for her life on the verge of defeat. She held off four match points to bring herself to the verge of an unlikely third set in what turned out to be a 6-3, 7-6 (6) loss to Marion Bartoli. From an emotional standpoint, it was the most exciting match over the first four rounds of this tournament. That’s why it’s good to have Serena back.
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Day 8 Sabine Lisicki entered Day 8 trying to become one of only two WTA wild cards to make the Wimbledon semifinals (the other one was Zheng Jie of China, in 2008). To achieve that honor, she had to subdue feisty, confident Marion Bartoli, while thunderbolts flashed through the skies above London. They illuminated the translucent, Centre Court roof overhead while rain hammered down, sounding like a stream of BBs dumped on a snare drum. Given Lisicki’s hard-luck history, you half-expected the roof to cave in and wash everyone down to the Thames. The frog-drowner probably wasn’t what the architects and engineers had in mind when they designed the retractable roof; what passes for rain on most days here is best described as light perspiration on the air. But credit both quarterfinalists for battling conditions that bordered on the surreal with a commendable degree of forbearance and skill in a match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes and ended with Liscki in the semifinals for the first time in her brief career, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1.
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Day 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga started slowly in his quarterfinal match against six-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer. Imagine a steam locomotive just about to depart, the steel wheels squealing and protesting as the coupling rods force them to turn. He came out so cold that, as John McEnroe observed, “It looks like he just came out of a freezer.� In the blink of an eye, it seemed, Tsonga lost the first set 3-6 and was heading into a make-or-break secondset tiebreaker. Federer raced through the tiebreaker, 7-3. Given that Federer, who plays quickly, was finishing his service games in under two minutes (literally; his average was 1:47) it appeared that this might go down as the shortest Wimbledon quarterfinal in history. Instead, it became one of the shortest five-set quarterfinals ever played here, at 3:08, with Tsonga winning 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Like that steam locomotive, Tsonga proved virtually impossible to stop once he got out of the railyard and the engine and wheels overcame the enormous start-up inertia.
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Wimbledon
Women’s Semifinal #1 Scanning the service box calmly, as if reading the top line of an eye chart, Petra Kvitova slammed an ace out wide and unleashed a celebratory scream that pierced the Centre Court calm, a surround sound that silenced Victoria Azarenka’s final threat. The eighth-seeded Czech’s lone ace of the last set sealed a hard-fought hold, helping Kvitova power past Azarenka, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, to reach the Wimbledon final for the first time. A year ago, the shy blonde from Bilovec was seeking her first career grass-court win when she arrived at SW19 as the world No. 62. She is the first left-hander to reach the ladies’ Wimbledon final since her tennis idol, Martina Navratilova, advanced to the 1994 title match. Navratilova, who viewed the match seated next to tennis aficionado and global adventurer Sir Richard Branson, had to be impressed with Kvitova’s unrelenting attacking style. She hit four times as many winners as Azarenka (40 to 9) with creative combinations and cracking shots down the line, including nine aces.
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Women’s Semifinal #2 At bay at 0-3 down in the first set of her semifinal against Sabine Lisicki, Maria Sharapova must’ve felt as if she were facing a distorted ghost from her past. Lisicki, the Birmingham champion on a 10-match grass-court winning streak, was the underdog showing no fear. But there comes a moment in most of these plucky stories when a champ restores order. That was Sharapova’s task and she was equal to it, defeating Lisicki, 6-4, 6-3. After a nervous start, Sharapova finally won a point off her second serve with a forehand winner and held for 1-3. With Lisicki failing to make the aces that had marked her run to this point, it was a big return from Sharapova that got her back on serve. Looking progressively more dialed-in as Lisicki’s game faded away, Sharapova’s returning earned her another break at 5-4, and she served out the first set with the aid of her punishing cross-court forehand. The second set offered much of the same.Lisicki would leave the court smiling, with much to be proud of, but it’s Sharapova who advanced to play Petra Kvitova for the title.
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2011
Wimbledon
Men’s Semifinal #1 Novak Djokovic could see the finish line as clearly as the service line. Reaching for the dual dreams that hung in his high toss, the secondseeded Serbian stung a serve off the sideline, then collapsed to the court with pure elation—he had successfully scaled a two summits. Playing his most complete match of the fortnight, a determined Djokovic defeated JoWilfried Tsonga, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (9), 6-3, to advance to his first Wimbledon final and secure the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. Djokovic, who will officially surpass defending champion Rafael Nadal for the top spot when the new ATP rankings are released on Monday, advanced to his third Grand Slam final in his last four major appearances, and his first career appearance in a Wimbledon final. The Year of the Djoker has seen some spectacular spikes, with Djokovic producing an eye-popping 47-1 record and winning seven of the eight prior events he entered. He was relishing the rare air of the top spot as he waved an index figure in the air; he’s the sixth active man to ascend to No. 1.
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2011
Wimbledon
Men’s Semifinal #2 At times during Andy Murray’s straight-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the French Open semifinal last month, it seemed that the players held the games in their teeth and tugged away, like two puppies amusing themselves with a chew toy. Their rematch on the grass at the All England Club beared little resemblance to that match. Centre Court erupted when, with Murray up 6-5 in the first set, a Nadal forehand at 15-40 was hit into the net, resulting in the match’s first break. When he wrapped up the first game of the second set with an ace, it seemed as if he really may become the first British men’s finalist at Wimbledon since Bunny Austin in 1938. The turning point would take place four games later, when at 30-30 Murray double-faulted for the first time in the game. It was Nadal’s first break point of the match, and it’s one he wins when Murrary misses a smash at the net with the entire court in front of him. The Scot would make a valiant effort to come back after being broken in the first game of the fourth set, but the hole he dug himself would turn out to be too much to overcome.
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2011
Wimbledon
Women’s Final Petra Kvitova won her first Wimbledon title in style, coming up with her first ace of the match on championship point. That type of dramatic capstone to a victory is a trademark of two other lefty champions: Jimmy Connors and Rafael Nadal. Kvitova isn’t as outwardly fiery as either of them, but there’s a sense of bedrock confidence about her. And why not? Like the rest of us, she can see that she has the bigger shots, that she controls the rallies, that she has the match in her hands against virtually anyone she plays. Kvitova had the bigger game in her 6-3, 6-4 win over Maria Sharapova; it’s a game that may represent the next step in terms of power and first-strike assertiveness in women’s tennis. The match felt not unlike Sharapova’s own ambush win at 17 over Serena Williams at the All England Club in 2004, the announcement of a new champion. You got the feeling, when Kvitova’s last thudded serve touched down and hit the backstop, that it didn’t just mark the end of her first Grand Slam win. It marked the beginning of a new tennis star’s now-inevitable ascendance.
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2011
Wimbledon
Men’s Final He was the guy who wasn’t supposed to win Wimbledon, the loose-jointed, longlimbed interloper from Serbia. He had the unenviable task of stepping into a universally celebrated relationship between two greats, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal—an affiliation in which mutual admiration often appeared in danger of diluting that which most people wanted the bond to be: a rivalry. It wasn’t easy being Novak Djokovic because it’s never easy being the spoiler, and it was especially difficult when Djokovic was still new on the scene. Slowly, we began to see that the loose limbs harbored something neither Federer nor Nadal had, an astonishing, unprecedented degree of elasticity that enabled Djokovic to control balls most of his peers could only lunge for as they whistled by. Those long limbs enabled him to eat up ground and re-direct balls as if they were coming off the flipper of a pinball machine. On Sunday, the death grip in which Roger and Rafa had held Wimbledon since 2003 was broken with Djokovic’s 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 win over Nadal in four tense, gritty sets. This was not a routine win, this was a declaration: I’m here, and I’m here to stay.
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