Monday, June 28, 2010
Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England
If it’s hard to imagine how this wildest of Wimbledons — does 70-68 ring a bell? — could top itself in Week 2, consider all the characters still strutting on tennis’ biggest stage.
Roger Federer, bidding for a record-tying seventh championship at the All England Club. Rafael Nadal, seeking a second after declining to defend his 2008 title because of injury. Andy Roddick, yearning for one Wimbledon trophy after three runner-up finishes. Andy Murray, well aware that all of Britain is counting on him to end its 74-year wait for a homegrown men’s champion.
A pair of sisters named Serena and Venus, aiming for a fifth all-Williams final, and third in a row, at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament; one or the other has won eight of the past 10 women’s championships. Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, back at Wimbledon after years away and hoping to finally win it. Another former No. 1 and major champion, Maria Sharapova, striving to return to relevance in the latter stages of big events.
Each of those names — indeed, each of the 32 men and women left in the singles draws — is featured on the fourth-round schedule when action resumes today, following Wimbledon’s traditional day of rest on the middle Sunday.
Two intriguing showdowns are Serena Williams vs. Sharapova, in a rematch of the 2004 final won by the Russian; and Henin vs. Clijsters, in the 25th meeting between the Belgian rivals.
“Well, I’d rather be here doing an interview than being at home on the couch and watching Wimbledon from home, that’s for sure,” said the top-seeded Federer, who plays No. 16 Jurgen Melzer of Austria. “So I feel very lucky, of course. ... I’m excited I’m still in the tournament. I hope I can go further.”
Before looking ahead, though, take a moment to reflect on all that’s transpired through six days.
In the tournament’s opening Centre Court match, 16-time Grand Slam champion Federer dropped the first two sets against a guy with a sub.-500 career record before turning things around. Nadal gutted out consecutive come-from-behind, five-set victories and needed a trainer to help with a balky right knee, although he told The Associated Press it felt “good, good; not bad” after practicing 40 minutes Sunday.
Nothing, of course, tops what John Isner of the United States and Nicolas Mahut of France endured in the first round: It was the longest match — by far — in tennis history, a body-battering, 183-game test of will that encompassed 11 hours, 5 minutes of action over three days; play was suspended twice by darkness because they were out on Court 18, which has no lights.
The fifth set alone, which Isner finally won by that score no one will soon forget, 70-68, dragged on for 8 hours, 11 minutes, more than 11/2 hours longer than any previous entire match on record.
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