The 124th Championships, a Royal tournament thanks to the first visit to the All England Club by Her Majesty the Queen for 33 years, was also a record-breaking occasion in many ways, most notably in that unforgettable first round men’s singles between John Isner of the United States and France’s Nicolas Mahut, which smashed every existing record in the sport. Then there was the wonderful weather, which ushered the tournament to a prompt conclusion and was described by the All England Club’s historian, Alan Little, as “the sunniest I can remember”. And finally, there were the champions, Rafael Nadal clocking up various new marks by winning the men’s championship for a second time, and Serena Williams, who rounded out in thunderous fashion a decade in which she and her sister Venus have utterly dominated the women’s singles.
In defeating the 12th seed, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 Nadal confirmed his clear status as world No.1. He became the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon twice and he again matched Bjorn Borg’s 1980 mark and Roger Federer (2009) by coming from triumph at the French Open on clay to capture Wimbledon on grass, just as he had done two years ago. Nadal had been unable to defend that 2008 title last summer because of knee problems but his return to action this year has been sensationally successful as he swept unstoppably through the clay court season and then won the world’s premier prize and the one he covets most of all, Wimbledon.
Nadal needed only two hours 13 minutes to do the job, the quickest men’s final since Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick in 2005, and Serena Williams did an even more rapid job in the women’s final on the preceding day. She dismissed Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes to complete an astonishing decade of Wimbledon domination by the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus. Between them they have captured the women’s title nine times in the 11 years since the Millennium and, says Serena, they intend to be back next year to carry on the good work.
In stark contrast was the Isner-Mahut first round marathon, which stretched over three days, lasted 11 hours five minutes and totalled 183 games before Isner staggered away the winner 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68. The final set alone lasted just over eight hours. Both men shattered the record for aces in one match, previously held by Ivo Karlovic at 78. Isner delivered 112 and Mahut also cracked the century with 103. An exhausted Isner crashed out to Thiemo De Bakker of Holland in the next round, collecting just five games.
The tournament was notable for the number of men’s five-set matches in the early rounds. Nadal himself survived two of them, against Robin Haase of Holland and Germany’s Philipp Petzschner, and another, between the third seed Novak Djokovic and Olivier Rochus of Belgium, saw the only occasion on which the Centre Court roof was closed, due to lack of light rather than the threat of rain. That five-setter also produced another Wimbledon record, the latest-ever finish to a day’s play at 10.58pm.
The top six men’s seeds all survived into the fourth round, the first time this has happened at Wimbledon since 2001 but then the unexpected happened to several of them. Andy Roddick, seeded fifth and three times a Wimbledon runner-up, crashed out in the fourth round to Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu, ranked 82 in the world, in another five-setter.
Then in the biggest shock of the whole fortnight, the No.1 seed and defending champion Roger Federer was overpowered in four sets by Berdych,, the first time in seven years he had failed either to win the title or reach the final. Berdych next took out Djokovic in straight sets, while in the bottom half of the draw the rapidly-improving Nadal saw off sixth-seeded Robin Soderling and then the home hope, Andy Murray, in the quarters and semis.
In the women’s singles Maria Sharapova, the only other former champion in the draw besides the Williams sisters, was unfortunate to find herself in the same quarter of the draw as Serena Williams, and paid the price of not yet having fully recovered her form following shoulder surgery last year. Though Venus Williams, a five-time champion, fell in the quarter-finals and Kim Clijsters, winner over Justine Henin in the all-Belgian clash between two women who had retired from the sport and then decided to return, was also a shock loser to Zvonareva in the quarter-finals, Serena Williams powered on irresistibly. She served 89 aces, beating her own record set last year.
In the doubles, the men’s title went to an unseeded pair, Austria’s Jurgen Melzer and Germany’s Philipp Petzschner, playing only their seventh tournament as a team. In an event which lost its top seeds and two-time defending champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic as early as the second round (to a British team, Chris Eaton and Dominic Inglot), Melzer and Petzschner defeated the 16th seeds, Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Romania’s Horia Tecau 6-1, 7-5, 7-5.
The women’s doubles was won by an American-Kazakh combination, Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova. Also unseeded, they overcame the Russians, Elena Vesnina and Zvonareva, 7-6, 6-2. For Zvonareva, it provided the second Centre Court disappointment in the space of a few hours following her singles loss to Serena Williams, and came after the Russians had caused the surprise of the event in the quarter-finals by eliminating the top-seeded Williams sisters 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The mixed doubles championship, at least, fell to a seeded combination, Leander Paes and Cara Black, the second seeds, This India-Zimbabwe combination beat Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Lisa Raymond (United States) 6-4. 7-6.
The boys’ singles was captured by Hungary’s 13th-seeded Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-4 against Benjamin Mitchell of Australia, and the ninth seed, Kristyna Pliskova, won the girls’ singles title in impressive fashion, dropping just one set on her way to a final against Japan’s Sachie Ishizu. The 10th-seeded Ishizu, who had put out the British hope Laura Robson at the semi-final stage, provided stiff opposition before Pliskova came through 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
There was also Hungarian success in the girls’ doubles for Timea Babos who teamed with Sloane Stephens of the United States to beat Russia’s Irina Khromacheva and Elina Svitolina, the top seeds, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. The boys’ doubles, an all-British final, was won by the wild cards Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson 7-6, 6-4 against Lewis Burton and George Morgan.
Nadal Finally Won
August 28, 2010
tennisproline
