The numbers may be impressive but they do not reveal the full story behind the brilliant and balletic Swiss who demonstrates such poise under pressureRoger Federer is one of those rare champions for whom numbers cannot gild genius. He loves to win, and strives for it more convincingly in the autumn of his career than scores of young contenders, as he proved for the eighth time on Centre Court on Sunday. Yet it is as if victory follows art, not the other way round.For the record, these are the bare statistics that will go into the history books to embellish his achievement, after he had spent just an hour and 41 minutes beating a wounded Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. Related:...
When the Spaniard found her rhythm against Venus Williams she raced away to add her name to the champions’ board that has been inspiring herThroughout this Wimbledon Garbiñe Muguruza has paused at the Centre Court honours board, immersing herself in the legendary names of the past before willing herself to join them. On Saturday afternoon she got her chance – and, with a performance of stunning clarity and brutal unsentimentality, she took it. Now, following her 7-5, 6-0 victory over the five-times champion Venus Williams, her name, too, is etched in gold.The 23-year-old Spaniard’s talent has never been in question but she has always blown hotter and colder than most. This fortnight, however, those tennis winds must have come from...
History tends to forget that Britain’s last victor in the Wimbledon women’s tournament lost her first two semi-finalsFirst you have to suffer. The unspoken rule for any British hopeful striving to scratch the nation’s itch at Wimbledon is that the journey is never complete until they have dragged themselves off a deflated Centre Court at the end of their semi-final debut with sympathetic applause ringing in their ears, their bottom lip quivering and that lump in their throat threatening to spill on to the grass, guilty only of daring to think it would be different this time. Related: Venus Williams into Wimbledon final with smooth defeat of Johanna Konta Related: Johanna Konta: quiet Sydney schoolgirl always had focus of a...
Win or lose against Venus Williams in the Wimbledon semi-finals a fine mid-twenties British talent has begun to hit the grooveThe relationship between player and crowd at Wimbledon tends to be pegged out around great matches, an accumulated muscle memory of successive oddly intimate moments of extreme competition down the years. Johanna Konta’s gripping quarter-final defeat of Simona Halep looks like being the latest example of this process in action.Both women played to the outer reaches of their capacity over three high-grade sets. Centre Court quivered and moaned in the way no other sporting crowd ever really quivers and moans. In victory Konta threw another grappling hook across the divide from late-blooming high-class hopeful to slams contender. Plus she added another...
From asking about Novak Djokovic’s inward journey, to inquiring whether a cold might kill Roger Federer – the press pack’s curious agenda raises eyebrowsDuring the press conference that followed his third round win over Ernests Gulbis, Novak Djokovic was asked to ruminate on his journey. “Paradoxes and contradictions are some of the more interesting parts of life,” observed his inquisitor. “You’re on this journey that’s exploring different aspects of life, very subtle, inward quiet. Yet tennis is such a war, a battle, winner, loser, boxing without the violence. How do the two aspects of your life impact each other? Does your journey in any way diminish your ferocity, your fight?” Eh? Related: Johanna Konta and Andy Murray make history with...