TENNIS: Wimbledon finals weekend
Jul. 7th, 2014 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI saw more of Saturday’s batch, catching most of the build-up to the women’s final, which may have pushed me even further into supporting Kvitova. I say 'further' because I’ve always hoped for another performance from her like the one that won her Wimbledon previously, she’s a lefty and I haven’t actually seen a whole Bouchard match. Then again, I was hoping for a close one, a real match like we had at the French Open final.
I realised we wouldn’t during the game after Kvitova broke Bouchard and needed to back it up. Perhaps it was the last point. We’d already seen the hitting that proved that it was Good Petra who was playing, but there was one point where she chased after the ball and it was obvious her movement had improved. I thought then that Bouchard had little to no chance – as evidenced by the bagel in the second set. When she got the occasional hint of a chance, mainly the rare point, she didn’t play badly, although maybe she lacked the experience to try to shake Kvitova out of her rhythym and certainly lost composure on her serve. But I tend to think that, in that form, Kvitova is unplayable. She was arguably better than she was in her first final where she crushed Sharapova, who’s no slouch.
I think she wanted it more. Bouchard should learn from this and I expect, given he recent trajectory, that she’ll be in a final again (like Halep, perhaps even against her). I thought it was lovely that Kvitova as champion seemed more relaxed and composed and okay with having won this time. It bodes well. It looks as if she could put more things together more often and build on this like we thought she might the last time and win again (amid all the churn at the top).
The women’s doubles final was also a short and one-sided one, but as I watched less of it, I couldn’t say as much. I’ve barely seen any doubles at Wimbledon this year. But the men’s doubles made up for it. An unseeded team of north American young guns against THE established champions, the Bryan brothers, turned out to be the most competitive final of the day. They all served so well. The Canadian volleyed well, and when the young guns won the first in a tie break, it was all very exciting. But the twins won the second set, and one wondered if ‘PopSock’ would crumble. But, thrillingly, they really didn’t. A really enjoyable match.
I only saw the last three games of the other competitive final i.e. the men's singles on Monday. It sounds like it was amazing, and I’d have come as a relative neutral (I thought Djokovic would have more, going in, but Federer had obviously been playing well). From the scoreboard, it looked as if it had been quite equal, but I now unerstand that the scores hid peaks and troughs. It clearly meant a lot for Nole – it has been a while since he won a Slam.
And then some mixed doubles to finish the championships off. It quickly became clear how these two experienced champions versus one experienced champion and one inexperienced player would go. Never mind Mirniy’s wingspan, Zjimonic and Stosur had their serves and returns and were almost clinical.
My next post will probably not be about tennis!
I realised we wouldn’t during the game after Kvitova broke Bouchard and needed to back it up. Perhaps it was the last point. We’d already seen the hitting that proved that it was Good Petra who was playing, but there was one point where she chased after the ball and it was obvious her movement had improved. I thought then that Bouchard had little to no chance – as evidenced by the bagel in the second set. When she got the occasional hint of a chance, mainly the rare point, she didn’t play badly, although maybe she lacked the experience to try to shake Kvitova out of her rhythym and certainly lost composure on her serve. But I tend to think that, in that form, Kvitova is unplayable. She was arguably better than she was in her first final where she crushed Sharapova, who’s no slouch.
I think she wanted it more. Bouchard should learn from this and I expect, given he recent trajectory, that she’ll be in a final again (like Halep, perhaps even against her). I thought it was lovely that Kvitova as champion seemed more relaxed and composed and okay with having won this time. It bodes well. It looks as if she could put more things together more often and build on this like we thought she might the last time and win again (amid all the churn at the top).
The women’s doubles final was also a short and one-sided one, but as I watched less of it, I couldn’t say as much. I’ve barely seen any doubles at Wimbledon this year. But the men’s doubles made up for it. An unseeded team of north American young guns against THE established champions, the Bryan brothers, turned out to be the most competitive final of the day. They all served so well. The Canadian volleyed well, and when the young guns won the first in a tie break, it was all very exciting. But the twins won the second set, and one wondered if ‘PopSock’ would crumble. But, thrillingly, they really didn’t. A really enjoyable match.
I only saw the last three games of the other competitive final i.e. the men's singles on Monday. It sounds like it was amazing, and I’d have come as a relative neutral (I thought Djokovic would have more, going in, but Federer had obviously been playing well). From the scoreboard, it looked as if it had been quite equal, but I now unerstand that the scores hid peaks and troughs. It clearly meant a lot for Nole – it has been a while since he won a Slam.
And then some mixed doubles to finish the championships off. It quickly became clear how these two experienced champions versus one experienced champion and one inexperienced player would go. Never mind Mirniy’s wingspan, Zjimonic and Stosur had their serves and returns and were almost clinical.
My next post will probably not be about tennis!
