The Rain & the Drama

Today’s rain delay might be depressing, but it provides a fantastic occasion to say a few things about Wimbledon and why it makes for great television. Unlike so many of the TV dramas and reality shows, Wimbledon is completely unpredictable. For instance, in 2005, 31-year-old journeywoman Jill Craybas took out world #4 Serena Williams on Centre Court. How improbable was that? Craybas has never in her career been ranked higher than 47th in the world, and even that had been quite a few years ago. She’s a small woman who does not hit with much power, while Serena Williams might hit the ball harder than anyone else on the WTA tour. Grass is a surface that favors big hitters. Craybas had never in more than a decade on tour defeated anyone ranked in the top twenty. And yet, there it was, the most improbable kind of upset in tennis, a small, older player in the twilight of her career took out the formidable Serena Williams.

Wimbledon also provides some of the most exiting points in tennis because players can dive onto the grass, and thus reach for shots much farther away from them than they could on a hard court. In one of the highest level matches I’ve ever seen, Patrick Rafter beat Andre Agassi in a five-set extravaganza in the 2000 Wimbledon semi-finals. Rafter charged the net and dove for winning volley after volley, barely dinking Agassi’s world-class passing shots back over the net with so much backspin that even quick-footed Agassi couldn’t run in quickly enough to get them. Agassi played the best tennis I’ve ever seen him play, and it still wasn’t enough to beat Rafter at his all-time best. The only bad part of the match was that it tired Rafter out enough for Sampras to beat him in four sets in the final. Still, it was great television that I was fortunate enough to watch on Mike E.’s little TV in the infamous, Skyla Court place in Missoula.

Another great Wimbledon memory comes from the 2004 women’s final. On a tiny TV getting reception from bunny ears on the top floor of an old Toronto bed and breakfast, Mariah and I watched the attractive, teenage Maria Sharapova out hit the heavily favored Serena Williams. She beat Williams at her own hard-hitting game, and at that moment, the tennis world knew that the domination of the two Williams sisters over the women’s circuit was over. It was the end of an era, and for many, it meant that the game would become more exciting since we wouldn’t be seeing the same two women in every Grand Slam final. The previous two women’s finals had been boring, error-filled Venus vs. Serena matches. When Sharapova won, it was the first time in five years that a Williams sister hadn’t taken home the trophy. It was glorious.

This year, we are spending the middle weekend in Seattle with Simon and Ginny. While rain has prevented much of the play since we’ve been here, we did see a spectacular Blake diving volley against “The Mosquito,” Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Mosquito prevailed, and he has been playing as well as I’ve seen him play since he won the French many years ago. Roddick stands as the only American man left in the draw, but will he finally be able to bring his A-game to a match-up with four-time champ Roger Federer? Will a Frenchman win the title for the first time in more than twenty years? Will an Englishman win a doubles title for the first time in more than forty-five years? All of these things are still possible. The rain will certainly let up sometime, and then we’ll find out.