Wimbledon 2005 .. (Sania/ Hesh/ Lee ..)

[PKBasu]

I had the distinct pleasure of watching Sania Mirza take her and Simon Aspelin into the second round yesterday. (I was over-optimistic when I told Jay I was 10 minutes away from getting in; it took nearly another hour -- for a total of two hours in the queue, all because of Andy Murray, but it was worth it in the end). When the final moment of entry into the hallowed grounds occurred, the scoreboard showed 1-2 in the final set. It was still on serve, and the first game I watched (or perhaps the second) had a loooong sequence of deuces on Sania's serve. Court no. 4 was 95% surrounded by Indians, but you wouldn't know that from listening to the sounds. They just politely clapped after every point, it seemed. I changed that in a hurry. In the first couple of games, it seemed our pair was under much more pressure, and it seemed only a matter of time before they would lose.
But a little bit of serious cheering between points (encouragement for the good shots, in particular) can lift a player/team. My throat was in action from the second point I saw (to the detriment of my vocal chords and my daughter's ears...). A mix of humour and sheer loudness soon had the crowd galvanised; Sania seemed a tad embarrassed at first, but I think (in retrospect) that her game began to flow as a result of the encouragement.
And she is even better in real life than the impressive player I saw on TV against Kuznetsova. The power in her groundstrokes matched and usually surpassed both the men on the court, and hitting the ball to her was never the best policy for her opponents. The power and accuracy of Sania's groundstrokes keeps getting better almost every month these days. Etlis was easily the craftiest person on court, mixing in the volleys, drop shots and delicate touch that makes great doubles players. Our pair generally stayed back, although Aspelin occasionally showed good volleying ability too. Sania's volley is not yet a strength, but she didn't miss many; the difference between her volleys and her groundstrokes from the baseline is that the volley is still basically a defensive shot (or an occasional deftly placed shot) which she caresses rather than pummels. Once she starts doing the latter, she will be unstoppable. Her return of serves were excellent throughout naturally, although Etlis had little difficulty holding his serve (too much variety and placement, although Sania had one breathtaking return against him that cost him a point on serve). There was one particularly memorable rally that went for about 15 shots between Sania and Etlis, where the former's power almost got the better of Etlis's craft and strokeplay, until he hit one to Aspelin and the latter volleyed into the net (to the audible disappointment of the crowd; soon after, I got the crowd to chant HIS name when he came up with a good shot, and his smile was noticeable!). Aspelin's serve came under severe pressure at 4-5 (we were down 15-40), but some absolutely brilliant, occasionally breathtaking play from Sania (and one or two nice volleys and overheads from Aspelin) got us back even, and pumped up. Sania immediately put Lisa McShea's serve under pressure, and we soon had a couple of breakpoints (15-40) after some magnificent returns from Sania (that were too strong even for Etlis!). IIRC, we broke on the next point. And Sania held serve with consummate ease to end the match in style (when serving in doubles, it's always nice to have a partner who can put away the volley on the third point, and Simon did that twice in that final game to make things easy). It was wonderful to see Sania win her second match at Wimbledon, but I have a message for the Indians in the crowd: don't just stand around and give "silent" encouragement (she probably can't see that most people in the crowd are Indians); use your throats to cheer your player on, it always works!! (How I wish I had been on centre court during the Kuznetsova match rather than watching on a TV in faraway Amsterdam!).

[PKBasu]

The other match I watched (until late in the second set) was Serena's match on Court no. 2 -- the graveyard of champions. Serena's serve was completely off in the first set, and she was so distraught that she was serving at half- or one-third speed during the second half of the set. There was an air of helplessness (as if she didn't want to be on the court) especially during the first set. (It was dark and cold, and probably a bit unfair to ask a former champion to start a match on that court at 6:45pm). But the amazing thing in that match was that Jill Craybas' power matched Serena's throughout; clearly the other women have worked hard in the gym to raise both their level of fitness and the power of their groundstrokes to the level of the Williams sisters, who revolutionised the women's game like Lendl did the men's two decades ago.
In the second set, Serena lifted her game considerably. She served one game brilliantly (at 1-2). And then she put Craybas' serve under pressure, with a couple of breakpoints. But the amazing thing was the brilliance of Craybas' returns even under pressure. IIRC, Serena had about 7 more breakpoints in that game but could not convert (mainly because Craybas played way too well when it mattered). And she converted on the first Ad that went her way. Soon after, Serena's serve was broken -- after a long hard struggle -- and I knew she was likely to lose when Craybas went ahead 4-2. My daughter was frozen by that point (high on the Court 2 stadium standing-room only area!) and we exited the court at that point. On other courts, there was a feast of doubles and mixed doubles (Suk/Jankovic were worth watching, although they seemed perennially behind against unheralded Thomas/Russell). I also caught glimpses of Coria winning against Melzer in a tough long match. The relatively dry first week has meant that the courts are playing more true, and the claycourters aren't in too much difficulty; this helped Murray (who I watched on TV occasionally from what used to be Henman hill). I doubt, from what I saw, that Murray will ever win Wimbledon. He could be a contender at the US Open or even the French, but Nalbandian walked over him in the final three sets once he had got used to the one-sided crowd.

[PKBasu]

Wimbledon is a most irritatingly stuck-up place of course. Court 18 was packed for Coria's match, so an Aussie and I picked up a table and moved it to the edge of the crowd, so we could stand on it and watch the action a bit better. A steward (in tie, jacket and hat) soon asked us to get off it, as that is "not allowed"; similarly there was a stretch at the top of the stadium where there were very few people, but I was told this was a restricted area. The only saving grace is that most of the stewards have a good sense of humour, and do their distasteful work with a smile and some quick repartee.

[completelyconked]

Good results all-round for our players today
PKB are you seriously saying that Sania can even out-hit men Unbelievable!Then again she did have a couple of near 100MPH returns against Kuz.I would dearly love to watch her play MXD.How is this Aspelin?Any good?

[completelyconked]

this helped Murray (who I watched on TV occasionally from what used to be Henman hill). I doubt, from what I saw, that Murray will ever win Wimbledon. He could be a contender at the US Open or even the French, but Nalbandian walked over him in the final three sets once he had got used to the one-sided crowd.

I wasn't too impressed by Murray.A good player,but nothing special.Good serve though.

[vishnureddy]

Great report PKB especially for including those cheering bits. Hopefully you will get to see the Indian Juniors too in action on Monday .

[PKBasu]

With so many Indians in action on Monday, I'm trying to change my tickets and hotel reservations. I have a ridiculous itinerary (requiring me to go back to Amsterdam by Monday evening) because of the ridiculous behaviour of the French embassy, which totally upset my holiday plans. At this point, I cannot make it to Wimbledon on Monday, but hopefully I'll be able to make the requisite alterations (all depends on the airline office being open on Sunday -- never a good bet in Europe, and the UK in particular).

[gbelday]

Great job PKB. Great reports as well. Keep up the cheering!! I hope you can make it back to Wimbly again! It's great to read these reports

[BSharma]

Thanks PKB for your reports. Excellent, as always.

[PKBasu]

I had the pleasure of meeting Samarth and Monisha this evening in the Piccadilly area of London. They are a wonderful couple, and its lovely to be able to connect with our virtual community of Indian tennis fanatics in this way.

[BSharma]

I had the pleasure of meeting Samarth and Monisha this evening in the Piccadilly area of London. They are a wonderful couple, and its lovely to be able to connect with our virtual community of Indian tennis fanatics in this way.

The virtual community is becoming a real community, and I believe that several forum members can attest to this fact.

Thanks go to Jay and Dhruv who started it all, and to all the forum members who have made my day on so many occasions and for helping each other out in different ways.

[jaydeep]

Excellent reports .. THanks PKB for ur these updates ... Great that u got time to meet Samarth and Monisha ... It gives nice feeling to know persons form our virtual community.

Hopefully today u able to make it at Wimbledon ... Nice win by Lee in doubles ... Hesha and Sania in MXD with their respective partners ... Jeevan had tough first round opponent and he lost ... Sanam used opportunity of weaker draw ... Hoping win from Vivek in today's match ... Goodluck to Lee, Sania and Vivek for today's matches.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

Today's matches:

Court 5 12.00 noon Start
2. [R2] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SCG) vs Rick Leach (USA)/ Travis Parrott (USA)
3. [R2] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mary Pierce (FRA) vs (2) Wayne Black (ZIM)/ Cara Black (ZIM)

Court 6 12.00 noon Start
2. [R1] Robin Roshardt (SUI,41) vs Vivek Shokeen (IND,27)

Court 7 12.00 noon Start
4. [R2] Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (7) Leos Friedl (CZE)/ Janette Husarova (SVK)

Jay

[Indian]

PKB, good to see that you managed to catch a glimpse of Saina's match at Wimbledon. That's quite an effort from you coming over from Singapore.
And not to mention the most difficult part, standing in the Wimbledon queue with a british player still in the draw! I did that once when Henman was playing on a saturday and it took me around 5 hours to get through. Never been back since then. I hope Wimbledon people change some of their ticket rules. I can never get on the yearly ballet and queuing for 5+ hours is not what you can do every time.
I am out sick at the moment anyway, so hope to catch some action on TV today.

[jayakris]

Anyone know who Raj Chaudhari is? Seems to be coaching Jill Craybas, who upset Serena today at Wimbledon.

He was with the University of Florida program. He may still be with them, but I am not sure. He is a first generation Indian, a young guy who played college tennis for U.of.Kansas in the early 90s. Young guy. I believe he is a good coach.

Craybas played for the Univ.of Florida in the mid-90s when Raj was there, and he may have later become a traveling coach for Craybas (if I am not mistaken, Divya Merchant was in the Florida team with Craybas at around that time - whatever happened to her?).

Jay