Alix’s World: A Star Is Born

Written by: Staff on 27th June 2010

Alix's World: A Star Is Born |

It’s been a funny old week in SW19. We’ve been breaking records a-go-go (longest match ever, latest finish ever, most ridiculously overpriced sandwiches in the history of mass catering…) while the great and the good of the men’s game have been flapping and fluffing and generally making a meal out of their opening rounds.

But one star has emerged from the rubble and stands proudly in the spotlight. That star is (cue a swift trumpet voluntary on the vuvuzela)… Court 18. I tell you, if it is going to happen at Wimbledon, it is going to happen on Court 18.

It was there that John Isner and Nicolas Mahut slogged it out for 11 hours and five minutes and it was there that Victor Hanescu livened up a quiet night on Friday. He was bumbling along, wasting chances against Daniel Brands and being dragged into a fifth set when, all of a sudden, he stopped.

At 2-0 in the fifth set, he appeared to spit in the direction of the crowd who had been cheering for Brands. That earned him a warning from the umpire. Then he appeared to serve four deliberate double faults in the next game. When he was done with that, he walked over to the umpire and withdrew. That little temper tantrum earned him a $7,500 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct and another $7,500 for “not using best efforts” (that’s tanking to you and me). And it all happened on Court 18.

Court 18 came late to tennis. It had been hanging around Wimbledon for years but began its life as a sort of glorified car park. It was where all the TV people used to put their trailers and Portacabins before the All England Club gave the telly people a purpose built broadcast centre (they are an odd breed, the telly folk, and are best kept away from everyone else). But, given a wash and brush up, the patch of Tarmac turned into Court 18.

Sources close to the new star say that Court 18 is taking it one match at a time and doesn’t want to look too far ahead. It is only the end of the first week and there is a long way to go before we can start thinking about the final.

Still, there is one man who really does not want to see the place again – Nicolas Mahut. Since they embraced at the net on that very court on Thursday, Isner and Mahut have formed their own, exclusive little club. They speak of each other in reverential tones and, like old army pals chewing over campaigns won and lost in foreign lands, they appear willing to do anything for each other.

So when Isner heard that Mahut had toweled himself down after losing their first round fifth set 70-68 on Thursday and gone back out to Court 18 for a doubles match, he was amazed. He was also gobsmacked that the tournament referee, Andrew Jarrett, had made the poor man go back to scene of his historic, yet heartbreaking, defeat and start all over again.

“I thought that was just evil, really,” Isner said. “I don’t know how he made it out there. That must have been brutal for him. But kudos to him for him going out there and gutting it out.”

The All England Club are sticklers for tradition and regulations. Normally, any suspended match, however good or exciting, has to be finished where it started. If Rafa Nadal starts playing The Fed in Car Park 10, he finishes playing The Fed in Car Park 10 – that is the way we have always done things in SW19 and we see no reason why we should change. Especially not for foreigners.

Once in a very blue moon, this rule will be ignored, but only in extraordinary circumstances. On the rare occasion that it happens, it is invariably for scheduling reasons and is usually after we have sat through days of rain and there are heaps of matches still waiting to be played. But Mahut’s cause was different. Mahut’s cause had made headlines.

Perhaps Isner’s words were heard in the referee’s office and perhaps Jarrett took pity. We can but hope.

Mahut and his partner, Arnaud Clement, had started their match against “Flemski” (for those non-Brit readers, that is Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski who are, currently, the best doubles team in the UK) on Court 18 on Thursday. And the Frenchmen had lost the first set when they were called off for bad light.

On Friday, they were scheduled to return to the same patch of turf to finish matters. But, as the sun set over the champagne tent, Court 18 was busy as Hanescu had his melt down. The doubles, then, was called off for the day.

When Saturday’s order of play was announced, Mahut and Clement were quietly redirected to Court 14 and opened proceedings for the day. This was kindly gesture from the club; this was Wimbledon being all warm and fuzzy. But computers do not have feelings and the computer was about to ruin things for poor old Nic.

As Mahut and Clement began on Saturday, the scoreboard stubbornly refused to work. This had happened when Mahut had played Isner – so ridiculous was the score in that match that the computerized scoring system had thrown in the towel on day two of their three day epic. But while the scoreboard was out of action, Mahut was still in with a chance against Isner. When the computer geeks ironed out the software malfunction and the scoreboard sprang back into life on day three, Mahut lost.

So, on Saturday, as the scoreboard remained broken, Mahut and Clement battled back from a two set deficit. Winning the third, they thought they had a chance. And then the scoreboard woke up and Flemski closed out the win in four sets. Mahut could be in therapy for years.

But now it is time for a day off. While all the other slams try to fill 14 (or, the case of the French, 15) days – and invariably run out of matches, Wimbledon can crack through a slam in 13 days. And before anyone suggests that grass court tennis makes for abbreviated rallies and shorter matches, I refer you to Mr J. Isner and Mr N. Mahut. Short is was not. No, my little country may be broke but we still know how to run an event.

The day off, though, is needed because on Monday we have all the fourth round matches, men and women, playing at once. We call it Manic Monday. Those who queue for ground passes call it heaven. The US, French and Australian Opens call it madness. And the club simply calls it “the fourth round”.

But if you are looking for a steer on what might happen in the middle of all this madness, we have the inside track. The Mighty Fed has been practising with Alex Bogdanovic ahead of his Monday meeting with Jurgen Melzer. Boggo – as we Brits call him – is Britain’s No.2 and is a lefty. Melzer is a lefty. You can see where we are going with this.

But Boggo has also had eight wild cards to Wimbledon and has, with outstanding consistency, failed to win a match. Melzer, on the other hand, reached the semi finals of the French Open a few weeks back. Fed and Boggo, then, does not sound like a practise partnership made in heaven. As I believe people say in America: “you do the math.”

Topics: Alix, Best Efforts, Breaking Records, Car Park, Daniel Brands, Double Faults, England Club, John Isner, New Star, Nicolas Mahut, Portacabins, Quiet Night, Rubble, Sandwiches, Sw19, Temper Tantrum, Umpire, Victor Hanescu, Vuvuzela, Wimbledon