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ROLAND GARROS 2015 - DAY 12 IP: 82.127.197.229 Posted on June 5, 2015 at 01:09:49 AM by David Barnes
ROLAND GARROS 2015
THURSDAY 4 JUNE - DAY 12
The grounds at Roland Garros had a forlorn air about them this morning in the wake of Nadal's demoralising defeat at the hands of Novak Djokovic yesterday - 'quiet after the storm' was the mood; the force of nature that has been the Spaniard for so long had passed by, like a typhoon in the southern Philippines, perhaps to pick up speed again tracking across another stretch of water, to Wimbledon later this month, or, more likely, across the Atlantic to the US Open in August. Rafa himself, often his own harshest critic, was especially unhappy with his performance in yesterday's third set, and his double fault on the final point of the match probably said more about his current state of confidence, and appetite for the game, than acres of newsprint and analysis. He said afterwards; "I have been playing a poor game for something like six months, and really poorly during three and a half months. But I will be back and I will do my best to win. I will do my utmost to have more wins".
Seeking solace amid the gloom, I headed across to Suzanne Lenglen court where, at last, the organisers had scheduled a Legends match with enough space in the stands for everybody who wanted to watch it. Kim Clijsters and Martina Navratilova came through to win 7-5, 6-3, from 4-5 down in the first set, in their semi-final match against Conchita Martinez and Anastasia Myskina. It's a class act, the Belgian/American partnership. An incident moved me afterwards - Klijsters walked across, out of sight of the cameras, to sign autographs and have her photo taken with a couple of the spectators who had been watching in wheelchairs, and who were not therefore able to elbow themselves to the front of the group of fans just behind the umpire's chair; a nice touch that more players should follow.
The Belgian has been fulsome in her praise for a compatriot, 21-year old Alison Van Uytvanek, who let nerves get the better of her in her match against Timea Bacsinszky a couple of days ago, thus forfeiting her chance to meet Serena Williams in the semi-final today, but is otherwise having something of a 'breakout year'. Klijsters told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir; "Alison is a very intelligent girl, who works hard and maintains a sense of purpose, and has improved above all in her mind. She has more skills than me, and has a better service. I first noticed her several years ago, and was convinced then that she would do very well".
On the hottest day of the tournament thus far, with afternoon temperatures nudging 30 degrees Centigrade, it was perhaps unwise of Ana Ivanovic to take to the court wearing an entirely black outfit, given the heat-absorbing properties of the colour (although there is some debate among physicists about this old canard). Leading 7-5, 5-4, and serving for the match, her semi-final opponent Lucie Safarova had a meltdown, with three double faults, one on match point, so that after four deuces and a lot of heartache it was unsurprising that Ivanovic won her fourth break point, to level the score at 5-5. The Serb then decided it was her turn to go to pieces, so Safarova broke straight back and in her next service game let a second match point go to waste, before putting a forehand deep into court beyond the reach of the Serb, securing a 7-5, 7-5 victory in under two hours.
Timea Bacsinszky opened strongly in her semi-final against the no. 1 seed, broke Williams to take a 3-2 lead, and held on to it to serve for the set at 5-4, Williams making a series of sloppy forehands and generally appearing out of sorts, as so often this fortnight. At this point, at the change of ends, the groundsmen swept the court, which was odd, and this exception to the normal order of events had the American asking the umpire what the score was. In the following game the Swiss girl let one set point go to waste, floating a forehand millimetres long, then a second, but on her third Williams sent her forehand into the tramlines. The American had made just eight winners in the set, half the number of her opponent, and in losing the first set (6-4 in 42 minutes) the pattern of all her previous matches this fortnight continued - with the exception of her first round, which she won in straight sets. Williams spent most of the second set in considerable physical distress, moving with deliberate slowness, putting an iced towel to her neck at changeovers, coughing horrendously, but not taking on much fluid, and giving every appearance of being about to faint.
She somehow summoned the energy and resilience to win the second set 6-3, in a minute less than it had taken her to lose the first. She hit seventeen winners compared to her opponent's eight, a complete reversal of the pattern of play, that was as mystifying as it was courageous. You sensed that it was only a matter of time before, Houdini-like, she would escape fully from the jaws of defeat and partiall from the anguish of illness, and so it proved in the third set, where she broke the Swiss girl twice for a 3-0 lead, then again for 5-0, finishing with a love game on her own serve. She still appeared hardly able to continue to play, let alone walk, throughout the set, but did remember to drink water at each change of ends.
Someone made the point on social media that the performance was all an attention-grabbing ploy from the great American, in the twilight of her career, but that may be a little hard. The French crowd, of course, love to see great effort in the face of almost unbearable hardship (just think of their Government's impressive record in the Second World War, for which they are still over-compensating, on a national level, well over half a century later), so lapped it all up. Interviewed by Cedric Pioline after her most extraordinary three-set victory yet this fortnight, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in just under two hours, Serena managed a few words about looking forward to Saturday, before another coughing fit took over and she was forced to abandon the exercise. Cue more cheering from the crowd.
Serena's had been a winning performance of enormous, if ambiguous, character and resolve. Talking of which, Andy Murray had a two and an half hour practice slot booked on Court 1 this afternoon, to take care of the technical side of preparing for tomorrow's semi-final against Novak Djokovic. As for the mental side of things in his case, he said last night at his press conference, in comments that eerily foreshadowed the Williams experience today; "If I want to win the match, it's not going to be plain sailing. It's very unlikely that you'll be comfortable physically. It will be difficult, and you need to prepare yourself mentally before you go out on to the court". One must hope that there is none of the on court self-flagellation, physical as well as verbal, that has been his leitmotiv here in previous years, or as Barry Flatman put it in The Times today; "In the past Murray has almost been satisfied by getting to the last four of a tournament that he never previously believed he could win. All that has changed in this surprising run in 2015".