2019 WIMBLEDON, THE PRINCESS AND THE GOATS

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club established in 1868 has grown in stature and reverence to reach almost religious proportions as epitomized by the designation of its Center Tennis Court as “The Cathedral”. To the tennis cognoscenti their annual championship is the Super Bowl of the tennis year. To the players it is the trophy that they covet the most. Every winner will wistfully relate that they, from the moment they picked up a tennis racket, fantasized “this moment”. The 2019 All England Championship played on the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon was the fairy tale of the three 2019 GOATS, (Greatest Of All Time), that depending on whom one supports didn’t necessarily end happily after.

THE MAGIC OF WIMBLEDON

 Wimbledon’s manicured grass playing arenas besides representing the ultimate test of skill is the home of British tradition, innovation and in this day and age some of the rituals bordering on pretentiousness. If Rome fed the masses bread and gladiatorial contests the English, with their royalty also in the box, offer outrageously expensive strawberries and cream served with champagne. Nobody who is sitting in or around the royal box will dare to be dressed in anything but a tie and a suit. Even John McEnroe three time winner and super brat in his day, now a tennis commentator extra ordinaire sits in his bunker commentary box squashed in sweating in a tie and suit.

 Everything about the championship is so unique. Even the coin that is used to decide who will serve first in the finals has been in space. It is pure gold and been ferried to the international space station and back. Such is the reverence invested in every moment of the Championship match.

Wimbledon is representative of privilege. To become a member is not easy to put it mildly. There are only three hundred and seventy - five full members. The only way a plebeian like you and Jay H. Ell could become an honorary member would be to win a Championship or marry a prince or princess. Members are given a bunch of tickets each and if they sold them they would not have to do a day’s work. Notwithstanding that the crowds spend the night in line to either get one of the few tickets that are allocated to the unwashed or failing that an opportunity to squat with others in front of the gigantic screen that features the play on Henman Hill, so named after a Brit who was their vain white hope for almost a decade to win the trophy for the British Isles.

At the end of the day the Monarchy, this year represented by Prince William’s good lady, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge aka known as Kate Middleton, rather than give a thumbs up or down to the vanquished hands, over the trophy with an obsequious smile while exuding noblesse oblige and offering sympathy to the loser. All this and the 2019 Wimbledon featuring the three greatest players the game has ever seen - all at the top of their game. 

Wimbledon too creates its own hierarchy among the players because Championship winners are not only made honorary members, (they not kings and queens you know eligible for full membership), are afforded their own facilities in the hallowed ground.

Not since Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player dominated the other individual sport, golf, in the sixties have three sportsmen simultaneously shared the world stage with their rivalry being the focus of sport lovers.  

THE GOATS BEFORE IT STARTED.

All three of the tennis Greatest of All Time, (GOATS) have distinct styles and personalities. Between them they have won fourteen of the last sixteen championships. Firstly there is Roger Federer, the Gentleman, who epitomizes the All England ethos, is in championship grand slam titles The current GOAT. At the unprecedented age of thirty - eight years he is the unchallenged favorite of the crowd. He has charmed and entertained them for close on two decades with the artistry and the brilliance of a Rudolph Nureyev and the nuance of a Daniel Day Lewis. He is imperturbable processing the rare attribute to forget near misses and sets that he should have won.The Swiss maestro leads too in Wimbledon trophies. He has effected the victory lap with the golden prize held aloft a staggering eight times before the start of the 2019 trial. If there is tennis royalty Federer is it. 

Not far behind in major championship cups is the Spaniard Rafael Nadal who has eighteen scalps to the leader’s twenty. He is characterized by sheer physicality and endurance of an Arnold Schwartzenegger. While not processing the charm of his lifelong rival nevertheless his sportsmanship is acknowledged by all and sundry. He owes his position in the GOAT rankings to his total dominance on the hard clay court of Roland Garros in Paris. He has notched eleven of his eighteen laurels on a surface that is only utilized in a tiny corner of the world. Just prior to this encounter he beat Federer on clay in France.  Like all three of the elite he has dominated for stretches winning twice at Wimbledon, once in Australia and three times on the slower American Forest Hills Court. 

The seeded number one GOAT in world rankings at this point in time is the Serbian Novak Djokovic the youngest of the three who has won three of the last four major championships. If the Serbian is to be characterized he plays like a computer. Not flashy at all but exhibiting the most remarkable shot playing propensity cracking winners of services that otherwise would be aces to any other player. However on occasion the computer misfires and he has lulls in his inexplicably high almost mechanical high standards. His mother says the only matches he loses are in his head. He is closing in on the other two with fifteen notches to his belt when 2019 Wimbledon begun.

 As much as Federer is loved on the world scene Novak is ignored. He thrives on being the underdog with the fans. While fortunes change and injuries often occur in these sophisticated athletes who are as finally tuned as thoroughbred racehorses, the future is his as the other two must exit the world scene sooner or later.

2019 - THE YEAR OF THE GOATS

The contest rolled on to a close at the two week mark and as expected the three GOATS ambled into the semi finals. All had been equally impressive. Federer having the toughest road knocking out ceded players all the while including Nishikori the number eight in the quarter finals. He then had to meet his old rival Nadal who is on a roll this year as is Roger. The former had narrowly beat him in the 2008 Final in what was then the longest and finest Championship event ever. This time out the eight time Wimbledon Champion handily accounted for Nadal in four sets. Novak had a far easier time of it knocking out surprise semi finalist Roberta Bautista Agut. The stage was set for the two remaining GOATS to battle it out.

The oddsmakers made Djokovic firm favorite to capture his fifth Wimbledon trophy and his sixteenth major title and they were proved barely right. In a ding dong battle in what became the longest Wimbledon final ever, close on five hours of sheer poetry in motion, the more fancied GOAT won by the narrowest of margins in a tiebreaker in the fifth and final set. It was a heart wrenching defeat as in the final set the tennis geriatric Federer had two Championship Points that he failed to capitalize on. 

The amazing feature of this fight to the death was the level of play of the two ccmbatants. Federer had raised his game to a new level to counter the methodical Watson computer like activity of his rival. His service was that much better as was his net play while the improvement of his backhand was a joy to behold. But by the rub of the green it was not enough. Magnanimous in defeat he served notice that the fat lady had not yet sung and that he was still competitive in the most prestigious arenas in world tennis.

NEXT TIME OUT FOR THE GOATS

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will all meet again at Flushing Meadow in the US Open, the final grand slam of the year. This is the surface other than clay that Nadal has had the most success but Jay H. Ell has little doubt that Novak will again start overwhelming favorite. While the friendship between the two GOATS Rafa and Roger will continue, the former has agreed to an exhibition match with Federer in Cape Town South Africa on February 7, 2020 in aid of Federer’s Foundation which supports the underserved on the African continent, there is really little love lost between them and Novak who just lacks in his demeanor that which he manifests with his racket.

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

Everyone still talks of the triumvirate of golf GOATS who also spanned two and a half decades starting in the sixties and ending in the eighties. Nicklaus was undoubtedly THE GOAT as he won eighteen majors to Player’s nine and Palmer’s seven. Their domination didn’t remotely approximate these tennis giants who between them have won more than half of the last sixty major grand slams. The current tennis threesome are going to end up vey close to each other and that is the way they will be remembered. No need to just label one of them. So Federer fans like Jay H. Ell needn’t go into therapy following this year’s nail biter. 

Wimbledon Center Court will be dug up and preparation will start for the 2020 Championship. Nine tons of grass seed is utilized to renew the surface. It is almost funny that the initial focus of the Club was on croquet that quaint English past time where with a wooden mallet you try to hit the wooden ball through a wire arch. The sports stadium has withstood the test of time including being bombed in World War Two. While hugging tradition and custom, for example in this age of burgeoning sponsorship the participants can still only don white gear, the institution is as British as the monarchy and Buckingham Palace, innovation has not been neglected. The Club was the first to introduce movable roofs on both Center Court and Court One in the case of rain. 

As for Roger his behavior is more British than the British being in sync with Rudyard Kipling’s quote which is inscribed above the Players’ entrance, “…. If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters the same……”.

What a joyful distraction this was making a for a welcome change in a world so punctuated with gloomy news.