The Hindu : A World Champion is born?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

A World Champion is born?

IT IS DIFFICULT to think of a more satisfying end to the Wimbledon tennis championships in recent times. It is not just that this year's tournament threw up a new and exciting men's champion. The tennis he plays represents everything one loves in the game: complete with respect to every all-court skill, suffused with a quiet intelligence and aesthetic to a degree which suggests that it is important not only to win but also to win beautifully. Roger Federer hardly put a foot wrong on the way to winning his first major title, dropping just one set through Wimbledon fortnight. It was the manner he overcame his opponents, especially the precociously talented Andy Roddick in the semi-finals and the big serving Mark Philippoussis in the final, that called out for attention. These victories represented the triumph of panache over power, of skill over strength, of the rapier over the bludgeon.

Comparisons with Pete Sampras are premature. But as the 21-year-old Swiss player, his face streaming with tears, held the trophy aloft, it seemed very much as if a champion had been born. "The future has arrived today," announced former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker as he predicted that Federer would win many more Wimbledons as well as other Grand Slam tournaments. Experts tend to agree. Just how far this retiring and introspective Swiss national will go is really anybody's guess. But one thing seems certain. In an age when tennis threatens to be reduced to a trial of muscle power, stamina and monotonous baseline play, Federer — with his languid, almost lazy, style and his hesitant, almost apologetic, manner — will lend it more than just a touch of elegance. It is a shame that Indian viewers were robbed of the pleasure of watching the final stages of the Wimbledon championships live.

While the men's draw was replete with surprises with the early exits of favourites such as Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, the women's draw — where a huge gulf exists between the top eight or ten players and the rest of the field — went more or less according to plan. The final, another face-off between the Williams sisters, began with promise but petered out after Venus began to struggle with a stomach injury that virtually handed Serena the match. On a different register, this year's Wimbledon gave Indians plenty to cheer about, starting with Sania Mirza's heartwarming doubles title win in the girls' event. Mirza is the brightest thing to have happened in Indian women's tennis, but the 16-year-old, despite her obvious talent, has still a long way to go before she can prove herself in what is an extraordinarily competitive sport at the international level. The mixed doubles victory for Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova will be remembered as the latter's 20th Wimbledon title — a record she now shares with the American Billie Jean King — but Paes will earn a small place in tennis history for helping her realise a longstanding ambition. Being ranked the top seeds, Mahesh Bhupathi and his new partner, Max Mirnyi, may be disappointed about not winning the doubles title, but the pair did not let anybody down.

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