All in the family
Happy families seems to be an inspirational theme at Wimbledon this year. Roger Federer has been waxing lyrical about that warm feeling of having the support here of his “four little people” while Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka swear by the joys of motherhood as they take more baby steps back towards their pomp.
All three of these parental luminaries headline Day 3 of The Championships, having already offered us the excellent news that they plan to be around gracing the lawns for a good while yet.
Informed that Roger had suggested he may play on for another four years so his four-year-old boys, like their twin sisters, would one day be able to really appreciate that, actually, Dad wasn’t too bad, Williams laughed, “Gosh, how long? Well, here I am. We’re in it together. As long as he's here, I'm going to try to be here!”
Yes, with this indestructible pair, it really does feel like a case of ‘anything you can do…’.
Champion Federer opened his defence on Monday against Dusan Lajovic in pristine fashion. Expensive new apparel, yes, but with the same old stylish swoosh in taking his current Centre Court winning streak to 22 sets and counting.
Now, it’s Lukas Lacko’s turn to attempt to break the sequence, with the 30-year-old Slovakian doubtless feeling buoyed by the fact that after slogging around the circuit for 14 years, he has just made only his second ATP final in the bracing Eastbourne air.
Back in the swing
Where Federer waltzed, Williams tramped on Monday, reckoning that in blustery conditions she was just trying too hard to get back into the old swing against Arantxa Rus.
Yet she still looked so rampant in the dying stages that you couldn’t help but fear for today’s Centre Court opponent, Viktoriya Tomova, a Bulgarian qualifier who has already slogged through seven and a quarter hours of tennis to just get this far.
Azarenka makes no bones about how everything for her on tour as a single mother these days is scheduled around her 18-month-old son Leo, who, bless him, should be sound asleep this afternoon amid the potential match of the day on Centre Court between Mum and another former world No.1.
The unseeded ‘Vika’ bemoaned how she never gets lucky with draws as she faces Karolina Pliskova, the boom-serving No.7 seed, but then again, imagine how unlucky the Czech must feel, plunged into a second round meeting with a double Australian Open champion and two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist who still approaches every shot as if it were her last.
On the home front, it’s gratifying to see Andy Murray is still here with us in spirit, his cajoling influence helping propel 19-year-old Bristolian Katie Swan, out of the same management stable, to write the best home-grown story of the opening Monday. Our rising world No.204 downed No.36 Irina-Camelia Begu and though the teenager reckoned she was as nervous as a kitten, she could have fooled Court 14.
Swan song
Swan, who’s obviously benefited from her chats with Andy about important topics such as Love Island, has been given an upgrade to No.3 Court for another, more formidable Romanian examination from No.29 seed Mihaela Buzarnescu, a left-hander in the form of her life this season. Sorry, make that Dr Buzarnescu, now she’s earned a PhD in sports science during one of the injury breaks that have blighted her career.
Like her little sister, Venus Williams also continues to astound. Swan wasn’t even a twinkle when the five-time champion played the first of her 21 Wimbledons and she’s made the second round here for the 19th time, earning a date on No.1 Court with another Romanian stalwart, Alexandra Dulgheru.
Of the main challengers in Federer’s half of the draw, none currently looks more threatening than Marin Cilic, who ended up a hobbling shadow of himself in last year’s final. This time blister free, the Croatian has been, well, just blistering, a victor at Queen’s and now ready on No.1 Court to reprise the win he had over Argentine lefty Guido Pella in the US Open three years ago.
It came as no surprise that the finest act of escapology at this Wimbledon so far came from Aga Radwanska, who saved six match points before ousting Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the first round. With all her wizardry and wiles, shot-making and shot-plotting, they don’t call this most spellbinding of fans’ favourites ‘Ninja’ for nothing.
So take a trip to No.2 Court to see the 2012 finalist try to make the most of her fantastic reprieve against former French Open finalist Lucie Safarova. Now, that’s magic…
