A baffling match
Should it be the case that little green men from Mars decided to join the No.1 Court crowd on Day Six at Wimbledon 2018 in order to learn about the humanoid sport of tennis, one can only assume they will have emerged utterly baffled.
The hot lava of defeat at the volcanic ‘Seedageddon’ in these Championships consumed the player at the very top of the women’s tree, when the world No.48 Su-Wei Hsieh came back from a set down and then match point down to defeat Simona Halep 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Hsieh’s characteristically unique play will have left the Martians scratching their little green heads. The 32-year-old from Chinese Taipei – whose name is correctly pronounced in the middle diphthong ground between “sheer” and “shay” – happily admits that she decides so late on how to play her next stroke that it isn’t only her opponents who have no idea what’s coming, as she doesn’t either.
Moreover, should the inter-planetary visitors have arrived courtside without doing their homework beforehand, they would have been unaware that neither woman boasts a powerful serve in her armoury, and so this match was always likely to be a break-fest. (Note to Martians: breakfast is something else altogether.)
Hence at the start of this match it was no surprise to those in the know that the opening five games included no holds at all. Furthermore, by the time Halep achieved the magnificent breakthrough of an actual hold for 4-2, she had won a statistically freaky eight points on her own service. One can only imagine the Martians’ mental notes at this stage.
On the other hand, should the Martians have done The Wrong Homework entirely, and have been under the impression that present-day grass court tennis is still all about serve and volley, they might have admired the world No.48’s readiness to come to the net, but be thoroughly befuddled by first- set statistics showing that Halep triumphed with 58 per cent of points won on her first serve and 31 per cent on her second.
But as the second set got underway Hsieh’s latest break of serve was received without reply, and it was a reminder that 2018 is the first time since tennis turned professional 50 years ago that seven of the women’s top 10 seeds fell before the third round. (Martians, scribbling furiously: “Surely being seeded is meant to be a good thing?”). Halep got matters back on course for 3-3, but Hsieh forged an opening again and served out the set to love. The world No.48, who dismissed Garbiñe Muguruza at this year’s Australian Open, was clearly not to be taken lightly.
Largely unnoticed
In the decider the Romanian had a 3-1 lead, but that didn’t amount to being in control. Perhaps the Martians – observant sorts that they are – debated between themselves why Halep had gone largely unnoticed at this tournament, even though she has already guaranteed the retention of her world No.1 spot; furthermore, the Grand Slam monkey was finally off her back after her maiden victory on the Roland-Garros clay only last month.
Her last three forays at SW19 have yielded two-quarter finals along with last year’s narrow semi-final defeat to Johanna Konta. Yet even with her Grand Slam breakthrough, few named her a serious contender here.
Halep was 5-3 up, yet from there it all went south. At 4-5 Hsieh crunched a gasp-making backhand to rescue match point and level at 5-5. Apparently exhausted a few games earlier, she found new energy to pummel her opponent. On Hsieh’s second match point, Halep answered the most fatigued of second serves by putting it in the net. Having watched a match yielding 35 break points, the Martians’ little green heads must have been spinning
“Yes, this is the biggest win of my career and the first over a world No.1,” Hsieh told the BBC. “I was a bit tight in the first set but was happy in the second set. Two games down in the third set I kept fighting. I tried to concentrate on my game and it helped a lot. I enjoy everything here – the strawberries, the shops, everything. On court I just try to feel free. She played amazing. Every ball close to the line. If I didn’t fight, I wouldn’t have got through. I’m very happy.”
Meantime, should anyone encounter any vexed-looking little green men exiting No.1 Court, be sure to ask if they are enjoying the tennis.
