From The International Herald Tribune: Serena, like Roger and Rafael, falls victim to Wimbledon hex BY CHRISTOPHER CLAREY WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND — After an early struggle and the loss of the first set on Monday, Serena Williams kicked into the gear that has been too much for any opponent to handle since March. Despite Sabine Lisicki’s powerful serve and unmistakable gift for grass-court tennis, Williams reeled off game after game — nine in a row in all — to take clear command of this tricky fourth-round match. Then, in a surprise that should no longer be a surprise, this Wimbledon resumed being weird and wondrous. With Williams serving at 3-1, 40-15 in the final set, Lisicki reeled off four points in a row to break the American’s serve and momentum. Lisicki proceeded to hit enough spots and shots with conviction to bring a halt to Williams’s 34-match winning streak, too. Lisicki’s 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 upset was the latest and greatest reminder that no superstar is safe at the All England Club this summer. Rafael Nadal lost in the first round to the 135th-ranked Belgian Steve Darcis; Roger Federer lost in the second to the 116th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky and was not part of the fourth-round extravaganza on Monday for the first time in 11 years. Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova — the two women logically presumed to have the best chance of stopping the streaking Williams — failed to make it past the second round, too. But Williams, the 31-year-old American who has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles and was the top seed here, was quite rightly the overwhelming favorite after sweeping to five titles in a row, including the French Open, before arriving on the grass that suits her intimidating serve and quick-strike tennis as well as a Pimm’s suits the end of a Wimbledon day’s play. And yet, and yet… ‘‘It had to stop sometime; she’s not a machine,’’ said her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. ‘‘The law of streaks is that they end sometime. We knew it was going to end. We just didn’t know when. It was today, and it’s not the end of the world, just a loss, and it reminds us this is a game, and that nobody is unbeatable.’’ This Wimbledon could now be accused of belaboring the point, particularly in the women’s draw where only one of the top four seeds (and three of the top eight) reached the quarterfinals. For now, the focus of local attention — Andy Murray — remains in contention and advanced with some aches and pains to the men’s quarterfinals on Monday by defeating Mikhail Youzhny. But this Grand Slam tournament is well on its way to being the strangest since the 1997 French Open, when the little-known, 66th-ranked Gustavo Kuerten ambushed star after star to win the men’s title and the ninth-seeded Iva Majoli won the women’s title, which would be her one and only major championship. ‘‘What it does show is the depth in both men’s and women’s tennis,’’ the former women’s No. 1 Tracy Austin said. ‘‘And what it does show is, ‘Wow, O.K., they are beatable, so maybe I can do it, as well.’ I liked what Stakhovsky said. He had to go out there and beat Roger and beat Roger’s legend, as well. ‘‘With Serena, I think that’s the same thing. When you go out against Serena and she has her back against the wall, everybody knows she’s one of the best competitors in that situation, so a lot of credit to Sabine Lisicki to handle the situation when Serena has won here five times.’’ Lisicki, the powerfully built 23-year-old German nicknamed ‘‘Boom Boom’’ for her serve, has yet to get past the semifinals here. But the No. 23 seed is now the London bookmakers’ favorite and, unlike Darcis and Stakhovsky and Michelle Larcher de Brito, who upset Sharapova, Lisicki is a very well-established threat. She beat Sharapova last year on Centre Court on her way to the quarterfinals and now has a glittering 17-4 record at Wimbledon compared with a 16-15 record at the other three Grand Slam tournaments. ‘‘It is not a shock,’’ Williams said of her defeat. ‘‘She plays really good on grass. She has a massive, massive serve. So going in there, you have to know that it’s definitely not going to be an easy match, playing her at Wimbledon, especially on Centre Court. It’s definitely not a shock. I just need to do better.’’ Lisicki said it is not only that the Wimbledon grass that suits her big serve and the low bounce suits her strike zone on her high-risk groundstrokes. ‘‘I think there are a few things, but also that I feel very comfortable here,’’ she said. ‘‘Having the house, having the whole team being in the house, being able to cook, having a great atmosphere.’’ Wimbledon, with the players staying in private accommodation in the village, is indeed a Grand Slam apart, and yet this was a Wimbledon apart for Williams, too. This was her first Wimbledon without her older sister, doubles partner and touchstone, Venus Williams, who has won five singles titles of her own at the All England Club yet withdrew from the tournament with a back injury (Serena Williams stayed — as usual — in the smaller bedroom of their rented Wimbledon home anyway). Williams’s father and longtime primary coach Richard Williams was also absent as was her mother, Oracene Price. Serena Williams dismissed the break in routine as a possible explanation for her performance. ‘‘I’m 31,’’ she said, saying sarcastically that she would ‘‘really have to go back to the drawing boards’’ if she could not compete without her family present. In truth, this match bore a certain resemblance to her quarterfinal match at this year’s French Open, when she faced Svetlana Kuznetsova, another player with enough natural power and confidence not to feel cowed by Williams. Against Kuznetsova, Williams often looked tense and overwrought, making the sorts of errors of commission that have intermittently plagued her at major events. But against Kuznetsova, Williams was able to punch through the tension and close out the victory in her only three-set match of the tournament. ‘‘For me, they were the same kind of days,’’ Mouratoglou said of the matches against Kuznetsova and Lisicki. ‘‘She went through, and after that she played great until the end of the tournament in Paris. So probably if she would have found a way to win today, she would have probably won the tournament, and we wouldn’t be asking these questions.’’ Williams had won Wimbledon three of the last four years, gathering strength in the second week last year and then carrying that momentum into the 2012 Olympic tournament, which were also played here. She came away with gold medals in both singles and women’s doubles, winning the latter title with Venus. Until Monday, she had won 16 straight singles matches at the All England Club, and with that 3-1, 40-15 lead against Lisicki in the third set, it appeared that Williams was set to make it 17 in a row. Instead, there would be three consecutive breaks of serve. Williams had a chance to regain control when Lisicki fell behind 0-40 on her serve at 3-4. But she saved the next three break points to get to 4-4, then broke Williams for the third time in the set. All that remained was to serve for the upset. Lisicki erased the final break point of the match with her 10th ace and then — staying aggressive — closed out her victory with a short forehand winner that left her flat on her stomach on the grass where Williams was bounding with joy after the final last year. There will be no repeat for the No. 1-ranked Williams, but then, at this stage, that should not seem like a surprise. SOME BRITISH HOPES DIM Laura Robson failed in her quest to become the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since 1984, falling, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, in an error-filled match to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, The Associated Press reported from London on Monday. Robson, the first British woman to reach the second week at Wimbledon since 1998, was ahead, 5-2, in the first-set tiebreaker Monday but lost six of the next seven points. Serving at 5-4, she hit her first try long, then bounced the second serve into the net. Robson, ranked 38th, finished with 24 unforced errors and only 27 winners, as she had trouble harnessing her forehand. Kanepi, ranked 46th, moves into her fifth Grand Slam quarterfinal. Jo Durie is the last British woman to have made the Wimbledon quarters, 29 years ago. Kanepi will face Lisicki in the quarterfinals. In men’s action, Andy Murray, the second seed, reached the quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive year, beating 20th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. Murray is trying to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the title at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. He was the runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year, then defeated Federer a month later to win a London Olympics gold medal at the All England Club. ◼ Get the best global news and analysis direct to your device – download the IHT apps for free today! For iPad: itunes.apple/us/app/international-herald-tribune/id404757420?mt=8 For iPhone: itunes.apple/us/app/international-herald-tribune/id404764212?mt=8
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 00:51:34 +0000
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