July is almost nearing.. And yeah..it calls for an unprecedented event of the year-WIMBLEDON!
Undoubtedly Wimbledon is my most favourite grand slam.And rightly so!! It has got its own charm and panache with a tinge of royalty. What makes it so special?Why is it the dream slam of all tennis players?The answers to these questions dates back to late 19th century.The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is responsible for staging the world's leading tennis tournament, is a private Club founded in 1868.The very first Wimbledon championship was held in 1877 which was an all men Championship. The evolution since then has been tremendous,marked with milestones every year.
I can vividly remember one such milestone.It was Wimbledon 2001-Centre court match-Goran Ivanisevic Vs Pat Rafter.And boy,was it mind blowing??!!!I have closely followed Tennis for 8 years now,and i have witnessed none so riveting as this match!Ivanisevic was the dark horse throughout the tournament,evolving slowly and inconspicuously but nonetheless menacing.His progression was so sly that he took the world by storm when he made it to the finals!His only weapon being his deadly serve! When the charismatic Croat defeated the equally regarded Australian Pat Rafter in an epic five-set, three-hour-one-minute final, Centre Court reverberated with applaud and kudos to the man who was beaten thrice in the finals before! This was nothing less than a fairy tale. He was ranked 125 in the world,was given a wild card entry,and he entered the tournament with a persistent shoulder injury,signalling the end of his career without a grand slam! Ivanisevic had lost his finals to Andre Agassi (1992) and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1998).And surely at an age of 30,the chances of succeeding were bleak!
Ivanisevic's journey was steady throughout the tournament.He stormed past the best of players like Carlos Moya,Rusdeski,and Safin to land up a place in the semifinals. But this smooth sailing was interrupted when he faced Briton Tim Henman in the semifinals. Henman was hoping to end 64 years of draught for England by finding a place in the finals and to keep the spirit of the fellow Britons alive.But the destiny had something else in store for him!It was not to be his day!Even the Gods had decided that!Rain interrupted the play when Henman was at the peak of his performance getting Ivanisevic by his feet,and lo that sealed Henman's fate forever. After the play resumed,Ivanisevic emerged from down under and clinched the match with a thumping victory.Rains were God sent angels in disguise for him which he went on to acknowledge later with all the modesty he had!
Now only one hurdle was in his way-the deadly Pat Rafter! And the match was a roller coaster ride til the very end! Nail biting and full of intense drama! It was 2 sets all and the 5th set was awesommme!!! Ivanisevic relied mainly on his first serve,and Rafter on his returns and volley. It was a total fiesta of a match,i devoured every single moment of it,cheering for Ivanisevic(though my favourite was Rafter any day,but i guess today i just wanted Ivanisevic to lift the cup,simply because i had a soft corner for the fella who was bereaved thrice!!) If i am not wrong,Ivanisevic was on Championship point thrice or four times and he squandered them all!His first serve was failing him this time and Rafter took all the opportunities to break his fortress by playing solidly from the baseline. He was hitting winners off all second serves of Ivanisevic.Everytime you thought someone was winning,the table used to turn the other way. It was a total chaos!When finally Ivanisevic came out winning! It was more of a test of endurance between both men than anything else.The match could have swung in any direction any minute! And just a single point decided the fate of the two men!
But in the end,Ivanisevic had proved himself.Fourth time lucky guy of Wimbledon! The crowd just loved this great man who had entertained them on a "People's Monday"!!Of course it was a bitter defeat for Rafter but he sported a great deal of sportsmanship when he embraced Ivanisevic and congratulated him on his feat!
For Ivanisevic,it was the end of years of long struggle to win the most coveted cup in the history of Tennis! To win the first slam of his career and that too at Wimbledon would have been an icing on the cake!After all,winning a Wimbledon would be the penultimate dream of any tennis player in the world!!
Surely to this day,Ivanisevic remains the darling of the Centre court and the 2001 men's championship final, the classic matches of all times at Wimbledon!
And yeah,thats the spirit of Wimbledon,the glory and the ambushment which pushes a player to the limits of endurance!!And winning is all that matters,when it comes to Wimbledon! There is simply no room for errors here!!
