Notable events, Wimbledon

So here we are after the July 4 weekend, and here are the notable Wimbledon events.

The biggest event, of course, was Sam Querrey’s win over Novak Djokovic in 4 sets.  It’s so difficult to be fully alert and engaged for every match over the course of a long year, and when you’re number one in the world, your opponent is always up for the match.  These factors may explain Novak’s loss here, and they also show why Roger Federer’s 36 consecutive slam quarterfinals, 23 consecutive semifinals, and 10 consecutive finals appearances are so amazing.  However, perhaps the most notable feature of this match relates to a post made on this blog on 6/10/16.  That post gave advice to players on how not to misuse the Hawk Eye challenge system, and how that system might be improved. 

            After losing the first 2 sets, winning the third and going up a break in the 4th set, Djokovic had some real hope of turning this match around and winning.  However, by the time the sixth game of the fourth set was over, Novak had used up all of his 3 challenges.  I had pointed out in the earlier post how important it is to make sure you have challenges available for the ends of sets, when more big points are played. 

When serving for the fourth set at 5-4, Djokovic hit a serve on the first point that could not be returned.  The serve was called out and the umpire correctly did not overrule the close call.  Hawk Eye showed, however, that the serve was actually in.  Djokovic could not challenge the out call, and he lost the point to go down 0-15.  On the second point Novak hit a cross court backhand that Querrey could barely touch with his racquet.  The ball was called out, the call was not overruled, and Djokovic could not challenge.  The TV Hawk Eye again showed that the ball was in, but Djokovic lost the point again.  He thus fell behind 0-30.  Querrey eventually broke serve in that game, got the set to a tiebreaker, and prevailed in the tiebreaker to win the match.  Had Djokovic managed his challenges better, he might be playing tomorrow.

In my 6/10 post on challenges, I proposed that the system be changed to allow challenges by the umpire on close calls that would not result in a replay of the point if the challenge led to the call being overturned.  For example, the umpire should have the option to view a close service ace without either player being charged for a challenge.  Had this system been in place for this match, the umpire might well have been able to take a look at both of those first two calls in the 10^th game of the fourth set.  Had that happened, Djokovic would have won both points instead of losing them, and the match could well have turned out differently. 

Don’t take anything away from Sam Querrey, though.  After all, he might have won anyway, and he did a lot things in this match that one MUST do to beat Novak.  Most importantly, he got free points on his serve, with 31 aces, and many of these came on big points.  You cannot beat Djokovic without getting many free or very easy points off your own serve.   Querrey also maintained his concentration and composure throughout.  Querrey has a history of having his focus wax and wane during matches, but he did not have that problem in this one.  Kudos to him. 

Other notable events on the men’s side include:

1) The play of Lucas Pouille from France, who has made the quarters.

2) The steely resolve of Milos Raonic, who won his 4^th round match over David Goffin after getting down two sets.

3) The dominating play of Andy Murray, who easily handled the dangerous Nick Kyrgios in straight sets. 

On the women’s side, the following are worth some attention:

1) The play of Venus Williams, who has now reached the semis!  She’s had a fairly friendly draw, but that’s still quite an achievement for someone her age.

2) The return to full form of Dominika Cibulkova. She took out Bouchard, who was playing very well, and then Aggie Radwanska, who is always tough to beat. 

3) On the disappointing side, the loss by Coco Vandeweghe to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  Pavlyuchenkova is a great ball striker but she’s not very fast, and Coco had been playing quite well in tournaments leading up to Wimbledon.  Mary Joe Fernandez, a TV commentator for this match, hit the nail right on the head when she noted that Vandeweghe has difficulty figuring out how to win when not serving well.  Vandeweghe should study films of this match and try to improve by analyzing the mistakes she made here.

4) Also a bit disappointing was the Sloane Stephens’ loss to Kuznetsova in the third round.  Kuznetsova is a top flight player, but this is the kind of match that Stephens must figure out how to win if she is going to get to the top of the game, where, in my opinion, she belongs.

5) Angie Kerber is threatening to win this tournament, which would be quite an achievement after winning the Australian Open earlier.  She most likely will have to beat both Williams sisters to do it, however.