Day 11: Things That Go Bartoli in the Night

All right, everyone who had Marion Bartoli in the Wimbledon final raise your hand.

Yes, yes... Miss Poutchkova, we all know about your brilliant assessment of Mademoiselle Bartoli's game. Now, run along and work on your website.



I guess we were all guilty on this one, weren't we? We all automatically put Justine Henin in the Wimbledon final after her quarterfinal win over Serena Williams. And after her 22-minute 1st set victory today against the 22-year old Frenchwoman, it appeared to be a safe bet. At 4-3 in the 2nd set, Henin was cruising toward a rematch of her 2001 grand slam final debut against Venus Williams at the All-England Club. But then the Agent 007-loving Pastry found her groove in the wind of Centre Court, and the rest was history.

1-6/7-5/6-1... Bartoli. And Queen Justine is still missing that SW19 title. With a game sculpted by her doctor father, and modeled after the two-fisted, angle-creating, no-ball-is-too-early-to-take groundstroking game of Monica Seles, Bartoli rocked the tennis world on Day 11.

(I'm thinking I won't be confusing Bartoli's French nationality with an Italian one anymore now. Funny how things work out that way, huh? After thinking she needed to do something important to make her a bigger part of Backspin's world, she takes out Le Petit Taureau in rather brutal fashion. And after saying she might need a nickname in order to imprint her a little better into your friendly neighborhood Backspinner's mind, she goes and starts talking about Pierce Brosnan and her father using the promise of candy to get her to hit accurate shots in practice. My, now I don't even know which direction to go with Marion... she's gone from a bare cupboard to a virtual cornucopia of nickname possibilities in the span of a few hours. Amazing.)

Now, she can't possibly WIN Wimbledon, right? Surely she won't prevent Venus Williams from claiming her fourth SW19 title on the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson becoming the first African-American slam winner at Wimbledon in 1957. Right? I mean, a Bartoli title would snuggle up next to Iva Majoli's shockingly aberrant Roland Garros crown in 1997 quite well, wouldn't it? And what are the odds of that? I mean, Monica Seles never won Wimbledon, but Bartoli is going to do it?

But is this really a TOTAL shock? Remember, Bartoli DID reach the SF of both Birmingham and Eastbourne (where she lost to Henin, 6-1/6-3) leading into Wimbledon, so she's pretty much peaking right on time. And the thing is, according to the seeding committee, the #18-seeded Pastry is SUPPOSED to be the favorite over the #23-seeded Williams sister.

Of course, we all know differently... but, then again, we thought that today, too, didn't we?


Love-Love... apparently, there was something in the air on Day 11. Some years, usually early in the tournament, a strange wind blows over the grounds leaving a string of upsets in its wake on a single day. It took almost until the second weekend for it to happen, but the Henin upset was soon followed by Andy Roddick's blowing of a two sets and 4-2 lead against Richard Gasquet, who'd never overcome anything of the kind in a match until today. Of course, now he faces Roger Federer... and it'll end right there. Right? Hmmm.
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15-Love...

*VENUS WILLIAMS AT WIMBLEDON*
1997 1st (lost to Magdalena Grzybowska)
1998 QF (lost to Jana Novotna)
1999 QF (lost to Steffi Graf)
2000 WON (def. Lindsay Davenport)
2001 WON (def. Justine Henin)
2002 RU (lost to Serena Williams)
2003 RU (lost to Serena Williams)
2004 2nd (lost to Karolina Sprem)
2005 WON (def. Lindsay Davenport)
2006 3rd (lost to Jelena Jankovic)
2007 FINAL vs. MARION BARTOLI
--
TOTAL WIMBLEDON WON/LOST: 50-7

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30-Love...

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #1: Girls Singles QF - #6 Urszula Radwanksa/POL d. #1 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/RUS - 7-5/6-1.
...are the Russian's junior rivals suddenly catching up with her, or does she herself realize she's already outgrown this stage of her career?

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #2: Girls Singles 3rd Rd. - #15 Bojana Jovanovski/SRB d. #2 Anastasia Pivovarova/RUS - 6-4/6-3.
...Jovanovski lost in the QF to Madison Brengle, but maybe JJ and AnaIvo have a "little sister" coming up behind them, after all.

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #3: Girls Singles QF - Katarzyna Piter/POL d. #3 Evgeniya Rodina/RUS - 6-3/6-1.
...speaking of sisters, apparently there's another young Pole to watch who ISN'T named Radwanska.
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40-Love... my goodness. Why don't we just put those last two games that Roger Federer won in his QF matchup with Juan Carlos Ferrero into a time capsule for safe keeping, just in case future generations begin to wonder why so many in this day and age speculate that he might be the most talented player to ever step between the lines. Seriously, he hit just about every shot in the book in those few minutes, didn't he?
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40-15...

*MEN'S SINGLES SF*
#1 Roger Federer/SUI vs. #12 Richard Gasquet/FRA
#4 Novak Djokovic/SRB vs.#2 Rafael Nadal/ESP

*MEN'S DOUBLES SF*
#1 Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (USA/USA) v. #4 Fabrice Santoro/Nenad Zimonjic (FRA/SRB)
Marcelo Melo/Andre Sa (BRA/BRA) v. #10 Arnaud Clement/Michael Llodra (FRA/FRA)

*WOMEN'S DOUBLES SF*
#1 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur (USA/AUS) v. #4 Katarina Srebotnik/Ai Sugiyama (SLO/JPN)
#6 Alicia Molik/Mara Santangelo (AUS/ITA) v. #2 Cara Black/Liezel Huber (ZIM/RSA)

*MIXED DOUBLES QF*
Alex Bogdanovic/Melanie South (GBR/GBR) v. #11 Daniel Nestor/Elena Likhovtseva (CAN/RUS)
Jamie Murray/Jelena Jankovic (GBR/SRB) v. #9 Marcin Matkowski/Cara Black (POL/ZIM)
TBD v. Jordan Kerr/Kateryna Bondarenko (AUS/UKR)
#8 Leander Paes/Meghann Shaughnessy (IND/USA) v. Fabrice Santoro/Severine Bremond (FRA/FRA)

*GIRLS SINGLES SF*
#6 Urszula Radwanska/POL vs. Anna Fitzpatrick/GBR
Katarzyna Piter/POL vs. #7 Madison Brengle/USA

*BOYS SINGLES SF*
#1 Vladimir Ignatic/BLR vs. Ricardis Barankis/LTU
#3 Donald Young/USA vs. #6 Greg Jones/AUS

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40-30... the contenders are emerging for the remaining Backspin Slam Awards. In the "Doubles Star" category, Cara Black and Alicia Molik are still alive in both Doubles and Mixed... but if Melanie South were to continue to ride a string of upsets with partner Alex Boganovich to a Mixed title she might be difficult to outpace for the honor.

As far as the "Junior Breakout," with the Girls SF set it's down to two. Since Madison Brengle (USA) won the award in Melbourne with her improbable run to the final, she's eliminated from consideration. But her surprising SF opponent, Katarzyna Piter (POL)), is a possibility, as well is Britain's Anna Fitzpatrick. Although, if U-Rad matches her sister A-Rad's accomplishment of winning a Wimbledon Girls title...
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MATCH, "Does 'Mr.Fantastic" have greatness written all over him or what?"... watching Novak Djokovic fight his way through consecutive five-set marathons against Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis, reaching into his bag of tricks for another dose of brilliance and/or heart every time things appeared to be slipping through his fingers either due to potential injury or an opponent with just as little quit in him as the Serbian ringleader, it's impossible to not realize how good this kid could eventually become. He's REALLY only 20? You see it occasionally when he flashes anger after a bad shot in an important rally, but he so quickly puts it behind him that you'd think he'd been doing this for quite a bit longer than he has. In a sport currently defined by Roger Federer's serene brilliance and Rafael Nadal's intense on-court nature and physical brand of play, Djokovic fits rather snugly into the fold. Ah, but that's the problem. When the accident of birth places you smack dab in the middle of the Roger-and-Rafa Era, "greatness" might have a far different meaning than in past and future generations, mightn't it? I mean, after back-to-back matches of 4:12 and 4:59, how can Djokovic's next opponent -- Rafa himself -- NOT be smiling like a Cheshire cat, licking his chops over his opportunity to advance to his second straight Wimbledon final? This time, though it seemed like a good potential SW19 matchup for him after losing to Nadal on the clay in Paris, the Serb may have bitten off more than he can possibly chew. Of course, he seems to like to take very big bites... so who knows?





TOP QUALIFIERS: Su-Wei Hsieh/TPE & Olga Govortsova/BLR
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Amelie Mauresmo/FRA
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): Justine Henin/BEL
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): (vacant)
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FIRST SEED OUT: #30 Olga Poutchkova/RUS (1r-E.Vesnina/RUS)
UPSET QUEENS: Austrians (Paszek & Meusburger)
REVELATION LADIES: French (Bartoli & Rezai to 3rd Rd.)
LAST QUALIFIERS STANDING: Olga Govortsova/BLR, Nika Ozegovic/CRO, Tatiana Perebiynis/UKR, Hana Sromova/CZE & Agnes Szavay/HUN (2nd Rd.)
IT GIRL: Ana Ivanovic/SRB
MISS OPPORTUNITY: Marion Bartoli/FRA
COMEBACK PLAYER: Venus Williams/USA
DOUBLES STAR: (vacant)
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: (vacant)




All for Day 11.