Strange things happen every 50 and 100 years it seems

Strange things happen every 50 or 100 years

The Wimbledon Women’s final was played in the early hours of Sunday morning Australian time. There were some weird sporting omens in the air earlier in the night that maybe gave a hint of what was to come. In a Rugby Test in Adelaide the visiting British Lions team kept a combined Australian/New Zealand team scoreless.  In the cricket Test match between India and England both sides scored the same runs in their first innings. Rare and strange scorelines indeed!

Wimbledon was to produce stranger; however, is there anything as strange as Usain Bolt’s face appearing on advertising hoardings promoting Omo detergents for quick washes. Please God, tell me he does not need the money ? Immortals should not be advertising washing powder!

So back to the scoreline at Wimbledon. Iga Swiatek’s 6-0 6-0 victory over Amanda Anisimova in the Ladies’ Final was the first ‘double bagel’ victory at Wimbledon in the Open Era. The last time a Ladies’ Final was won love and love at Wimbledon in 1911 by England’s Dorothea Chambers. In 1911 Wimbledon had a Challenge Round format meaning that Chambers, as defending champion, simply played the final. Billie-Jean King went close in 1975 beating Australia’s Evonne Goolagong 6-0 6-1.

In the only other Open Era whitewash, Steffi Graf beat Russia’s Natalia Zvereva love and love in the French Open final of 1988 in 31 minutes. Anisimova lasted until 57 minutes. Let’s hope her rout does not derail her return to the upper echelons of the game. Not surprisingly, Anisimova shed tears of humiliation and frustration at the final changeover at 0-5 and at the presentation ceremony.  Anisimova who played with such fearlessness in her semi-final was utterly overwhelmed by the occasion. She only won 24 points in the match but made 27 unforced errors and served 5 double faults.

So surprising was the scoreline that it detracts from Swiatek’s achievement. She has now won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, with a victory in Australia needed to complete the hallowed quartet.  Impressively, Swiatek has won all six of the Grand Slam finals she has played. In 1974 a horse called Think Big won Australia’s most prestigious horse race, the Melbourne Cup.  He did not win another race until he won the Melbourne Cup again in 1975. Fifty years later, Swiatek has done something similar. Her Wimbledon in was her first title success since her French Open victory of 2024.

Swiatek only lost two games in her semi-final and final victories. Again, it has been decades since this has occurred: Swiatek has emulated Suzanne Lenglen in 1925, a mere century ago, and Alice Marble in 1939.  The closest routs have been the concession of only five games in the final two rounds by Helen Wills Moody in 1929 , Doris Hart in 1951 and, in the Open era, Navratilova in 1983.

There are other notable firsts. Swiatek is the first Polish player to win a singles title at Wimbledon. She joins the small list of children of ex-Olympians to win at Wimbledon.  Her father represented Poland in rowing. Agassi’s father represented Iran in boxing.

Ladies’ final day began with another remarkable achievement. England had its first Men’s Doubles champions pairing in 89 years. Julian Glass and Lloyd Glasspool, the fifth seeds playing in their first Grand Slam final, defeated the unseeded Dutch/Australian pairing of Pel and Hijikata in straight sets. Given the brevity of the Ladies’ final, the AELTC may have been regretting reducing the format of the Men’s Doubles to best of three sets.  The match lasted only 83 minutes.

Another first: if the author may be indulged, Julian Glass, is by my research, the first ‘Anglo’ JuliAn to win a Grand Slam tennis title. The ‘French’ JuliEn Benneteau won the French Doubles title in 2014.

The Mixed Doubles’ final was for many years the last match of the tournament. This year it was played before the final weekend. It was won by Sem Verbeek, who in winning his first Grand Slam title, paired with Katerina Siniakova, who having already won ten Doubles’ titles won her first Mixed Doubles crown.

The Ladies’ Doubles title was won by the pairing of Veronika Kudermetova, who won her first Grand Slam title, and Belgium’s journeywoman, Elise Mertens, who claimed her second Wimbledon title and fifth Grand Slam Doubles title.

If the Women’s final was more a soupcon of an entree than a sumptuous main course, what would the Men’s final bring to the table?

Well, it brought an elegant sufficiency of fine tennis, without quite rising to the richness of the recent French final. For Sinner, however, it was a deeply satisfying serve of redemption after his agonising loss in Paris.

Sinner won his fourth Grand Slam title by dethroning Alcaraz in a match lasting three hours and four minutes in four sets: 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Between then they have now won the last seven Grand Slam titles. Both have won three of the four Grand Slam titles. Alcaraz will have his chance in New York to claim his missing American title and Sinner will have to wait for next year’s French Open to complete his Grand quartet.

If Alcaraz had won, it would have been his sixth Grand Slam title from six Grand Slam finals and his sixth straight win over Sinner.

Sinner upset Alcaraz’s symmetry with a sturdier and more consistent game, striking the ball with impressive consistency, none more so than when he drove a backhand pass down the line to break the serve of Alcaraz in the third game of the fourth and final set. Neither the serves nor the drop shots of Alcaraz were as potent as they had been in his earlier matches.

One felt it was going to be Sinner’s day when after Alcaraz held for 2-3 after being forced to deuce, Sinner consolidated his break with a favourable net cord for a 4-2 lead. Sinner had three match points in Paris, but they were on his opponent’s serve. Today, Sinner serving at 5-4 had three on his serve. Alcaraz saved one, but there was no wavering as Sinner claimed the title on his second, becoming the first ever Italian to win a Wimbledon singles title in his first Wimbledon final.

For the record, it should be noted that for the first, and probably only, time in Wimbledon history the umpire had to remind spectators not to pop champagne corks between points after an errant cork found its way onto the court. An elegant solecism if ever there was one! This year’s Wimbledon will also be remembered for the heat of the second week which had Centre Court patrons incessantly fanning themselves as if there was a mass audition for the Three Little Maids from the Mikado.

Sadly, there is now silence on the Centre Court. The memories linger as we prepare for the American hardcourt season. Tariffs on tennis balls anyone?