Wimbledon 2011
I tried to find a TV program to watch Wimbledon with an English commentary, but could not. So I watched the Israeli Sports channel with a Hebrew commentary. As a result I learnt a lot of new Hebrew words, that I told my Hebrew teacher about, such as "winnerim", "breakpointim", "spinnerim", "aceim", "eleganty", and many others that helped me understand what was going on. Altogether it was a great experience to watch the Wimbledon matches.
In the ladies tournament it was both nice and disappointing that both Williams sisters were back but made an exit in the quarter finals, having played gamely until then. It was notable that all of the 8 semifinalists were from Central and Eastern Europe and the two finalists were Russian and Czech. With Wozniacki, Clijsters and the Williams sisters out, the ladies competition seemed to be wide open. The final on Saturday was very disappointing for a Sharapova fan like me. Sharapova seems to float beautifully about the court, but she made many mistakes and her serve is never reliable, especially since she had an operation on her shoulder and was out for a year. She won every match in two sets until the final, and then was blown away by Petra Kvitova. Kvitova, a relative unknown even though seeded no. 8, exceeded expectations and her combination of power and left-handed shots made her invincible.
The men's tournament went according to plan except for the unexpected defeat of Federer (#3) in the quarterfinals by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8) of France. Tsonga is a stong and athletic player and his semi-final match with Djokovic was one of the best matches of the tournament. I had never seen both players on the ground at the same time, and it happened twice in this match. They threw everything into it, including themselves. Nadal's defeat of everyone else, including Murray, was predictable according to his usual amazing performance. But, in the final Nadal was out-played by Djokovic, who with some superlative cross court winners blew him away. So they changed places and Djokovic is the new number one, after being dominated for several years by the terrible tennis twins, Federer and Nadal. Perhaps a new generation is taking over in both men's and women's tennis, but a generation in tennis terms may be only 2-3 years!
In the ladies tournament it was both nice and disappointing that both Williams sisters were back but made an exit in the quarter finals, having played gamely until then. It was notable that all of the 8 semifinalists were from Central and Eastern Europe and the two finalists were Russian and Czech. With Wozniacki, Clijsters and the Williams sisters out, the ladies competition seemed to be wide open. The final on Saturday was very disappointing for a Sharapova fan like me. Sharapova seems to float beautifully about the court, but she made many mistakes and her serve is never reliable, especially since she had an operation on her shoulder and was out for a year. She won every match in two sets until the final, and then was blown away by Petra Kvitova. Kvitova, a relative unknown even though seeded no. 8, exceeded expectations and her combination of power and left-handed shots made her invincible.
The men's tournament went according to plan except for the unexpected defeat of Federer (#3) in the quarterfinals by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8) of France. Tsonga is a stong and athletic player and his semi-final match with Djokovic was one of the best matches of the tournament. I had never seen both players on the ground at the same time, and it happened twice in this match. They threw everything into it, including themselves. Nadal's defeat of everyone else, including Murray, was predictable according to his usual amazing performance. But, in the final Nadal was out-played by Djokovic, who with some superlative cross court winners blew him away. So they changed places and Djokovic is the new number one, after being dominated for several years by the terrible tennis twins, Federer and Nadal. Perhaps a new generation is taking over in both men's and women's tennis, but a generation in tennis terms may be only 2-3 years!
posted by Jack Cohen at 5:17 PM
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