2009 Wimbledon Championships Round 3
The Queue
Firstly, I apologise it's taken me so long to get this report up. Marion is required to be professional and go do interviews straight after a match, that must be hard sometimes.
Even though I reached the Queue earlier than on the previous two mornings, it took me 7 hours to gain entry to the grounds. Three to four hours more than usual. It surprised me as Andy Murray wasn't playing and the weather forecast wasn't good. It's hard to judge as ground capacity changes each day. It is fluid rather than fixed situation.
when the Steward announced ground capacity was full, and the queue was now in a 'one in one out' situation, things did not look good. For the first time in six matches this year and last, it looked like I would miss seeing Marion play. Roger Federer's match on centre court moving into a fourth set didn't help things.Becasue they let in more people once any spectators leave the show courts at the end of big match's. But somehow, I got in!
There was a bunch of guys, queue jumpers, posh boy types, all six of them of them who had jumped in front of me where sent to the back of the queue, my queue card number was about 8100, those guys were about number 8600. They had jumped about 500 places in the queue.
Then once in the grounds it helped that Vesnina and Cibulkova had went into a fourth set. If you have been following me on twitter you might have seen the live photo I sent from just outside one of the gates to the court, queueing to get in.
But anyway once again I made it just, firstly into the grounds, then into court 18. Unfortunately my photos of the match are not great because I was hemmed in right at the corner again behind the baseline. I draped the Marion Bartoli Fan Blog t-shirt over the wall, but not over the green fence, as I don't think that is permissable. The line judge grinned at me when he come over to switch sides.
The Match
As fans, I think a lot of us had great hopes and dreams for Wimbledon 2009. An optimism which was based on two things, firstly the simple fact that this is Wimbledon, this is where she has did so well in the past, this is a place she comes back to which makes her "smile".
Secondly, she has worked so hard over the past 12 months, running, training, practicing, altering technique. Yes Walter and Marion Bartoli have always worked hard and changed things. But this past 12 months it has been a more intensive and focused programme of work than ever before. She is a visibly different specimen, and she just seems to have that extra metre around court these days, and it has shown in the results she has had this past year compared with the previous 12 months from July 2007 to June 2008. What gave grounds for real optimism against Schiavone was that recently Marion had beaten the Italian and several other players which Marion had always lost to before.
But every new match is a new situation.
You know, in the first set there was nothing between these players, both players where producing some excellent and highly energetic tennis. First Schiavone went ahead, then Marion went ahead, then a tie break. Schiavone took her chances well and took the set.
Given that it was warmer for Marion than in the previous two rounds, it must be physically quite demanding to play as intense as that. But this is what she's trained for, that's why she has worked as hard as she has done over this past 12 months. She's a professional athlete.
A few things struck me about the play. There was a lot of high loopy balls, it was like Marion was hitting the ball cross court as hard and furious as she could, but each time the ball would come back and Marion was unable to generate enough pace from Schiavone's shots to win the point. Marion sometimes looked exposed in mid court.
But then on the other hand, Schiavone produced these impressive winners of her own. She played well.
Another random observation; there was quite a few line calls which went against Marion. One or two looked pretty suspect to me, and Marion did complain to the umpire once. But to be fair to the line judge I am in the seating area, he had a better vantage point than me, even with the evening sunshine in his eyes.
On grass and hard courts Marion usually has deadly precision when it comes to hitting shots into the corner or right on the line. It's rare for her to be off-kilter.
In the 2nd set, who can say what happened, some fissure opened. Schiavone sustained her high level of play, but Marion seemed to fade. Don't get me wrong, she never stopped fighting. I rememeber I think it was at 3-0 down, Marion produced an excellent winner and I shouted the "THE FIGHT IS STILL ON".
But no. When your down, games can pass in a flash and before you know it the set is gone. And as the awkward hazy evening sunshine slipped by the tower block shadowing court 18, so did the match also. With a break to love as I recall, or to 15, it was all over.
Marion looked a little, unwell in the 2nd set, or stressed. she seemed to be hyper ventilating. But that's only my impression, and she didn't call for the trainer, so must have been feeling alright. Nevertheless a highly energetic first set performance from Marion seemed to become flaccid in the 2nd.
Coach Bartoli, he was sitting facing opposite me, he just sat muttering to himself. And me, I was just a mess. But that aside I was muttering too.
The crowd, well the guy I have mentioned before, he was there sitting just a few seats along from Walter. As Marion was warming up, he gestured to me from accross the court, as if to say me and you are the only Marion fans here in a sea of Italians.
It wasn't quite as stark as that, but as expected Italian fans did out-number French/Marion fans quite considerably. However given the recent history of things i'm pleased to say that for the most part all were good humored and enjoying the match.. just wish the Italian guy next to me had stopped playing with his phone as Marion was serving at the end of the set.
Grass is meant to be a fast surface. It's ironic that while waiting in the queue I was reading articles on changing court speed and bounce at grass court tournaments. Apparently grass courts have been re-engineered to create longer rallies, by using a different blade of grass.
But why? Sometimes I felt like I was watching a clay court match out there. Maybe the US Open offers the best shot for Marion to win a slam.
But you can forgive me for all the pre-tournament hype, I am a fan after all, and each year Wimbledon comes round the heart will hype it up again.
It has been an exciting adventure, and a great privelige to see all three of Marion's matches again this year. Joy on Monday and Wednesday, disappoinment on Friday. But as Marion said last month, "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That is life."
Can you stay up for the weekend? Till next year.