Wimbledon Championship 2011: Djokovic and Kvitova Shine!

-DR. ABDUL RUFF

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It is a grand surprise that Eastern Europe has made it presence felt in tennis world these days with both male and female champions of  Wimbledon  2011 have been won by players from this formerly socialist region. 

A skillful Serb to win the London Wimbledon championship with conviction, Novak Djokovic has replaced Rafael Nadal, the “angry youngman on Tennis court”, as the new World No.1 on July 4. Nadal, who lost to Djokovic for fifth time this year on July 03, has been pushed to the second spot followed by Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling in the top five. Nadal has lost much of his steam and anger on the court but is very cool outside  as well. .

In Wimbledon, Djokovic faced a formidable challenge not so much from Nadal as from the Afro-French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at semifinal on July 01 when the Serb almost lost the match, but by efficiently using his skills he over-powered Tsonga to enter the finals. 

While Djokovic won against an emerging power Tsonga through high level skills, he defeated Nadal by simple tactics. In the quarterfinals, Tsonga made Federer irrelevant in Tennis sport and also gained five places to move to the 14th. while Djokovic rendered Nadal almost invalid. It was indeed a big crush on the Spaniard player, though not entirely unexpected.

A truly deserving world No.1 who rarely resorts of the usual short cuts, Djokovic's rise is also the end of the seven year domination of Federer-Nadal at the top. Djokovic has been persuasive throughout, has won 48 of his 49 matches this year, displaying his victory intent. After victory, Djokovic said this is an amazing achievement to get to the top spot, especially with rivals such as Rafa and Roger who made him work so hard and made him improve every day. 

At 24 years, the Belgrade native is the 25th player since 1973 to hold the No. 1 position in men's tennis.Djokovic leads the ATP World Tour with a career-best eight titles in 2011, including his second Australian Open crown in January and his first Wimbledon trophy. He also captured four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles (Miami, Indian Wells, Madrid, and Rome). His overall 43-match winning run is the third-longest streak in the Open era, behind Guillermo Vilas (46) and Ivan Lendl (44).

Nadal has lost both the Wimbledon title and No. 1 status to Novak Djokovic. With Djokovic rising to top slot, the direct Federer-Nadal rivalry has also ended in a normal way. But Nadal, who has lost many matches to the Serb recently, seems to have an edge. The sign of a true champion is how well he takes defeat and Nadal admitted that Djokovic outplayed him.  Nadal has a chance of playing tennis for 4-5 years after Federer retires.

By proving all speculations of media and tennis specialists on the possible female winner of Wimbledon, Czech Petra Kvitova won the title by defeating M. Sharapova the only favorite of the media commentators. In fact earlier the top players like Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1), Williams’s sisters, Italian Francesca Schiavone, Vera Zvonareva and the Chinese top player Naa Li (3) who was unlucky to lose early on were the top favorites.  Aravane Rezai (FRA) also lost early. A deserving Petra Kvitova’s rise to the top slot surprised many.

Petra Kvitova who is the woman Wimbledon champion now is, unlike the males like Nadal or Djokovic, not at all aggressive, jumping up and down or falling flat on the ground or showing fist and elbow muscles to videographers upon winning the title; It was Kvitova's cool demeanor that marked the pathway to her splendid victory. She was well composed and humane. She was shy, joyful- that is true spirit of sport.

Djokovic ate dirty grass from the ground upon winning the title, saying that he is an animal.  Kvitova just smiled.

Players in cricket tennis are not only impatient but also arrogant to some extent especially when they win somehow- bowlers jump up and down like jungle monkeys (Indian bowlers  have the bad habit of howling and hurling abuses at the fallen batboys) while the tennis players employ similar  gimmicks to impress the viewers. Kvitova's cool nature must set an example of  humane behavior on the field and make these  restless players improve their showy gimmicks. 

Tennis players have to improve their cross shots instead of hitting to each other into committing errors to fall. They must practice to change the course of the hits. Rarely a player makes drastic moves.

Unfortunately, Muslim nations, increasingly unsure of their Islamic faith, have not yet introduced their sport talent in tennis, either. Not even their "closeness" to western culture that has unfortunately brought more and more Muslims into liquor and other nasty practices, could generate some good sport persons in tennis.