It began at 10:00 on a Saturday morning. It was poorly advertised and unfortunatly fell on the beginning of the fourth of July weekend. Because of all of these reasons, I am guessing (haven’t seen any ratings) that not many people tooned in to see the Wimbledon woman’s final between Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams. For all those who did, you know it was an amazing match that contained all the intangibles that true sports fans look for in championship matches. Venus Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport (4-6, 7-6, 9-7) in today’s Wimbledon Woman’s Singles Championship. If that is the only thing you read today on the ESPN ticker or tomorrow morning in the paper than you will be utterly short changed. Williams and Davenport played an epic final that will do down in history as not only the longest woman’s singles match, but one that contained countless momentum switches and endless resilience on the counts of both women.
Before the match started I was perplexed by the notion that while the USTA had to be excited to have an all American final, there had to be some uncertainty as to where America should place thier rooting interest. At the advent of the match I was leaning towards Davenport if only for the reason that to me she is a champion we never heard enough about because she keeps herself out of the limelight. Also, she has forever been the spokeswoman for US tennis among the younger generations. In fact, she has been in the news recently worried and angry about the lack of young girls taking up tennis. While I have nothing against Venus, I felt as though Davenport was someone that no American sports fan had ever rallied around, and that her second Wimbledon Championship could give her a heightened awareness among American sports fans that she has always deserved.
That being said, throughout the match my allegiance switched sides with the momentum (I am a terrible bandwagon fan). Then it came to me, America should be rooting for both of these women. We should of wished for a classic match in which both women played excellent tennis, perhaps providing some young girl the inspiration to pick up a tennis racquet instead of a video game controller or a lacrosse stick (which has become the young sports fad). And that is exactly what these two women did, and to add to that Davenport had to overcome a back ailment for the last portion of the third set. This was not only tennis at its best, it was at the maximum level of entertainment, gamesmanship, sportsmanship, and overall athletic ability.
After two sets of high quality tennis, the third was shaping up as the culmination of Davenport’s masterly comeback from the trenches of retirement. Davenport had just broken Williams to go up 4-2 and was up 40-15 when Venus dug down deep and hit great shot after great shot to break back. Venus won four straight points and the look on her face prefaced the finish; she was not to be denied. After Venus held to make it 4-4, Davenport was forced to take an injury timeout for her forever injured back. When she came back on the court it was obvious she was not the same, but she managed to hold serve all the while grimacing and gritting her teeth. I swear I could feel her pain from my couch.
When Venus got her serve she went right for Davenport’s body knowing that her agility has taken a severe hit with her injury. This is the killer instinct that champions have, and that Venus had lacked over the past couple years. It was the ultimate gamesmanship of exploiting an opponent’s weakness to the breaking point. At 6-6 there was a classic rally won by Williams in which there were 25 hits, immeadiatly after the NBC camera got a great “What else can I do?” face from Davenport. Even though she was exhausted and in obvioius agony Davevport held serve and even had a championship point at 7-6, 30-40. Venus held her off and from that point on she dominated the match. Obviously, the longer the match went on the more difficult it was going to be for Davenport and when she lost that championship point, the wind went out of her sails. Venus broke Davenport and won the 16th game of the third set finishing Davenport off on the second of her three championship points.
I am not one for hyperbole, but it was truly a match for the ages. Both women fought valiantly with Williams having a little more. If not for the injury to Davenport we might be at 17-16 right now, but credit has to be given to Williams for her killer instinct. Both of these women had not won a championship since 2000-2001 so both were great stories just to reach the Wimbledon final. Most important though, is that July 2, 2005 was a great day for American tennis. We can only hope that the USTA uses this momentum to garner more interest in their sport. I can only hope that on July 2, 2025 I am watching two American women on Wimbledon’s famed Center Court showing the championship spirit that these two women did today.
2 replies on “A Classic Wimbledon Final”
CHECK YOUR SPELLING Dude- “Thier?” C’mon!
If you get this done, and deal with any more you see along the way, then I’ll definitely vote for you.
And American tails between legs after the exploits of Andy Roddick?
Ratings 2nd only to the Pepsi 400 or whatever was the NASCAR race among sporting events with a 4.0 if I remember correctly. The men’s final had a 2.5.