The Hindu : Sport : The snow leopards of the game

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Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

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The snow leopards of the game

Nirmal Shekar

MASTERCLASS: Roger Federer put up a splendid display against Mario Ancic. — PHOTO: AP

London: There was a time when they ruled the turf like dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era. Other species shrank away in their presence.

Not anymore. Today, they — the serve-and-volleyers — are among the most endangered species in the world of tennis, their authority and aura a distant memory even in the place — the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon — that has been their spiritual home.

No effort at conservation is going to help much; for, the conditions have changed so much in the last few years in the oldest tennis championship in the world that any attempt to goad title-hungry players into playing the grand old grass court game will only elicit a cold response.

Watching the Croatian beanpole Mario Ancic begin his attempt to move a mountain — a modern day tennis Alps — in the men's singles quarterfinals of the 120th Wimbledon championships, on Wednesday, there was a brief moment very early on when it appeared that there was a future for the masters of the one-two punch.

But that was no more than an illusion, as it turned out. For Roger Federer quickly smothered all hopes as he sowed doubts in Ancic's mind about the potency of his tactics before mercilessly stripping him of his very dignity as a serve-volley performer to win 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on a gloomy afternoon on the centre court.

Which, of course, begs the question: is there any future for the spiritual heirs of the great Laver-McEnroe-Becker-Sampras legacy? What price net rushing?

It seems more and more likely that serve-and-volleyers are unfortunate victims of the game's evolution.

Their one last hope was Wimbledon. But even here the dice is loaded against them now.

The thicker blades of the grass have made the courts slower and the balls are slower too. Add to this the exceptional physical strength and fitness of the new millennium players and their state-of-the art racquets, and things can't get any gloomier than this for those hoping to follow their serve to the net.

Telling signs

The pattern of wear and tear on the courts tells its own story. Midway in the second week, if you observed the forecourt — the part near the net — in the days gone by, there would be huge patches of brown, indicating the damage done to the turf by net rushing players.

Today, on most courts at Wimbledon where too many doubles matches have not been played, the forecourt is almost as green as new.

Even a player as exceptionally gifted as Federer, a player to whom the forward movement came naturally and one who can volley as well as any competitor of his generation, has chosen to dictate points mostly from the baseline.

And in his case it has been a conscious choice after working out the percentages.

For, five years ago, when he announced himself to the world by beating Pete Sampras in five sets here, the young Swiss played orthodox serve-and-volley tennis.

Then again, when you possess Federer's gifts, you can choose to play from anywhere and still beat anybody in the business. Yet, when youngsters watch the Swiss master work his magic from the baseline, for the most part, on a grass court, they are unlikely to listen to coaches advocating the benefits of aggressive, serve-and-volley tennis.

``The art of serve and volleying is pretty much extinct,'' said Sampras, a champion who was to that sublime tennis art what Beethoven was to Western classical music. ``I miss one guy coming in and the other defending. I think that's the best tennis.''

Extinction is as much a part of evolution as speciation. A decade on, we'll have as much chance of spotting a serving and volleying champion at Wimbledon as we would have of sighting a snow leopard in the Himalayas.

Meanwhile, in the Federer-Ancic match, there was a lot of promise through the first four games. The first rain delay came at 2-2 in the first set and the great master got back from the dressing room in a rather murderous state of mind.

As a match, the contest lasted those first 13 minutes. The rest of the way, it was a wonderful display of the art of turning murder and mayhem into aesthetically pleasing spectacle. Nobody in sport can have you watch a merciless slaying and then come away believing — and thanking your stars for the opportunity — you have just come out of an exhibition of van Gogh's finest.

Federer broke to 3-2 in the first and in the very first game of the second and was leading 3-2 when the rains arrived yet again. The three-time champion came back to wrap up the set, raced to 3-0 in the third, lost serve for the first time in the match, and finally served it out to make his way to the semifinals.

Incidentally, Ancic was the last man to beat Federer on grass — in the first round here in 2002. The win saw the great champion stretch his grass court winning streak to 46 matches.

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