FACTS AND FIGURES
IF IT’S possible to feel sorry for a person who makes a living as a professional tennis player, I am feeling something like it for New Zealand’s top female player and only Wimbledon 2014 singles hope, Marina Erakovic.
Erakovic, who according to The Times newspaper that I read on the packed tube heading out to Wimbledon, will make about $52,000 just for turning up, is going to lose.
Around 11am, I arrive at Court Six after walking from the tube station with what appears to be half the population of London. In 30 minutes Erakovic is due to play 16-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh, known to New Zealand tennis fans for knocking out world No 14 Roberta Vinci in the ASB Classic in Auckland in January.
The sun is beating down on the court’s perfect grass and there’s hardly a breeze. Sitting courtside, so close to the action that I could be at my local tennis club, I’m already sweating and I haven’t written a word.
Wellingtonian Aiden O’Rourke, a lawyer in London, is courtside with his mates Nick Fisbentzidis and Campbell Featherston, also from Wellington. They began queuing at 5.30am and, with about 2500 fans in front of them, were through the gates at 10.15am holding $40 tickets for a day at the tennis.
Wimbledon is a huge complex comprising Centre Court, where the big matches are played, five show courts, which are amphitheatres with seating for large numbers and 11 courts with limited seating. Court Six has one row of benches on each side and they are soon full.
Play is heralded by the arrival of the umpire, lines-people and the ball boys and girls. All are in uniform and the ball children actually march to their positions around the court.
By the time the players arrive on court with their big tennis bags and towels and special drinks, the crowd around the court has grown to about 100.
Both players are in the regulation white dress – Wimbledon has tightened up its dress standards this year. Red knickers are definitely out. Both have their hair tied back in pony tails.
Erakovic is wearing a cap and Konjuh a visor and both are wearing jewellery. Konjuh has a bracelet on her right wrist and Erakovic has a silver chain around her neck.
Erakovic, is 26, but doesn’t look that much older than Konjuh, who is the bigger and more powerful of the two.
They warm up with rallies from the baseline and already it’s clear Konjuh is hitting the ball harder and more sweetly.
This doesn’t mean much. Great form in warmups is common. A tennis match is all about confidence and nerve and Konjuh’s natural physical advantage counts for only so much under the pressure of a first round, sudden-death match at Wimbledon.
After 20 minutes, Erakovic is two games down, although she manages to claw her way back by playing percentage tennis and reaps some profit from Konjuh’s nervous mistakes.
BACK on Court Six and in the second set, Erakovic starts to serve better and wins the second set 6-4, making the next set the decider.
Something magic is happening on Centre Court where the British favourite, Andy Murray, is playing. We can hear the clapping and cheering down on Court Six because Centre Court is only 100m away.
Erakovic, perhaps inspired, is momentarily up in the second game, but wastes her lead and then goes two games down in the third set.
She is not playing badly but Konjuh’s big driving shots are finding the spot and she is looking more dominant by the minute. After fluffing another point Erakovic, lets out a big yell of disgust.
It’s hard to know what’s going through her mind at this stage. She has been playing professionally for a nearly a 54,250 balls used during the tournament 230,000 glasses of Pimm’s consumed Ladies and gentleman’s singles winners each win $3.44m 8600 punnets of strawberries sold each day for about $5 each 28,000 bottles of champagne downed during the fortnight 250 ball girls and boys The tournament generates about $59m of profits for the All England club each year decade and with a world ranking of 66 – she has been as high as 39 – does not look like improving, in singles, anyway.
In the week before Wimbledon, she split with her coach of four years, Christian Zahalka, a move, she says, to develop her singles game.
Erakovic must also look at Konjuh, currently ranked 188 in the world, and see herself 10 years ago. Both were born in Croatia and both were world-beating junior players before they turned 17. Erakovic looked just as promising as Konjuh.
Being in the top 60 or 70 tennis players in the world is not to be sniffed at but you wonder what keeps her going.
I get a clue from later watching a deadly duel between two of the pro tour’s journeymen, Italian Andreas Seppi, 30, world No 36, and Leonardo Mayer, 27, from Argentina, ranked 64.
The two tall gaunt pirates slug it out over three hours until Mayer triumphs, 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Although there is a small and unbridgeable gap between top players like Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray and pros like Seppi and Mayer, I suspect you can never tell them (Seppi and Mayer) that. Like them, Erakovic probably sees every tournament as the big turning point.
Court Six, and Erakovic is now down 4-0, and Kiwis in the crowd are urging her on. ‘‘Come on, Marina.’’ ‘‘Awesome shot, Marina.’’ It seems to be a Wimbledon tradition to cheer on the loser. In the Djokovic match later on Centre Court, where Kazakhstani player Andrey Golubev (ranked 56) is given a painful tennis lesson by the world No 2, the crowd goes mad when Golubev finally gets a game off his rival.
Up 40-15 in the fifth game, third set, Erakovic looks as though she is going to break Konjuh’s serve. This could get her back on track but Konjuh brings the game to deuce and then hammers down an ace for advantage and hits a superb two-handed backhand winner to take the game.
Konjuh looks as fresh as a daisy while Erakovic is working hard. Another close game and it’s all over. Erakovic, New Zealand’s best woman player since Belinda Cordwell, is out of the Wimbledon singles for 2014.
As tragic as that is, it doesn’t stop me heading off to watch Andy Murray playing Belgian David Goffin and having some strawberries and cream.