Roland Garros’ fighting spirit lives on

THIS year is going to be a landmark one for major sport on both sides of the Englilsh Channel.

It is the 150th anniversary of The Wimbledon Lawn Championships, the first time that the Ryder Cup will be held on French soil and it is the centenary of the death of a famous French aviator and WW1 fighter pilot, Roland Garros, whose name was chosen to christen the French Championships, after a group of French tennis players, dubbed the “Four Musketeers”, beat the United States, in Philadelphia, for the first time, to win the Davis Cup, precipitating the sudden necessity for a stadium of their own.

The typically complex negotiations for land – limited in the Paris precinct – were conditional upon the arena being named after a WW1 soldier: Garros for his bravery, patriotism and contribution to aviation – not to mention tennis – history, was the obvious choice.

On the subject of gut and guts, closer to home, it is the 50th anniversary of our own tennis legend, Abe Segal’s first appearance in the 1958 French Open Finals – with Australian, Bob Howe.

Segal had discovered Howe by default, during a “public relations deviation”, while representing South Africa on his first international tour, in competing for the coveted Anzac Trophy Down Under.

Howe’s obvious talent, hitherto buried in dust and obscurity in the depths of the Outback, had escaped the notice of the Australian selectors, until Segal arrived to play an exhibition match and after one social set against this so called school teacher, immediately persuaded the shy Australian to “swap tools” – his books for his racket – and to fly to Europe, to partner Segal for their first extraordinary foray on clay.

Fortune favours the brave; winning in Rome, they made it all the way to the French Final, ironically coming up against the formidable and better known Australian top seeds, Ashley Cooper and Neale Fraser.

Despite being beaten, Segal was happier with the latter performance than the subsequent in 1963, when partnered by another young South African, Gordon Forbes, a more experienced player than Howe.

However Forbes, prone to sleepwalking, had had a major attack of somnambulism the night before the Final, which resulted in both South Africans “seeing double”.

Certainly Segal and Garros had indomitable spirit in common: If Garros was the first man to fly across the Mediterranean then Segal was the first tennis player to jump on an Italian boat at the age of 14, uneducated, unsponsored and ‘uncoached’ and to traverse the Atlantic from Durban to Venice, all the way into the top ten in the world.

And if Garros – an ace pilot who escaped WWI wartime incarceration to return to the fray to shoot down a few more German planes before being shot down himself – then certainly Segal, against all odds, returned to the heat of action on the Roland Garros Centre Court, to take out a few ace international players on his ascension to his second final, before being “taken out” by the lethal combination of Monola Santana and Nicola Pertoangeli, one can imagine how these old school ‘fighters’, whose physical feats were rewarded only with trophies and medals, would react to the fact, that mere Qualifiers and First Round players at Roland Garros 50 years later, will receive €40 000, the highest amount ever paid for what amounts to an appearance fee.

Furious

Bearing in mind that this was one of the hot topics of conversation at Wimbledon last year, given the spate of competitors who retired mid way, through their first round matches in droves, limping off on account of deteriorating injuries.

Eight-time champion, Roger Federer, was the first to declare furiously at the onset of the 2017 tournament, that this was tantamount to stealing from the paying public and that no player, who is physically unable to complete their first match should be permitted to set foot on court, let alone get paid for the charade – a deliberate ploy by unseeded outsiders to pocket some easy cash.

Segal took the matter further, when he argued in his Major Columns, that top players were abusing the Medical Time Out Rule to manufacture injuries at key moments in final matches, usually when they were in a losing position – a set or two down – in a deliberate attempt to stop their opponent’s momentum – current World No 1, Rafa Nadal being a prime suspect.

The rain delay in the third set of the recent Italian final precipitated a similar, if not less orchestrated result, in creating a disruption to Sasha Zverev’s position of ascendancy– 3 -1 up in the third set – by breaking the German No 1’s concentration and in allowing time for doubt to creep in.

Moreover if a player during Segal’s era was literally touched by a bystander, let alone a medical practitioner, they would have been immediately disqualified.

Leniency has become the order of the day: New rules at Roland Garros allow players 25 seconds in between points instead of 20 – something which might have been instigated by former No 1 and French Champion, Djokovic, regularly berated by umpires for his lengthy ball bouncing prior to serving.

In the warm ups, when the second player reaches the bench, both players must thereafter approach the umpires bench for the coin toss, within the space of a minute.

The devil is in the detail: Pleated skirts are making a come back this season on clay and no doubt French designer, Jean Patou, who designed the ‘sunburst pleat’ for vintage French Champion Suzanne Lenglen, would approve.

Current ex champion, Serena Williams in the wake of attending the Royal Wedding and making her own fashion statement in sporting ‘frou frou’ tennis shoes beneath her long frock to the private party at Windsor, thrown by Prince Charles, will be fashionably nonconformist and set her own trend, regardless of the tongue in cheek slogan so prevalent on Roland Garros attire – “Je peux pas, je suis a Roland” – I can’t, I’m at Roland..

This seems far more in keeping with the ruthless all white tradition of Wimbledon... and never really applies to champions, who by virtue of being crowd pullers, pretty much dictate the rules, including shrieking as loud as they like, as we see with the 25 second between point concession.

But it is a year when along with Meghan Markle and Williams, women are dictating: This will be ironically the first time a French artist – and a female – Fabienne Verdier was commissioned to create the official Roland Garros poster.

Tribute

Her inspiration – “To focus on the bounce of the ball on the saffron coloured clay” – is a tribute perhaps to Djokovic of old, the proverbial ‘ball bouncer’ and on court joker.

Had Segal, also an artist post his tennis career, also commissioned to create tennis related posters of Major venues, observed Verdier’s work he probably would have said – “it looked like white paint spilled on a court, before someone came along and slipped on it...” such is the essence of the very modern major tournament.

And such is the extent to which commercialism has changed this sport( and her stadiums) from the amateur era, where it was the sole domain of gritty, gung ho, no nonsense adventurers, armed only with their wooden rackets, who played out of unadulterated passion for the game, with very little other than national pride to gain for their unremitting pain.

Thus in between the tedious medical time outs, the copious ad breaks, the prolonged opening of new courts, 7, 9 and 18 facilitating ever swelling crowds, let us raise our champagne glasses to those swashbuckling few, who paved the way for an event to celebrate and left us with indelible memories, along with our hors d’oeuvres, to savour forever.

It is the newly restored 1898 Auteuil Greenhouse Gardens, coupled with Wimbledon’s recently launched Memorial Garden, honouring these greats, which should be considered the most poignant addition to this year’s French Major, so synonymous with fighting spirit...