Translated material
Pre-war history
The Wimbledon hosts are again left with nothing
Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal won the British Open singles title. In the decisive match, the American beat our Vera Zvonareva in two sets, and allowed her opponent to take only five games (6:3, 6:2). For the “dark-skinned lightning,” this success was the 13th at Grand Slam competitions and a repeat of her Wimbledon triumph eight years ago. The Spaniard defeated the Czech Tomas Berdych in three games (6:3, 7:5, 6:4) in the final, winning the tournament on the courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club for the second time (his first title here dates back to 2008). Now Nadal has a total of eight Grand Slam victories, of which five are at his favorite clay French Open.Zvonareva moved through the singles bracket in parallel with her successful performance in the doubles combination (together with Elena Vesnina), and it turned out that the Muscovite had to play two finals in one day. As a result, a clear illustration of the Russian folk proverb “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either.” Although, if we think from the point of view of earnings and receiving rating points, then Zvonareva has significantly improved in both directions. For participating in the singles final, she received a check for 500 thousand pounds sterling, 60 thousand units of British currency for the result in pairs and 1.3 thousand for reaching the second round of mixed doubles in tandem with the Brazilian Andre Sa. According to the current cross-rate, Vera’s total fee for two game weeks was about 853 thousand dollars.
“I was upset with the way I played in the final,” Zvonareva admitted after the match. - Although in fact participation in such a meeting is already a great success, but my psychology is such that I will understand the significance of the event later. For now I’m just angry at myself for my unsuccessful actions. Although, probably, before it was more difficult for me to cope with momentary emotions. I like everything to be perfect, but this rarely happens in tennis.” Summing up the results of the final, Williams Jr. focused more on statistics: “Having won my 13th Grand Slam, I surpassed my legendary compatriot Billie Jean King, who has a dozen such titles. This is a landmark achievement for me."
The past Wimbledon surprised tennis fans, players and organizers by the absence of rainy days. There were no postponements of matches due to bad weather, weather problems with the schedule, and there was a cloudless sky over the territory of the tennis complex during the tournament. The past British Open will be remembered not even for the names of its winners, but for the unique marathon first-round match between the American John Isner and the Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who fought for 11 hours and five minutes, spread over three playing days. The fifth game of this epic battle ended with an unprecedented, fantastic score of 70:68 in favor of Isner. All conceivable and inconceivable world tennis records have been broken, most of which have now become eternal.
The Wimbledon hosts were again left with nothing. The British are waiting for their tennis player to win, but no one can please the local public. Now the local fans supported Andy Murray with all their might, even turning a blind eye to the fact that he was not English at all, but Scottish. But the 23-year-old Glasgow native was eliminated in the semi-finals by Nadal.
The last Briton to win a home tournament is Fred Perry, who defeated Nazi Germany's Gottfried von Cramm in the 1936 final - 6:1, 6:1, 6:0. The following season, the German stopped Englishman Bunny Austin on the approach to the decisive match, who then, at the 1938 tournament, became the last player from Foggy Albion to fight directly for the Wimbledon title. Austin then failed to cope with the American Don Budge. War soon broke out and the British Open was not played for six years in a row. With the onset of peaceful life, whoever won the British tournament - masters of the big racket from France, the USA, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Croatia, Australia, Holland, Switzerland, and even a unique athlete, the Czech Jaroslav Drobny, who retrained from a professional hockey player (world champion - 1947) and performed on the court under the Egyptian flag.
The fate of von Cramm, the last player to be defeated in the Wimbledon final by a Briton, was surprising. In March 1938, despite his enormous popularity in his country, he was arrested and given a year in prison on charges of homosexuality. It turned out that von Cramm had been in an intimate relationship with silent film star Manasseh Herbst for several years. The investigation found that Gottfried came to a non-traditional sexual orientation after he learned about the betrayal of his beloved woman with an athlete from France. When von Cramm was sent to jail, many tennis stars sent letters of protest to Adolf Hitler, including his offender in the 1937 final, American Budge. After six months of serving, the German was released on parole, took part in several tennis tournaments and even won the Queen's Club in London. However, the organizers of Wimbledon did not allow him to participate anymore, citing the fact that he was technically a criminal.
If we talk about women, then in Great Britain the timelessness here is not so enormous. Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. True, unlike the stronger sex, there are no prospects at all. None of the court owners (Heather Watson, Katie O'Brien, Laura Robson, Melanie South, foreign-born Anna Keothavong and Elena Baltacha) advanced beyond the first round.
Results. British Open. Final matches. Singles. Men. Nadal (Spain) - Berdych (Czech Republic) - 6:3, 7:5, 6:4. Women. S. Williams (USA) - Zvonareva (Russia) - 6:3, 6:2. Doubles. Men. Melzer (Austria)/Petzschner (Germany) -- Lindstedt (Sweden)/Tecau (Romania) -- 6:1, 7:5, 7:5. Women. King (USA)/Shvedova (Kazakhstan) - Zvonareva/Vesnina (Russia) - 7:6 (8:6), 6:2.