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| Marion Bartoli |
It is interesting to see the second time in history a woman with both two-handed forehand and backhand wins the champion in Wimbledon. She is Marion Bartoli of France. She has been around for several years but never won a grand slam until today (7/6/2013). Watching her play, I was impressed on her hitting balls with pace and deep to base line with precision. Since mid 1970's many players adopted two-hand backhand and achieved a lot of success. But we haven't seen many players trying two-handed forehand. I have played tennis since 1967. I started with single-handed backhand with some success. I was able to hit the ball where I wanted with slice backhand. The problem was the weak pace when I hit it with backhand slice or under spin. Even later I tried top-spin backhand, the pace of the ball is way too weak comparing to the forehand drive. After a few years, I started to develop tennis elbow mainly due to the short backhand slice. I can hit the ball with precision and near the net. Since I have to stop the stroke in the middle of the swing, it exerts more pressure to the tendon and muscle of my right elbow. Anyway the combination of them creates a syndrome of tennis elbow. I like the tennis, fun and low cost. I can also get much more exercise than playing golf within shorter time frame. As I get older, I think hard and decide to adopt two-handed stroke so I may be able to continue playing tennis till very old age. So since two years ago, I bought a tennis ball machine and practiced hitting balls with both hands. I started with two-handed backhand. It took me a while to get used to it. In fact it took me longer than I expected. After about six months, I was able to hit the balls comfortably and felt that I could swing racket naturally. I also found that it is quite easy and natural to hit the ball with both top-spin and under-spin. It is also quite easy to hit the ball on the rise. The only drawback is the length of the swing and the shorter reach when chasing the ball. Eventually I found that the best way to play is to use two-handed stroke most of the time and use one-handed way when chasing balls. After I mastered the two-handed backhand, I started the same thing for the forehand. It is quite unusual to see professionals adopt the two-handed forehand as most of them have very strong muscle on forehand side and there is no need to use two-handed stroke. But I found that my forehand got weaker when I got older. This gave me the incentive to try earnest on two-handed forehand. After several months practice, I have gained confidence in hitting balls with pace. I feel very happy these days as I enjoy playing tennis more and get my weekly needed exercise. I am very glad to see Marion Bartoli won the trophy, a Venus Rosewater Dish in Wimbledon. Why? She is the first person wins a tennis grand slam with both two-handed backhand and forehand just as I do now.
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| 謝淑薇 and 彭帥 |
PS: Su-Wei Hsieh (謝淑薇) of Taiwan and Shuai Peng (彭帥) of China won the Women's Doubles Championship in Wimbledon. This is a historical first for Taiwan and China to win a grand slam doubles in tennis. Both of them also play two-handed shots on both sides like Marion Bartoli.
5 comments:
There are two kinds of tennis champions. One is a champion who dominates the four tennis grand slam tournaments for several years, usually about five years duration with more than five trophies. The other kind of champion is a one-time champion in his/her career. They are good & usually attain inside top-10 ranking. Bobby Riggs & Michael Chang are examples. It is interesting to note that this year, the champions of women's single & double are black horses & are not the favorites to win the trophies as their rankings are outside of the top-10. Most of the top-10 players were upset with many kinds of surprises, some slip on grass, some injure by twisting & running. With current seeded system, Lesicki had to play against several former champions & Bartoli never encountered any one within top-15 ranking. In the final, Lesicki melt down badly & Bartoli steamed roll over Lesicki with a very impressive win. Will she be a one-time champion? Good question, it remains to be seen. Similar thing occurred in women's double, the double ranking of 謝淑薇 and 彭帥 is outside of top-10 & managed to become a new champion is astonishing.
2013 is the year both single & double champions (three women) of Wimbledon are all two-handed players on both forehand & backhand. I predict that this will not happen again in the next 100 years.
謝淑薇 was asked how she felt & what this championship means to her country, 彭帥 immediately interrupted to say she couldn't accept Taiwan is a country. 謝淑薇 sounded low key & said she didn't want to get involved with politics here. It seems 彭帥 like most Chinese in mainland get too much ideology in nationalism. In fact, 彭帥 was downright rude & improper to interrupt as the question was not directed to her at all. It seems she is the more dominant player in this double team. If this situation continues, I think their corporation in double team may be jeopardized in the future.
While I watched the telecast of the Wimbledon match last Saturday, instead of tennis match, it was interrupted with a special report on the airplane accident happened just at the San Francisco International Airport. An Asiana Boing 777 landed too low and careened out of runway. Fire erupted and many people got injured. Something spooks here to a lot of people as it is Boing 777, occurred on 7/7 (July 7 in Korea) and there are 77 Koreans on the plane. Even more strikingly, the next day, July 7 in London, Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic in the final. UK has to wait 77 years to win the men's single championship in Wimbledon. This means quite a lot to the people there. The spooky thing here are another 7/7 (date)and 77 (years). Here the Numerology pops up in mind of many people. It is said Pythogoras believed in it thousand years ago. Although the whole thing sounds interesting and odd, I think they are just some coincidences unless some other facts show otherwise.
I mentioned Bobby Riggs in my previous comment as a one-time grand slammer. It is a mistake. I mean Roscoe Tanner instead of Bobby Riggs. Riggs won both Wimbledon & US Championship in 1939, 1940 & 1941. Later he was famous in challenging Billie Jean King in 'the Battle of the Sexes' & got beaten in 1975.
It is highly possible that Li Na will also join the rank as another one-time grand slammer as she is getting older and time certainly is not on her side.
In my first comment, I said, "Will she be a one-time champion? Good question, it remains to be seen." Well, the question has been answered. After 40 days Marion Bartoli won the Wimbledon champion, she announced her retirement due to her body condition (pain, ache injury etc). She is 28 years old. She said, "My body just can’t do it anymore...I really pushed my body through the limit to win Wimbledon ... after the match I could barely walk". So she is like Michael Chang, a one-time grand slammer. Although it is sad to hear this, I like her playing style & her fighting spirit. I felt good for her when she said, "This Grand Slam trophy that I own is very much a shared moment of happiness ... and that was the most important thing for me, seeing all those people in my box so happy for me in this perfect day. I will remember this forever." In my last comment I also said it is highly possible Li Na will also join the rank as another one-time grand slammer. Will it be true, time will tell.
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