Wimbledon Doubles Roundup
Question : when was the last time two players who played on opposite sides of a Wimbledon Final played together and won the next year?
Answer : 2004/5. In 2004, Last year Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs beat Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama in the final. This year Cara and Liezel beat Amelie and Svet. Cara becomes the first woman to defend her doubles title in eleven years.
"After winning the Wimbledon title with Rennae Stubbs last year, the petite Zimbabwean has formed a strong new partnership with 28-year-old Huber. Black impressed again with her quick feet and fast reactions at the net; whilst Huber, who potentially was playing the first of three matches today, was matching Mauresmo and Kuznetsova from the back of the court... What Black lacks in height - she is only 5ft 4in - she makes up for in tremendous pace and powerful returns."
Meanwhile, the official Wimbledon website has been paying more attention to doubles these days. with articles about the SA-Zim combination's progress through the last eight (QF, SF, Finals). Excuse their writing style, which is even more stilted than mine.
So have the players, at least among the women. Wimbledon.org notes that "of Ladies' Singles quarter-finalists... all but Maria Sharapova entered either the Ladies' Doubles or the Mixed Doubles tournament."
In general, Wimbledon does treat doubles folks better than other tournaments. Another example is the men's tournament, which this year came up with, in the words of the Guardian's Richard Jago, possibly the most unlikely result in the whole of Wimbledon's history. Is he including Becker 85? Well, maybe including that too. After all, he'd won Queens the same year. I doubt that any bookie had any odds on Huss and Moodie before the tournament started, and they must have odds on BB.
Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie's 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 win over the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the recent world No1s, was the first time that qualifiers had won a Wimbledon title, but there were other outlandish aspects to it. Huss had been considering quitting the game, while Moodie had had no partner. After they joined up for only their second tournament together, almost as an afterthought, Moodie hurt his back and came close to telling Huss to find someone else.
Moodie's fierce serve and burning presence allied to Huss's nimble dexterity at the net and relaxed vibes were a wonderful example of how abilities which complement each other and co-operate become more than twice the talents of two individuals.
It happened the same week that the Association of Tennis Professionals announced a shortening of the doubles scoring system. The purpose: to stop lesser known players winning. Enjoy them while you can.
I'm not sure if that's the purpose. The purpose is definitely to encourage more top singles players to play - the question is whether they will actually be better at doubles than the "doubles specialists". Doubles isn't singles. It's much more interesting, for a start. And if tournaments did more to promote the doubles players, they wouldn't be as "lesser known".
Good to see doubles being promoted more. Hopefully other tournaments will learn from Wimbledon. As Huss commented (on some news report I can't google any more), it is the only grand slam tournament to still have qualifying rounds for doubles. To put this into perspective, read this article in the Aussie Age which says of the former Auburn student:
Yesterday's commanding 6-4 6-4 6-4 quarter-final win over third seeds Michael Llodra of France and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas on centre court was undoubtedly the highlight of Huss's humble career.
Note: that says quarter final. That article was written before the semi-finals.
The Bryan twins deserve sympathy. They have been runners-up at all three grand slam tournaments this year, and must be wondering what they have to do to win.
Mixed doubles news: Mary Pierce, legendary grass hater, won. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi. That makes their defeat of my favorites (Wayne and Cara Black) much easier to take. It's okay to be knocked out early in the tournament to the eventual winners.
In other minor news, Federer won again, as did Venus Williams. It's strange that she'd been written off (at least in my mind) when she was a finalist just two years ago. Presumably the womens' rankings at Wimbledon next year will take into account past Wimbledon's perfomances - if they had, Venus would not have been ranked 14. The men's ranking already did, doubtless so that Henman would get a higher rank than normal. (Actually, I'd suggest they take into account all grass court tournaments, not just Wimbledon.)
Oh, and Jayant Mistry became the first British man to win a Wimbledon title since Fred Perry before World War Two. That's a great trivia question, innit? I didn't know you could play with wheelchairs on grass. Full credit to the Wimbledon organizers for trying it!
Unrelated stuff: been getting some strange comments on the article on Wikis for Summer Schools and Workshops that I posted on John's website. I've asked him about it.
Answer : 2004/5. In 2004, Last year Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs beat Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama in the final. This year Cara and Liezel beat Amelie and Svet. Cara becomes the first woman to defend her doubles title in eleven years.
"After winning the Wimbledon title with Rennae Stubbs last year, the petite Zimbabwean has formed a strong new partnership with 28-year-old Huber. Black impressed again with her quick feet and fast reactions at the net; whilst Huber, who potentially was playing the first of three matches today, was matching Mauresmo and Kuznetsova from the back of the court... What Black lacks in height - she is only 5ft 4in - she makes up for in tremendous pace and powerful returns."
Meanwhile, the official Wimbledon website has been paying more attention to doubles these days. with articles about the SA-Zim combination's progress through the last eight (QF, SF, Finals). Excuse their writing style, which is even more stilted than mine.
So have the players, at least among the women. Wimbledon.org notes that "of Ladies' Singles quarter-finalists... all but Maria Sharapova entered either the Ladies' Doubles or the Mixed Doubles tournament."
In general, Wimbledon does treat doubles folks better than other tournaments. Another example is the men's tournament, which this year came up with, in the words of the Guardian's Richard Jago, possibly the most unlikely result in the whole of Wimbledon's history. Is he including Becker 85? Well, maybe including that too. After all, he'd won Queens the same year. I doubt that any bookie had any odds on Huss and Moodie before the tournament started, and they must have odds on BB.
Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie's 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 win over the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the recent world No1s, was the first time that qualifiers had won a Wimbledon title, but there were other outlandish aspects to it. Huss had been considering quitting the game, while Moodie had had no partner. After they joined up for only their second tournament together, almost as an afterthought, Moodie hurt his back and came close to telling Huss to find someone else.
Moodie's fierce serve and burning presence allied to Huss's nimble dexterity at the net and relaxed vibes were a wonderful example of how abilities which complement each other and co-operate become more than twice the talents of two individuals.
It happened the same week that the Association of Tennis Professionals announced a shortening of the doubles scoring system. The purpose: to stop lesser known players winning. Enjoy them while you can.
I'm not sure if that's the purpose. The purpose is definitely to encourage more top singles players to play - the question is whether they will actually be better at doubles than the "doubles specialists". Doubles isn't singles. It's much more interesting, for a start. And if tournaments did more to promote the doubles players, they wouldn't be as "lesser known".
Good to see doubles being promoted more. Hopefully other tournaments will learn from Wimbledon. As Huss commented (on some news report I can't google any more), it is the only grand slam tournament to still have qualifying rounds for doubles. To put this into perspective, read this article in the Aussie Age which says of the former Auburn student:
Yesterday's commanding 6-4 6-4 6-4 quarter-final win over third seeds Michael Llodra of France and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas on centre court was undoubtedly the highlight of Huss's humble career.
Note: that says quarter final. That article was written before the semi-finals.
The Bryan twins deserve sympathy. They have been runners-up at all three grand slam tournaments this year, and must be wondering what they have to do to win.
Mixed doubles news: Mary Pierce, legendary grass hater, won. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi. That makes their defeat of my favorites (Wayne and Cara Black) much easier to take. It's okay to be knocked out early in the tournament to the eventual winners.
In other minor news, Federer won again, as did Venus Williams. It's strange that she'd been written off (at least in my mind) when she was a finalist just two years ago. Presumably the womens' rankings at Wimbledon next year will take into account past Wimbledon's perfomances - if they had, Venus would not have been ranked 14. The men's ranking already did, doubtless so that Henman would get a higher rank than normal. (Actually, I'd suggest they take into account all grass court tournaments, not just Wimbledon.)
Oh, and Jayant Mistry became the first British man to win a Wimbledon title since Fred Perry before World War Two. That's a great trivia question, innit? I didn't know you could play with wheelchairs on grass. Full credit to the Wimbledon organizers for trying it!
Unrelated stuff: been getting some strange comments on the article on Wikis for Summer Schools and Workshops that I posted on John's website. I've asked him about it.
posted by Dinoj | 19:53
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