The grass court season leading up to Wimbledon is a mere two weeks, far less surface preparation time than is afforded for any other grand slam. Because the window of preparation is so small, one would think that making the most of the warm-up tournaments on grass would be a direct indicator of success at SW19.
But in the opening round of Wimbledon, that theory has been completely toppled, as smaller titles on the turf heading in have created no significant tailwinds to speak of for the victors at the All-England Club. Rather, these champions have been apparently exhausted by the effort needed to secure the lesser prizes.
Here is how the seven winners of the seven warm-up tournaments have
failed fared in the opening round of Wimbledon:
ATP Eastbourne Champion Dmitry Tursunov (Seeded #25 at Wimbledon, lost to unseeded Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-2, 3-0 ret.)
Perhaps more physically exhausted than mentally, Russian/Californian Dmitry Tursunov followed up his title at the first Eastbourne ATP tournament with a lethargic upset loss to German Mischa Zverev, a match Tursunov was unable to complete due to an ankle injury that had also surfaced in Eastbourne.
WTA Eastbourne Champion Caroline Wozniacki (Seeded #9 at Wimbledon, defeated unseeded wild card Kimiko Date Krumm 5-7, 6-3, 6-1)
For the first part of her first round match, eighteen-year old Dane Caroline Wozniacki looked nowhere near as fresh as an opponent two full decades her senior, Japan's
Kimiko Date Krumm, who has recently returned to the tour at age thirty-eight. Wozniacki was eventually able to outmuscle Date Krumm, but not with anything near the ease that would be expected for a top ten player playing a rusty opponent ranked well outside the top 100.
ATP Halle Champion Tommy Haas (Seeded #24 at Wimbledon (though ranked #35), defeated unseeded Alexander Peya 6-7(5), 7-6(0), 6-3, 6-4)
Germany's Tommy Haas recovered well from losing the first set to Austrian
Alexander Peya, defeating him in four sets. Haas' title in Halle was his first since February of 2007, and his current win streak of six is his longest since that same month.
WTA Birmingham Champion Magdalena Rybarikova (Unseeded at Wimbledon, lost to unseeded Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-2)
Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova won her first career WTA title in Birmingham just over a week ago, so her having a letdown at Wimbledon is not an enormous surprise. What is surprising is how lopsided her defeat to Italy's
Roberta Vinci was, given Vinci's general lack of success outside of clay courts.
ATP 's-Hertogenbosch Champion Benjamin Becker (Unseeded at Wimbledon, defeated Roko Karanusic 6-4, 6-4, 6-1)Arguably the most impressive of the warm-up champions in his first round (faint praise) was Benjamin Becker (no relation to Boris). Becker, who is still best known for beating
Andre Agassi at the 2006 US Open in what would be the last match of Agassi's career dispatched Croatian
Roko Karanusic in straight sets. Becker was the only one of the seven 2009 grass champions not to drop a set in the first round of Wimbledon.
WTA 's-Hertogenbosch Champion Tamarine Tanasugarn (Unseeded at Wimbledon, lost to unseeded Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4, 6-4)Easily the WTA player most specialized toward grass court play, Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn shockingly crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round to the unheralded clay court specialist
Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain. Tanasugarn reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year, losing to eventual champion
Venus Williams. Failing to defend the points she earned in last year's tournament, Tanasugarn's ranking will plummet approximately 34 places after Wimbledon, from #47 to #81.
ATP Queen's Club London Champion Andy Murray (Seeded #3 at Wimbledon, defeated Robert Kendrick 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4)The highest-ranked man to enter a grass court warm-up event, Scotsman Andy Murray struggled perhaps more than expected in his four-set win over seventy-sixth ranked American
Robert Kendrick. Kendrick had previously pushed Rafael Nadal to five sets at Wimbledon in 2007, so the challenge wasn't completely unexpected. But it is safe to say, all the same, that Murray would have liked to have opened his Wimbledon campaign with a more convincing win in front of the throngs of Brits hanging their hopes on his shoulders.
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So what does the uninspiring 4-3 record of these grass court warm-up tournament champions say about the importance of preparation? All seven champions were facing a lower-ranked opponent, and all but one of them lost at least one set. Perhaps after the grueling and seemingly interminable clay court season, rest is just as valuable as reacclimation.
Last year's finalists on both the Gentlemen's and Ladies' sides demonstrate both schools of thought on Wimbledon preparation--Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer won Queen's Club and Halle respectively and met in the final, while the Ladies' final was contested by Venus and Serena Williams, both of whom skipped the pre-Wimbledon grass stretch as they have done most every year.
It could just be as simple as a gender difference--that the men recover more quickly than do the women, with the male champions going 3-1 in the first round (with Tursunov's injury bringing the only loss), while the women, especially those lower ranked ones with less experience following up titles, were more vulnerable to an early let down.
The impact of the warm-up events will likely be less and less as the fortnight continues, but for the opening few days, it's worth taking a gander at.
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