Marathon Men

The once-busted scoreboard prepares for match point as Isner and Mahut conclude the longest match in tennis history.

"The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it."- Mother Theresa of Calcutta

If you asked me which had a greater probability of occurring, a meteor crashing into Wimbledon or an 8-hour and eleven-minute fifth set, I'd definitely look at you funny.

A meteor hitting Wimbledon you say? Or a match that was longer than any other match in history? Hmm...

Isner-Mahut, the epic: Was it real?

My cousin called me during the epic 5th set of the match and asked me if it was really happening. "Can this be real?" he echoed.

It was real. And strange. Improbable, and far-fetched. It boggled the mind and jogged the memory. Then it smashed the memory.

If you were watching this rare form of tennis torture you just had to throw your head back and laugh - how could it not be over? Could it last forever? It seemed beyond possible, even as we were witnessing it. What we didn't know was that inside these men existed determination - the sheer grit - to continue playing a match under such bizarre and grueling circumstances.

Just what possessed John Isner and Nicolas Mahut to dig so deep into their collective fortitude? And what do the exploits of these men say about tennis in General, or the mystique of Wimbledon?

It says a lot. If ever we thought that today's players are jaded prima donnas who don't possess old-school toughness, we were wrong. This marathon match is proof that the redeeming traits we desire in our athletes - an iron will, a bleeding heart, and the carnal quest for battle - still exist.

How it was physically possible that they avoided wilting, I wondered. What is possessing Isner and Mahut? Adrenaline had something to do with it to be sure. But let us not rule out divine intervention.

Pam Shriver, who was calling the "mother of all marathons" from the bleachers at Court 18, called the match a "freak." It's a fair assessment - this was somewhat of a freakish match. The serving, certainly, was beyond human.

That said, it wasn't an electrifying match in terms of artistry or rhythm. Points were choppy, voilent, and short. More than 20 percent of the points were aces. But as it wore on, and previously revered records fell by the wayside, it was easy to see what a massive success it had become. What this struggle lacked in compelling rallies it more than made up for in compelling psychology.

Isner looked punch drunk during the later stages of play on the second day, but each time we thought he would crash in a heap of massive bones on the grass, he willed himself off his feet to pop another punishing serve.

Meanwhile, Mahut, the surliest of qualifers, never lost his look of steely-eyed determination throughout the marathon. Though he lost, his contribution is worthy not only of our sympathy, but our awe.

Isner and Mahut will not only be in the record books for forever and a day. They will also be forever etched upon the collective psyche of those who witnessed this homage to intestinal fortitude.

Two fierce battlers trading blows in a duel that felt more like a boxing match - two heavyweight fighters trading furious blows in rapid succession - than a decorous lawn tennis affair.

It was surreal, unreal, and more than a meal.

It will never be forgotton, and a meteor was more likely.

Isner-Mahut Records:
Match Duration: 11 hours, five minutes

Fifth set Duration: Eight hours, eleven minutes
Fifth set number of games: 138
Total number of points: 980
Aces in a match: Isner 112 (Mahut 103)
Combined aces in a match: 215

Serena: Loud and Clear

Serena fired 15 aces in an explosive first-round victory. She also fired a message to the rest of the field: She's ready to repeat.

Her opponent brought the noise, but Serena brought the heat.

A title-hungry Serena Williams sent a serious message to the rest of the women's field at Wimbledon today, when she blasted fifteen aces and didn't lose a single point on her first serve against Michelle Larcher de Britto of Portugal.

Williams, who has never lost before the third round at Wimbledon, will now prepare to face Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in the 2nd round.

If Serena's focus and intensity are any indication of the kind of effort she is going to put forth, Chakvetadze might want to invest in a Kevlar vest for their upcoming encounter.

Still, as decisive as her victory was, Serena saw room for improvement. "I'd like to come to the net more," she said. "I think that's something I could have done better."

Venus' little sister is also finding time to work on her curtsy for the Queen of England, who'll be visiting Wimbledon for the first time in thirty-three years on Thursday. "I was going to curtsy on the court today afterwards, but I think I flubbed it."

As usual, her post-match presser covered topics as far-ranging as her nails, her dress, World Cup soccer, and the Queen. There were laughs, and a lot of joking. But don't let the levity fool you into thinking that Serena isn't dead set on destruction here at Wimbledon. She had that look of determination in her eyes from the very first point today, and if there is one thing she is she is very serious about it is repeating here as Wimbledon Champion for the second time in her career and solidifying her spot atop the WTA's rankings.

She's also anxious to get the bad taste out of her mouth from the French Open, and she alluded to that today. "Well, I served so terrible in my last match at the French," she said, when asked about her light-out serving performance against Larcher de Britto. "I went home and worked really hard on my serve. I was incredibly disappointed with it. I had a talk with my serve. I said, you know, we got to do a little bit better."

Whatever Serena said to her serve, it must have made sense.

Loving the Game

After eleven months without a title, Rafael Nadal has his sights set on a second consecutive Grand Slam.

There's the old adage that pertains to Rafael Nadal's fine form of late: "If you love your work, you'll do it well."

It's fitting in Nadal's case - he's obviously loving the work, and he showed that today with his exuberant post-match celebration after a hard-fought 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 win over the Japanese-American youngster Kei Nishikori.

Nadal is just so PRESENT out there. He's conscious, aware, and dialed in. He's like a jazz improviser, possessing great feel for his own abilities, the abilities of his opponent, and the context in which the key points in the match are being played. When the intensity rises, Nadal doesn't misinterpret. He rises too, and often leaves his opponent dragging his feet.

Take today's second set against the hard-hitting Nishikori, for example. The pair were dead even at 4-4, and Nishikori was heading towards what looked to be a comfortable hold, serving at 40-15. Turns out it wasn't so comfortable. Smash, boom, bang! Nadal, ever-perceptive and ever-opportunistic, was quick to take advantage of Nishikori's slight lapse in concentration to grab the break.

Then, understanding the importance of consolidating, the Spaniard aggressively served out the set as if his life depended on it. It was all downhill from there.

It's veteran know-how like this, combined with a pugilistic approach to every point that make Nadal so difficult to compete with. The competition might let up, but Nadal never does,
and his ability to perpetually read and react to the subtleties of the moment is one of the things that makes the Nadal package so extraordinary.

As Mary Carillo stated during his match with Nishikori, Nadal plays the score so well. Having the strokes and the fitness- and we know he has those - is one thing, but understanding which strokes to select for which circumstances is where Nadal puts the world in world-class.

Nadal is like a race car driver on the court, one who has an acute understanding of when to accelerate, when to brake for a turn, and when to go for the pass. His intuition is just as lethal as his inside-out forehand, his mental toughness and big-picture clarity are just as lethal as his two-handed backhand return.

Amazingly, as bold and nasty as Rafa can be, he's also equally humble. And this humility allows him to avoid the pitfalls that so many other top players experience. It's the humility that instills in him the belief that he is beatable and therefore he'll have to keep improving to stay on top of the field.

It's the humility, in a sense, that keeps him striving, and when he's striving, he's happy. That's why you see him celebrating a first-round victory over Kei Nishikori with such unbridled enthusiasm.

Nadal has the uncanny ability to simultaneously live in the moment (the smile) and to perpetually prepare for the next moment (the frown). It's a rare and deadly combination, and it speaks volumes about the type of person - and champion - that Rafa is.

His infectious enthusiasm and dogged pursuit of perfection are what have captivated his legions of fans from the get-go. He's one of those rare breed of players that realizes that the sport is bigger than him.

For other players on tour, it's not always clear why they play the game, but for Rafa, there isn't any doubt: the man oozes respect for the game and lust for the competition. It must be love.

Catching Falla

Now that he's caught tricky Columbian Alejandro Falla, can Federer catch Fire against the rest of the Wimbledon field?

Roger Federer should sleep with one eye open.

Because unlike his heyday at Wimbledon, when he was winning five consecutive titles and compiling an unprecedented sixty-five match winning streak on grass, players now believe that he is beatable. Even on this hallowed grass court that has seen him crowned as king on six occasions, his competitors are rebelliously taking aim at him. They are chewing their tobacco and spitting, loading and cocking their weapons, and obstinately firing away.

Where they used to cower in fear, they now strike in passion. Where they used to hesitate and stumble, they now relentlessly attack.

Nobody on the planet can imagine what it's like to be Roger Federer. Facing a revolving carousel of world-class players who are hell-bent to prove to the world that they too can play at that mind-boggling level, even if they can't sustain it for years on end the way Federer has. Facing player after player, each of them on a mission to play that one magical match - the one that will be etched into the lore of the sport for eons - Federer must dig in and resist with all his might.

Alejandro Falla isn't the first to play such out-of-his-head tennis against Roger Federer, and he certainly won't be the last. And it isn't the first time that Federer has overcome such brilliance from his opponent - and no, it surely won't be the last.

Yet, even though Federer survived - god only knows how - today, one gets the feeling that more and more of these impassioned renegades are going to break through, until finally, that fateful moment will come, and the mystique will be gone. Woe will be us when it happens, but it will happen, for it is the law of nature. Either that or he'll pull a Borg and just disappear from the ranks of the competing, which doesn't seem very likely with Roger.

But that moment isn't here yet. With his mom and pop dressed to the nines courtside, Roger summoned a few heaping spoonfuls of the old Federer magic, and finally sent his latest assailant packing.

The thought of Federer losing a first round match at Wimbledon was so preposterous that, well, nobody even thought that it was a possibility. But here's the thing: There's only so much dominant tennis that a man can play, even a man who practically wrote the book on domination, like Federer has.

Federer, in the back of his mind, must be aware of this too. He'll be twenty-nine in August, he's got two kids and a wife to distract him, and whether he likes it or not, his brain will never be as devoted as it once was to the singular purpose of being a tennis champion.

Think of Federer's magic as a well of water. Whether he knows it or not, the well only holds a finite amount of water. Early in his career Federer went to this well often. We know that. He went to it for discipline and inspiration. How else would he have sculpted such a miraculous game? He went to it for desire and for the will to prepare for battle. How else did he achieve such power on such a lithe, dexterous frame? He went to it for fortitude and belief. How else would he have developed that determination and focus that made him so much better than his opponents?

But now we are finding that the well of magic, like the wells of similar players from bygone eras, is finite.

I'm sure that Federer knows the well is not full like it used to be, so he probably goes into a match against a player like Falla, whom he has never lost to, and whom he has pulverized twice in the last month, without bothering to use a drop of that special water.

He's hoping that he can just coast. He's hoping that he can save the magic for a match when he really needs it.

But when we watch Federer spend nearly three sets before he starts making any decent returns against a guy who he has shellacked so regularly in the past, it makes you wonder just what the future holds for him.

It's hard to excel at this game without making huge sacrifices. Consequently, it's hard to make those huge sacrifices when you're old in tennis terms, and you've got more of your brain devoted to your family and less of it devoted to winning matches, which can probably seem pretty insignificant to Roger at times when he really gets down to it.

When you're not the hunter, you're the hunted. I'm sure Federer believes that he wants this seventh Wimbledon as bad as he wanted the last six. But does he really? If you watched him wiggle his way out of his first-round affair with Alejandro Falla today, you probably are wondering the same thing.

As much as he wants a good nights sleep tonight, Roger might be better off of his twins keep him up all night. At this stage of his career, Federer needs to get out of bed with an edge. He can still be the world's best player, but not if he isn't hungry.

It's Go Time! 2010 Wimbledon Men's Preview

Cut to a pristine 8mm in length, the Wimbledon Grass plays like no other surface. Which player will master it?

The fortnight is nearly upon us, and those two voracious tennis luminaries, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, will once again be looking to have the locker room all to themselves on the final Sunday of the tournament.

Like a snake that tries to fit an alligator into its stomach, both Federer and Nadal are resolutely driven to lording over tennis' wild kingdom. At Wimbledon, each player has done his fair share of hoarding the feast, with six of the last seven titles going to the gluttonous Federer, and the other being hunted down by the sleek predator known as Rafa.

Will the feasting continue for these two, or will one of the ATP's vultures try to crash the party and fly off with the prize?

Federer, in search of a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title, is fresh off what had to be a disconcerting loss to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle, Germany. The Swiss maestro had reeled off fifteen consecutive victories over the Aussie going into the match.

Federer has made a habit of proving that many good things must come to an end this season . It has been a spring of retribution for several players that Federer used to dominate. He's given up ground to Soderling, Berdych, Gulbis, Baghdatis, and now Hewitt.

It used to be that you could throw away these un-Federer-like results when the Slams began, but after Soderling pounded him into the clay at Paris, it's hard not to wonder if Roger has lost too much of what made him so invincible in the past. There's no question that the aura of invincibility has vanished, but his uncanny ability to rise to the occasion - especially at Wimbledon - might still be enough to get Federer this coveted title.

Nadal, who was bounced from Queens in the quarterfinals by his friend and country mate, Feliciano Lopez, has likely given a sliver of hope to all his future Wimbledon opponents. The loss to Lopez proves that he can be beaten on grass, which is a lot more than they could count on when facing him on clay.

While Nadal was rarely tested on clay this spring, the fact remains that he was fully invested both mentally and physically in restoring his French Open legacy. Now that he's achieved that task, he'll have to brush off the fatigue that undoubtedly exists and draw upon his incredible desire to compete.

Can Rafa ramp it up in time to reassert himself as the force on the grass that he was during his run of three straight final appearances from 2006-2008? And, more importantly perhaps, will the hamstring strain that hampered him in Queen's cause his game to suffer at Wimbledon?

If Federer or Nadal should falter, there will be many title-starved vultures ready to pounce. Soderling comes to mind first, but Roddick, Cilic, Berdych, Tsonga, Hewitt, and many others lie in wait.

Read on, as we break out our crystal balls and do our best to make sense of the draws:

Federer's Quarter:

The mighty Fed has actually done quite well with this draw. By the looks of things he'll be able to breeze into the fourth-round, where he could face Feliciano Lopez or Jurgen Melzer if the seeds hold. But something tells me they won't. Carsten Ball and Ricardas Berankis are two qualifiers who've got upsets on their mind.

In the quarters, if the seeds hold, Federer will face either a very dangerous Tomas Berdych or a rounding into form Nikolay Davydenko. Stan the man Wawrinka will also try to make his presence felt in this section of the draw, but in the end, Federer might have too lethal a combination of firepower, grass acumen, and big match experience to be upset.

Pick: Federer

Djokovic's quarter:

Novak Djokovic has lost three of his four career matches versus his first-round opponent Olivier Rochus. In other words, Novak might want to avoid slipping all over the court like he did in his sloppy first-round victory over Julien Benneteau at Wimbledon last year. The good news for Djokovic is that he did defeat the 5'6" Rochus on grass in their only meeting on that surface.

IF Novak survives the first round, all signs point to what is sure to be a classic match with Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round. And the winner will have to face the likes of either Roddick, Kohlschreiber, Ljubicic, or Cilic in the quarters.

Pick: Hewitt

Murray's quarter:

It'd be nice if the English Football team can get out of Group C of the World Cup, because that would take some of the pressure off the young man from Dunblane, Scotland. When you think about it, there's really no reason that Murray can't make it through to his second consecutive Wimbledon semifinal. He's proved in runs to the finals of the U.S. Open and Australian Open that he gets the Grand Slam dynamic. He can navigate his way through the myriad trials and tribulations that will inevitably occur during the course of the six matches that it takes to get there.

But he's not the only former Grand Slam finalist in his quarter. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will also be gunning for another trip to a Grand Slam semifinal, and if his back doesn't give him too much trouble, his amped-up serve and keen sense for the volley make him a formidable threat to get through as well.

Fernando Verdasco, Nicolas Almagro, and Juan Carlos Ferrero will look to add some Spanish flavor to this quarter of the draw, and Sam Querrey will do his best to represent the American's.

Pick: Murray

Nadal's quarter:

Rafa's draw is loaded with land mines. His first round match with Kei Nishikori could end up being difficult, as Nishikori has enough power to dictate against anyone if his game is clicking. James Blake might meet Rafa in the second round; Hard-serving Phillipp Petzschner might meet him in the third; John Isner or Mikhail Youzhny could meet him in the fourth.

And if Rafa passes each of those tests with aplomb (odds are that he will), he'll be rewarded with another meeting with Kamikaze Swede Robin Soderling.

Rafa must be wondering, what did I do to deserve this?

Pick: Soderling

Semis: Federer over Hewitt, Soderling over Murray

Finals: Soderling over Federer