Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Simply The Best!
Much of this
nation was glued to their television sets late Saturday afternoon.
Bianca Andreescu was playing tennis in New York. The tournament is
called the United States Open, and is one of the four major tennis
tournaments held each year. The others, not necessarily in order of
importance: the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon. No
Canadian has ever won the title in New York, nor at any of the other
major events.
After the
match, Bianca summarized her thoughts. “I was feeling many, many
things before the match, more than any other match. In the finals,
playing Serena. I just tried to breathe as much as I could from the
moment I woke up until the match. I tried to do that throughout the
whole match, to keep my nerves in place.”
I have been
following tennis quite carefully since the 1950s, since the days that
I grew up in Belleville across the street from St. Andrew's
Presbyterian Church. There were a couple of courts, with fences, in
constant use.
There are
many nuances to the game. To compete at the highest level, one must
be very fit, very fast, and prepared for almost anything that your
opponent might have in store for you.
On Saturday,
Andreescu played the final of The Open against Serena Williams, the
best female tennis player ever to pick up a racket. Certainly part of
Serena's game is to intimidate her opponents. She does that with her
size, her agility, and her power. Understandably, as an American, she
also had the support of the crowd of more than 20 000 fans cheering
for her. “Who is this little Canadian upstart?”, they asked of
each other while the ladies warmed up for the match.
Soon it
became apparent that Andreescu was not to be pushed around. She won
the first set, quite convincingly. She powered the ball back over the
net to Williams, often catching her flat-footed. She served well, and
caught the lines for winning shots.
She
continued to play well in the second set, building up a lead of five
games to one. With only four points, she would become the champion!
As we witnessed, Serena was not about to concede. She won the next
four games, convincingly, to tie the set. Serena just needed a small
opportunity to get back into the match. It appeared as if she would
take the second set, to set up a third and final set for the trophy.
Many of Bianca's fans cringed, as Serena powered her way to tie the
set.
At that
point, the Canadian teenager stunned the crowd at the Arthur Ashe
Stadium, and, dare I say, millions of tennis fans around the world,
by winning the next two games, quite handily, to win 7-5.
That was
certainly one of the greatest accomplishments in Canadian sports
history. This is not a team game. It involved this chubby-cheeked
youngster from Toronto, facing the queen of tennis. As a nation, we
have reached the pinnacle in hockey, on many occasions. Mike Weir won
the Masters some years ago. Donovan Bailey raced to win the premier
event at the Olympics. Many Canadians have done very well in Winter
Olympic events.
“This has
been my dream. There are so many emotions going through my body right
now. It's really hard to describe”, she said just moments after her
win. A dream of all Canadian tennis fans, of all Canadians.
A great day
for tennis, a great day for Canada!!
James Hurst.
September 9,
2019.
-- James Hurst 613.399.2278 sportslices.blogspot.ca
# posted by James Hurst @ 8:02 AM 
