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The Joy of Six: great Wimbledon finals
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Magical Murray the jewel in Wimbledon's crown
I was there: on Centre Court, sat just to the side of the Royal Box in the members' area, to watch a British man win the Wimbledon singles title. It was, in short, quite something, and the crowning moment of one of the best Championships I have ever been involved with.
I was commentating for the radio for the fortnight, but I watched the final in its entirety and it was an amazing experience. From the moment the players walked on court the air was electric. The crowd really sensed something. There was a big buzz around - I've never known an atmosphere like it. As a British player, and having played on Centre Court, to be part of Andy Murray's triumph in some way and to be there on the day was a real honour and a privilege.
What a difference a year makes. There's plenty to be said about Murray's tactical advances since he lost the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer in 2012 - he's a bit more aggressive, something that people have been asking of him for a long time, but with Ivan Lendl in the corner the advice has had a bit more of an impact. His fitness levels have improved as well, but - crucially - so has his belief. After losing 12 months ago he bounced back with victories at the Olympics and the US Open, and it cemented the notion that he was capable of ending Britain's 77-year wait for a British men's singles champion. They were defining moments towards what he achieved on Sunday.
For Murray's defining moment of the tournament, however, look no further than his five-set escape against Fernando Verdasco. Without a doubt, he could have lost that match - trailing by two sets and fighting to find some form, it was without doubt the scariest moment of the fortnight for the world No. 2. But while he struggled, he found a way to win. That's what makes a great champion - even if they're not playing well, they will find a way to get that win. And you saw more of that from Murray in the final - the amount of balls he got back in court, his movement, how tough he made himself to beat, it was a huge statement.
Djokovic in a crisis? Not a chance
As for Novak Djokovic, he has to go back the drawing board and find a new way to beat Murray. They've contested three of the last four grand slam finals, and while Djokovic came out on top at the Australian Open and took Murray to five sets in New York, on Sunday the world No. 1 was forced to play a game that took him out of his comfort zone. He made a lot of unforced errors and didn't do enough with the second serve return, so instantly he has a couple of areas to work on with his camp.
Still, this is anything but a crisis for Djokovic. He's No. 1 in the world with a couple of thousand points between himself and Murray; he has reached the finals of three grand slams in the past twelve months, winning one, and reached the semis of the French Open; and he certainty hasn't become a bad player overnight. He will be disappointed with the way that he played in the final, but Murray forced Djokovic to play that way.
Murray faces a critical time in his career now, balancing his profile against his ambitions. His historic victory will mean more media commitments now, which make it that bit tougher to focus on doing what he is doing, and there's always the possibility of complacency creeping in. But Murray is a winner - it's central to his character. He doesn't cut corners, an attitude that has allowed him to achieve all he has achieved. I don't think those things will be an issue. It's simply a case of keep up the hard work.
Murray the fizz in a champagne ChampionshipsObviously Murray's victory was the big story of the Championships, but it was the myriad stories in the two weeks that preceded his triumph that helped to make the tournament so special.
Take the women's final between the quirky champion Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki, conqueror of Serena Williams.
The American's 34-match streak came to an end with a bad day at the office in the fourth round - and even then she was 4-1 up in that final set. But Lisicki fought back and pulled off a mighty upset.
There were huge shocks from day one - literally. Rafael Nadal crashed out on the first Monday, only to be followed by Roger Federer in the second round on a Wednesday that will go down in Wimbledon folklore, strewn with injuries and upsets - Sharapova fell that same day.
In their wake, the stage was set for the likes of Jerzy Janowicz, a semi-finalist in only his fifth grand slam, and Juan Martin del Potro, who finally looks back to his best after the wrist injury that followed his US Open triumph. And not to forget Laura Robson, whose run to the fourth round captured the imagination of the nation.
It was one of those Wimbledons that will be tough to match. I went to the Champions' Dinner and Andy was there, enjoying himself as his entourage enjoyed the champagne. It was a real champagne moment, and well deserved.
Chris Wilkinson is a former British No. 1
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Feeds: Chris Wilkinson
Murray's Wimbledon sanctum, the fall from grace of Swedish tennis and ...
By Mike Dickson
PUBLISHED: 15:07 EST, 9 July 2013 | UPDATED: 15:24 EST, 9 July 2013
Where did Andy Murray go when he wanted a haven of peace and quiet to himself at Wimbledon? Apparently he found a room situated just off the underground corridor between the Centre Court complex and Court One, which is officially designated as a player holding area in the event of short rain delays on No. 1. It is hardly ever used, so Murray adopted it as his second home away from the bustle of the locker room.
Seeing Stefan Edberg at Wimbledon was a reminder of the astonishing fall of men's tennis in Sweden. They ruled the world in the eighties but now, amazingly, do not have a player in the top 500. In Elias Ymer they have a junior on who some hopes are pinned, while Robin Soderling, the former top five player who has been out with glandular fever for two years, has tentative designs on a comeback next year.
The remarkable popularity of Wimbledon may inspire a few more supporters for Britain's Davis Cup team, and there are few better places to travel and watch them than their next match, the World Group play off against Croatia in the holiday paradise of Umag in September, in which Andy Murray will play. Croatian number one Marin Cilic says, 'It is a beautiful place and I would recommend anyone to go there, especially at that time of year.'
An enormously popular figure among generations of Wimbledon players, senior locker room attendant Doug Dickson (no relation), brought the men's finalists bags onto court for the last time on Sunday. He is leaving the All England Club after 42 years' service and is taking up a similar post at Queen's Club in Fulham. He is so well regarded by Rafael Nadal, for instance, that he has a standing invitation to visit him any time he goes to Mallorca.
There were 14 fines for player behaviour handed out at Wimbledon, ranging from $500 to $10,000. Among them was Andy Murray, who was docked $1,500 (£1,000) for his audible obscenities, directed at himself, during the quarter final against Fernando Verdasco. The biggest, and unusually large, fine went to Italian Fabio Fognini, for his spectacular tirade against French umpire Pascal Maria early in the first week.
You will not find much professional tennis action in Britain this week as activity takes its usual plunge off a cliff. The men, however, are playing in the $10,000 Futures level event at Ilkley in Yorkshire. Some of the superstars will be more active than usual in Europe, however. While Rafael Nadal looks to have turned down the chance of a swift comeback, Serena Williams is playing this week in Bastad, Sweden, while Roger Federer returns next week in Hamburg.
Three things to cherish at this year's Wimbledon: 1) The sportsmanship between players, mostly male, at the net after titanic battles 2)The speed of play, which has picked up as a result of a sensible clampdown this year 3)The complete lack of predictability (I wrote beforehand about how the 32 seed system was ruining the first weeks of Grand Slams, and was proved spectacularly wrong on this occasion).
Kodak Kembangkan Kamera Android, Saingi Samsung Galaxy ...
britaandroid.blogspot.com, New York : Sistem operasi Android terbukti mampu memikat vendor untuk berlomba-lomba menyematkan dalam handset besutannya. Bukan hanya ponsel pintar dan tablet, sejumlah vendor pun tertarik menyematkan Android untuk perangkat kamera pintar.Samsung merupakan salah satu yang terhitung sukses menghadirkan kamera pintar dengan sistem operasi Android. Kini hal serupa juga nampaknya akan dilakukan oleh perusahaan pembuat kamera kenamaan asal New York, Kodak.Kodak diketahui membuat konsep kamera Instamatic menggunakan sistem operasi Android. Konsep kamera yang dipamerkan Kodak dalam situs resminya tersebut mengusung nama Instamatic 2014 sebagai generasi penerus konsep kamera saku. Demikian dilansir laman Android Community, Rabu (10/7/2013).Generasi penerus kamera Instamatic bisa digunakan untuk menelpon dan didukung dengan jaringan 4G LTE untuk membagikan hasil foto ke situs sosial media. Instamatic rencananya menggunakan layar sentuh 4 inci dan kapasitas penyimpanan RAM 512MB.Instamatic 2014 akan menggunakan sensor kamera 14 megapiksel, 4x digital zoom dan lensa 24mm wide. Berikut tampilan video konsep kamera Android besutan Kodak. (vin/gal)
Favorable draw shouldn't detract from Bartoli's Wimbledon title
Let's open the post-Wimbledon mailbag with a question about Marion Bartoli, who became the second woman in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title without facing a top-15 seed.
You're dead wrong when you say that Marion Bartoli's Wimbledon title doesn't require an asterisk. Bartoli is a journeywoman who, since making the 2007 Wimbledon final, has done nothing noteworthy in the sport. Before Wimbledon, she had not played past the quarterfinals in a single event this year. Not a one! When that caliber of player runs through the most prestigious tournament in the sport, without having to beat players ranked higher than Sloane Stephens and Kirsten Flipkens to win ... asterisk? You better believe it.-- Tony, Greenwich, Conn.
* Got a lot of these responses this week. 'Sorry, dude, but did you even watch the women's final? Your pro-WTA hype doesn't match reality. The final was a joke. Oh, and by the way, Sabine Lisicki cried during the match and choked.'
Look, we like certain players more than others. Certain tournaments provide more enjoyment than others. But the degree of grief Bartoli has caught since winning the title is really unsettling. Tony didn't suggest this, but too often that grief comes with the undercurrent of the high school bully picking on the kid on the social margins. That the head of the model boat club or the third flute in the band won Homecoming Queen is not going over well with the popular crowd.
It's ugly and plays to our base instincts no matter what, of course, but I'm particularly perplexed here. You have a 28-year-old veteran -- who's always played honorably -- break through and experience the pinnacle of her career. At a time when we bemoan the WTA's uniformity and homogeneity -- 'robot dolls,' as I heard ESPN.com's Johnette Howard call them on a podcast -- Bartoli plays nothing like anyone else.
NGUYEN: Wimbledon report card
Dislike feckless and antisocial athletes? Bartoli is (literally) off-the-charts smart and witty and has interests besides tennis.
Dislike athletes who have been leeched of color by the media handlers and agents? Bartoli is delightfully candid when she speaks and went to serve out Wimbledon with a piece of banana stuck to her chin.
Like underdogs? Bartoli hadn't won more than two rounds at an event in 2013. Plus, she recently massed the courage to cut ties with her insulating father and is demonstrably happier than ever.
What am I missing here? What exactly is missing from this story? I say this as a fan and not a media type: Isn't this precisely the kind of player you want to root for?
As for the draw, yes, the 15th-seeded Bartoli didn't face a higher-ranked player. As for the final, yes, Lisicki recalled the boom-goes-the-dynamite kid, utterly stagestruck. So what? Sports aren't scripted or choreographed. Sometimes Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova in the final, as many would have predicted. Sometimes the favorite loses and it opens up the draw. Sometimes the rookie takes advantage of the big stage and the big opportunity it presents. Sometimes she chokes and starts crying in the second set. That's the beauty of it. And the reason that there are no asterisks.
I have several friends who insist that the Andy Murray-Novak Djokovic final was a 'great match.' While I agree that the victory was historic, I felt that Djokovic's play was a bit flat. For me, a great match would be two players playing at their best (i.e., both men's semifinals). What is your take on the quality of the match?-- Shawn Dougherty, Los Angeles
* From a pure tennis perspective, it was maybe a 'B'? Lots of breaks. Lots of errors. On the other hand, that was a lot of drama for a straight-setter. We talked about this on Tennis Channel: if Djokovic had broken Murray in that final game, things could have gotten verrrry interesting.
From a cultural moment/atmosphere perspective, yes, it was an 'A-plus.'
* He and Anderson Silva, both. This was not Djokovic's best performance, but it comes nowhere near the trigger-conspiracy-theory threshold. One simple answer: He was damn tired from the semifinals.
Fifty parting thoughts from Wimbledon and nary a mention of the utterly abysmal performance of the American men's contingent? I mean, if you would have told me at the beginning of the season that John Isner, Sam Querrey, Ryan Harrison et al. would fare better in Paris than London, I would have laughed my butt off.-- John Bayalis, Atlanta
* Right along with the folks who were told that the American men would be joined on the sidelines by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. That's sports. The American men are in a rough place right now. But one tournament -- in which Isner retired from his second-round match because of a knee injury -- is not the basis for this assessment.
* Yes, contrary to some headlines, let's be clear: Murray might be British, but he ain't English.
PHOTOS: Murray on newspaper front pages across the globe
* It's been three days since a British male won Wimbledon.
* A lot of fans don't even know that Mary is a former player. Why? Because she has insight and perspective beyond herself. She doesn't resort to the jock-analyst fallback of 'back when I played.' As for returning to ESPN, here's some background.
* For the record, that was John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe and Chris Fowler. I'm working on a book right now that pertains to television. The morning of the final, I came across this quote from my subject: 'Sometimes the hardest thing to do is be quiet. When you're in the booth, five seconds of silence can seem like a minute. But you have to lay out sometimes. Just let the images talk for you.'
JENKINS: Assessing the Wimbledon TV coverage
* And what a sponsorship opportunity. If the NCAA can have an official ladder used for the net-cutting ceremony after the national championship game*, tennis should be able to sell a collapsible step stool or somesuch.
*Running joke that I wish I had made up but didn't: The official ladder of the NCAA is the backs of 19-year-old kids.
Everything unfolded just like I predicted, whether you like it or not. Djokovic had no more gas left in the tank. Too bad, I hope the FAIR British are very proud of their successful draw.-- Elisabeth Steiner, Boca Raton, Fla.
* I'm working on the assumption that this was sarcastic. Murray, of course, was drawn into the same rough half as Federer and Nadal, though he ended up facing the unseeded Ferando Verdasco in the quarterfinals and No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz in the semifinals.
Also, this got lost in the shuffle: After the third set of Murray's semifinal against Janowicz, the tournament referee ordered the Centre Court roof to be closed. This was a judgment call and it was completely at variance with Murray's vocal preference and best interest at the time. (A faster, potentially cooler indoor match would obviously benefit his hard-serving, hard-breathing opponent.) The referee went against Murray. For all the home cooking we see in sports, here's another example of Wimbledon zigging while the rest zag.
Why hasn't more been made about Andy Murray's being a student during the senseless massacre at the Dunblane Primary School when he was 8? You know if that happened in the United States, the mention of that fact would be unrelenting. At any rate, it's great to see his hometown have a positive after such tragedy.-- Mike Funke, Dallas
* Murray and his camp had always made it clear that this was a don't-go-there topic and most respected that. Murray, though, addressed it in a BBC documentary that aired before the tournament (see that part beginning at the nine-minute mark here), so one suspects it will get more attention now.
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your comments on Tennis Channel's Wimbledon Primetime during the tournament, as well as your articles. You and Mary Carillo are a great team!-- Mark Glinsky, Arlington, Texas
* Thanks. We'll be appearing at Comic-Con next year.
* He is one of Murray's agents these days, concentrating on India, Asia and oil-rich locales.
I was listening to the pre-Wimbledon 'Tennis Podcast' (worth a plug) and they were having a best-of-five vs. best-of-three debate. I thought both sides made some great points, but it occurred to me that probably the best argument for best-of-five is that no match will ever really be considered a classic unless there are two forgettable sets at the start. Part of the storyline is the comeback win in the fourth set and the final, tough fifth set.-- Paul Haskins, Wilmington, N.C.
* Everyone plays best-of-three in the first week. The men move to best-of-five for the second week. Problem solved.
GO FIGURE: Wimbledon by the numbers
* Sharapova has won all four Slams, spent considerable time at No. 1 and, a decade into her career, is still a force. Not exactly an insult. Murray has made the final of five of the last six big events (including the Olympics), winning three of them. With Federer fading and Nadal's knees a perpetual wild card, Murray could really inflict some damage in the next three or four years.
Dear Juan Martin del Potro,
Words cannot describe how many thanks I owe you. At the Olympics last year, you beat up Roger Federer so thoroughly that I only had to clean up the debris in the finals. By looking at the match duration, I thought you two somehow went to five sets in a three-set tournament. Again at Wimbledon this year, you 'took out' Novak Djokovic for me. I can't even count with both hands how many times he slipped trying to reach your crazy forehands. Next thing I know, you may drive a truck into Rafael Nadal before I face him at the French (well ... please don't do that).Thank you so much for everything you have done for me.
Yours,
* Murray still had to win those matches. But, yes, if del Potro ever visits Scotland, he should never have to reach into his wallet to buy haggis.
Shots, Miscellany
* I mentioned in my 50 parting thoughts that I had misplaced the name of the person who suggested that Wimbledon use the middle Sunday to showcase doubles. Here's Alice Edwards of Overland Park, Kan: 'The guy who recommended that is Scott Hanover (I saw his tweet/Facebook suggestion to you). He is very important to tennis in the Kansas City area; he runs our Plaza Tennis Center -- public courts in the most famous part of town. He runs our USTA tournaments (extremely well). He's an all-around swell guy and makes wonderful contributions to the sport around here, so just thought I'd let you know who he was with this brilliant suggestion.'
* Larry of Philadelphia: 'As part of my job, I keep track of current trends and developments in the field of analytics. A vendor sent me this visualization regarding the relationship between female players' grunt volume, serve speed, career wins and career prize money. Enjoy.'
* Mike R: 'You wrote about making predictions, 'On the other hand, yes, anyone who tried to prognosticate this event was made to look like a fool.' On the other other hand, would Lisicki's defeat of Williams have been such a big deal if Serena WASN'T the favorite? And wouldn't that have robbed the win of some of it's much-deserved aura and glory? Look, predictions are all in good, harmless fun. Don't let the *way* over-serious sourpusses out there get to you.'
* Charith of Bangalore, India: 'With the Scotland referendum coming up in 2014, Andy Murray could not have timed it any better to end Britain's 77-year drought.'
* Lynn Marshall of Ottawa, Canada: 'It's my mother's 77th birthday today (Monday, July 8). She's British (and Canadian), a big tennis fan and, until recently, an avid tennis player. According to Wikipedia, Fred Perry's last win at Wimbledon was on July 3, 1936, five days before my mother was born. Not many British fans could have waited longer for a British men's singles champion at Wimbledon during their lifetime. Needless to say, she's pretty happy :-).'
PHOTOS: Murray, Bartoli celebrate at Wimbledon ball
* Good to see Brian Baker commit to play the Atlanta Open later this month. He has been out since injuring his knee at the Australian Open.
* @notsleeping brings us this sobering news about Wimbledon TV ratings.
* Helen of Philadelphia: 'My two favorite moments from the men's final had nothing to do with the actual match. First, Murray's post-match interview with ESPN, where he said that the night before, he dreamed that he was playing either Radek Stepanek or Denis Kudla in the final. LOL! Second, the camera followed him off the court, through the interview, onto the terrace and then back to the locker room. The corridors were lined with people, and at one point not far from the locker room, he ran into Rennae Stubbs -- and next to her were Lisa Raymond and Kristina Mladenovic, dressed and ready to go out on court for the mixed doubles final! Lots of high-fiving all around. Great moment!'
* Love the image at the top of this post.
* Kevin of Brooklyn, N.Y., has long-lost siblings: Lisicki and English actress Miranda Raison.
Wimbledon 2013: Champion Andy Murray is the world's real No 1, says coach ...
The post-Wimbledon world rankings list on Monday showed that Andy Murray is still not officially the world's best player, but Ivan Lendl, his coach, indicated that he believes there is currently nobody better than the 26-year-old Scot.
Even with the boost of his 2,000 ranking points for winning Wimbledon, Murray is nearly 3,000 behind Novak Djokovic, the man he beat in Sunday's final at the All England Club. Lendl pointed out that while Murray holds two Grand Slam titles - Wimbledon and the US Open - and is also the Olympic champion, no other player has won more than one Grand Slam tournament in the last 12 months. Djokovic is the Australian Open champion.
'Novak is a great player, don't get me wrong,' Lendl said. 'He has had phenomenal [results], not only the last 12 months but basically since the start of 2011, so the rankings look at all of that. But under pressure right now Andy has two majors and a gold medal. Everybody can make their own opinion on that.'
The rankings are calculated on a rolling total of points won over the last 12 months. In the updated totals, for example, points won at Wimbledon last year were removed and replaced by points won at this year's event. Murray trails Djokovic because of both his absence from the recent French Open through injury - the Scot earned no points while the Serb won 720 points as beaten semi-finalist - and the world No 1's greater consistency away from the Grand Slam events.
Murray said that the world No 1 position was not a particular goal but added: 'It is a tough one for me. Right now I'v e won two Slams and been in the final of a third one and I hold the Olympic gold - and I'm nowhere near winning being No 1. I don't know exactly why that is. Maybe I need to be more consistent in the other events and missing the French obviously didn't help that.'
He added: 'I don't think the ranking systems always reflects a player's qualities perfectly. You are more remembered for the Slams you win. I would rather win one more Slam and not get to No 1. The top ranking would be a great thing to do, but if I was picking, it would be another Slam and, hopefully, I can defend my US Open title next month.'
Lendl believes that Murray's victory on Sunday owed something to the experience of playing in last year's Wimbledon final, when he lost to Roger Federer. 'If he hadn't played last year's final then he wouldn't have been prepared that well [this time],' Lendl said. 'I think it was a great experience to have. Any time you play a major finals and you get that experience I think it's very important.'
The eight-times Grand Slam champion said he had enjoyed Murray's Wimbledon triumph 'probably a little bit more' than the US Open victory last year 'because New York was the first one, even though I count the Olympics as a major as well, especially in London. But this one is more difficult because there is more pressure on Andy here than there was in New York.'
Asked whether he could have imagined that success would have come so quickly since he became Murray's coach 18 months ago, Lendl said: 'My expectations were to do the best job I can to give Andy the best chances to win as many as he can. And that's pretty much what happened.
'I wouldn't say it came extremely quickly. These things don't take a few weeks,' he added. 'The first one took over six months, seven months, but what I'm pleased about is his consistency.
'He got to the final of Wimbledon, followed by the Olympics, followed by winning the US Open, followed by the final of the Australian Open, followed by winning Wimbledon. That's a remarkable consistency and I'm very pleased with Andy in that regard. It's not easy.'
Google Klaim Berhasil Atasi Masalah Aplikasi `Zombie` di Android
britaandroid.blogspot.com, California : Beberapa waktu lalu, sebuah perusahaan spesialis keamanan perangkat mobile asal San Fransisco bernama Bluebox Security mengungkapkan bahwa 99 persen perangkat Android memiliki celah keamanan di sektor software.
Celah keamanan ini sendiri kabarnya beresiko dimanfaatkan oleh hacker untuk mengubah hampir seluruh aplikasi Android menjadi aplikasi berbahaya dan bersifat merusak. Karena itu malware itu biasa disebut 'zombie'.
Dilansir laman ZD Net, Rabu (10/7/2013), menanggapi hal tersebut, pihak Google baru-baru ini meluncurkan sebuah patch baru (untuk di-instal pada software) yang diklaim mampu memusnahkan ancaman malware di sistem operasi Android. Diwakili oleh Android Communications Manager Gina Scigliano, pihak Google merilis pernyataan resmi yang mnyatakan bahwa mereka telah mengirim patch terbaru tersebut ke seluruh vendor atau OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer) rekanan.
Lebih lanjut Scigliano menjelaskan, khusus untuk Samsung, vendor asal Korea Selatan tersebut bahkan telah lebih dulu kebagian patch anti malware tersebut dan sudah digunakan pada sebagian besar handset Galaxy S4 yang beredar di pasaran.
Masalah kemanan software yang dialami Android ini dinilai termasuk dalam kategori masif karena populasi perangkat Android yang saat ini mencapai lebih dari 900 juta unit. Untungnya saja, laporan yang diajukan oleh Bluebox Security sejak Februari lalu ini cepat ditanggapi oleh Google. (dhi/gal)
Marion Bartoli, Wimbledon champ and 'daddy's girl,' wins on and off the court
The worst part of the BBC radio announcer's takedown of the newly crowned Wimbledon women's champ? He put his own ugly words in her father's mouth.
Choosing French player Marion Bartoli's moment of triumph to attack her non-blondness, John Inverdale showed true cowardice when he said: 'Do you think Bartoli's dad told her when she was little, 'You're never going to be a looker? You'll never be a [Maria] Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight.''
He said this while Bartoli was rushing to the spectator's box to her father, Dr. Walter Bartoli, who taught her to play. Dad later said, 'I am not angry. She is my beautiful daughter. The relationship between Marion and me has always been unbelievable, so I don't know what this reporter is talking about.'
And Marion Bartoli's classy response? 'It doesn't matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I'm sorry,' she said. 'But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes. And to share this moment with my dad was absolutely amazing and I am so proud of it.
'I am sure I will be able to watch the DVD of the match and look at the picture of me when I am holding it [the trophy]. That is the most important thing to me.'
Bartoli also had the class to say that when her finals' opponent Sabine Lisicki began to cry midway through the second set of their match, she wanted to 'give her a hug.' But that didn't prevent her from going in for the win.
All spoken like a genuine daddy's girl.
As a member of the club, I could relate. Sometimes dad was the only one who understood, who took the time to tell the skinny girl with the black-framed glasses and her nose in a book that she was pretty - and pretty awesome - the image of the beloved mother who died when he was a boy. Since Serena Williams or another American didn't have a chance, I became an immediate Bartoli fan, for her accomplishment and good sense on and off the court.
The backlash was swift for Inverdale, whose half-hearted explanation for his 'clumsy' remarks didn't quell the criticism from tennis fans who knew the years of hard work that had gone into Bartoli's big day and from those who may not follow the game but know a sexist insult when they hear it.
The incoming BBC head of news and current affairs, James Harding, was asked this week at a Women in Journalism event in London if he felt there was a gender imbalance among announcers, with a disproportionate number of older men and lack of older women. He agreed and said he would take action.
Unfortunately, some men and, yes, women, will continue to judge a woman for looks over expertise in every profession, from politics to science to athletics, where muscles and sweat and hard work are valued only in men. While Bartoli had to share her championship headlines with controversy, men's champ Andy Murray was spared such superficial treatment.
Bartoli, though, is in good company (see Olympic gymnastics champ Gabby Douglas, who won the gold but was chided because a hair may have been out of place during her back flip on the balance beam). In tennis, Serena Williams, another player with close ties to dad, is criticized as much as praised for her muscles and power.
For the record, all of these ladies look just fine to me, most of all because they do what they have to in order to realize their dreams.
Inverdale still has his job, though his comments show he still doesn't get it and probably never will. Bartoli has surely made plenty of new fans, and she has the lasting image of her strong arms holding up the Wimbledon trophy. Looking at her smile, it's clear she has made her daddy - and so many others - proud.
Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning multimedia journalist in Charlotte, N.C., has worked at The New York Times, Charlotte Observer and as national correspondent for Politics Daily. Follow her on Twitter: @mcurtisnc3Victoria Beckham Wears Skimpy Lingerie
Victoria Beckham brought a bit of L.A. to Wimbledon! The Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer wore a sexy slip dress that was perhaps more suitable for the boudoir at night than a tennis stadium during the day.
PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's posh style
While most of the spectators dressed in their Sunday best to watch Andy Murray win the men's final on July 7, Beckham opted to wear a delicate, clingy, lacey black spaghetti-strap dress by Louis Vuitton that hit just above the knees. Interestingly, Murray's girlfriend, Kim Sears, cheered him on from the stands that same day in a modest, mint-colored, long-sleeved tunic by -- guess who? -- Victoria Beckham!
While the black negligee-like number was certainly an odd fashion choice for a sports outing, Beckham, 39, seem typically nonplussed as she sat in the prestigious Royal Box next to chef Gordon Ramsay's wife, Tana.
PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's life as a married mother of four
Tell Us: Do you think her lingerie-inspired dress was hot or not at Wimbledon?
Murray's win touches national nerve
Commentary
The Andy Murray frenzy since winning Wimbledon runs deeper than a championship. It was about restoring an empire.
By Sameer Pandya | Special to ESPN.com
In a piece on Michael Jordan's return to basketball after his baseball detour in Birmingham, occasional sports writer David Remnick writes, 'part of why we cleave to sports and fandom (besides the sheer escapism) is that excellence is so measureable, so knowable in numbers.' Collectively as sports fans, we seem obsessed with numbers of all types. This obsession has been front and center in the frenzy surrounding Andy Murray's win at Wimbledon on Sunday.
The number in question?
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Seventy-seven: the years that have passed since a Brit -- Fred Perry -- last won the grass tournament. Pick up most any story on the win, and reference to that duration of years will appear in the first few paragraphs. Why the interest with this number? As the intensity on the faces of British fans could attest, inside Centre Court and outside on Henman Hill, this was about a British player winning a quintessentially British tournament. But it was also about something more, something deeper.
For the moment at least, Great Britain could collectively return to 1936, when Perry won his third Wimbledon title in a row, the British Empire seemed intact, and Brits were the moral center of a Europe that was about to change drastically. The Empire, of course, had started cracking some years before, but with empires, as in life, things fall apart long before we actually realize it.
Nearly 30 years ago, Salman Rushdie published a tidy essay called 'Outside the Whale' about the imperial nostalgia overtaking Britain in the early 1980s, when so many movies and television shows were coming out about the British in India. The Murray frenzy may not suggest the same full-blown nostalgia, but it does show how much of our sports fandom -- even in the period between Olympics -- is about national pride. After Murray's victory, Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted his congratulations, and the Queen was supposed to have sent Murray a private word. The victory certainly touched a national nerve.
Wimbledon is a tournament filled with all sorts of pomp and circumstance -- the whites the players have to wear, the royalty, the strawberries and cream -- that many of us bare for the sake of the remarkable play that inevitably ends up occurring on the court. Wimbledon expects a certain decorum from its players, and no one player has embodied it better than Roger Federer, with his dandyish ways, his graceful play and his seven Wimbledon titles. Federer became the stand-in for the proper Victoria gentleman winning Britain's marquee tournament.
And now, finally, Britain gets the real thing in Murray.
Though one does have to wonder whether Murray feels any ambivalence about being crowned a British champion. He is, after all, Scottish, and for the sake of brevity, let me just point you to 'Braveheart' and say that the relationship between the English and the Scots has not always been perfect.
One of the most interesting stories for me in this victory is that the man rightfully getting some of the credit for helping Murray go from runner up to major champion is Ivan Lendl, the former No. 1 player in the world, winner of eight major championships and Murray's current coach. This is the same Lendl who came to represent a certain Eastern Bloc cold meanness in the 1980s, the same Lendl who tried so hard to win this tournament but couldn't, and now the same Lendl who has helped Britain finally land a British champion at Wimbledon after a long drought.
The thrill of Murray's victory is not that it ended the drought. But rather that the victory is the culmination of a remarkable single year of tennis starting with Murray's tough defeat against Federer one year ago in the Wimbledon finals. Since then, he has won gold at the London Olympics, and won the US Open and now Wimbledon, the latter two against Novak Djokovic, the No. 1-ranked player in the world. Along with these victories, these are the numbers that seem important. On Sunday, with 15,000 people watching inside the stands, thousands more just outside, and many more watching on television, Murray channeled all the cheers and expectations into his grinding groundstrokes and won the match of his life.
Why John Inverdale must be consigned to yesterday at Wimbledon
Scarcely watchable, wildly over-remunerated, explicable only by conspiracy theories: how neat that John Inverdale's perennial criticisms of women's tennis should read like verdicts on himself.
The irony would be lost on John, of course, for whom subtlety will for ever be a closed book. But if the producers of next year's flagship Today At Wimbledon show are short of ideas - and on the form book, that seems the safest of bets - might I suggest that during Inverdale's opening monologue on day one of the 2014 championships, he is literally removed from the set. Getting the hook, they used to call it in vaudeville, after the practice of physically yanking bad acts off stage with an extended shepherd's crook.
It is several days since Inverdale blithely suggested that even the father of the Wimbledon women's champion thought she was 'never going to be a looker', and his BBC employers must be delighted that Andy Murray's glorious win and the start of the Ashes will mask their inglorious failure to deal with Inverdale appropriately or consistently. Had he said something racist instead of something sexist, as we all know, he'd have been a million miles from the tennis the next day. As it was, he was back on Five Live and at the helm of the nightly highlights show, looking for all the world like a man whose broadcasting credo is 'What's wrong with being sexy?'. Thus, short of farting out another montage of his chauvinistic 'best bits', the BBC did all it could to reassure viewers that this sort of thing will stand.
Perhaps the greatest trick Inverdale has pulled is his apparent success in convincing his bosses that the Bartoli business was some form of clumsy aberration, when in fact it is entirely of a piece with the manner in which he has covered the sport since I can remember. Year after year, BBC One viewers and 5 live listeners are gifted his open distaste for the women's game, which apparently lacks anything to hold his well-remunerated attention. It's too noisy, it's boring, no one's heard of its players: no matter how many times he is called on such positions by John McEnroe - who understands something about making the sport engaging - out they are trotted again the next year.
To say Inverdale is not venerated by tennis fans is to offer the sort of understatement John is congenitally unable to essay. But perhaps his distaste for viewers whose interest in the game stretches beyond the annual fortnight is understandable, given Wimbledon's status as sport for people who don't like sport.
Less justifiable is his repeated insistence on effectively dismissing 50% of the sport he is paid to cover as interestingly as he can. High-ranking players are routinely described as people you've never heard of - he once described a world No1 as 'anonymous' - while his efforts to engage other commentators in his obsession that equal prize money is a folly are tireless. Hats off to Mark Petchey for responding to this punditry gambit during ITV's French Open coverage by branding it 'redundant', though I expect it got him flicked with a wet towel in the presenters' locker room later.
In isolation, such remarks are merely tedious or thick: in concert, they eventually comes across as open distaste for women themselves.
Inverdale's hobby horses are ridden into the ground: the faux-arch queries as to whether Williams sisters fix their matches, the grunting... Oh, the grunting! Even by the standards of a dire show whose reliance on witless gimmicks almost defines it, Today At Wimbledon scraped the barrel a few years back with 'Gruntwatch'. A dead-on-arrival nightly feature that reeked of being Inverdale's sole contribution to what we'll generously style as Today At Wimbledon's 'ideas meeting', combining as it did a complete failure to engage with the actual sport with the basic presumption that it's at worst cheating, and at best massively unladylike.
I still recall the horror of one night's show actually opening with a David Attenborough impersonator, who breathed - over shots of female players - that Wimbledon was 'home to a vast array of birdlife'. It's quite a feat to make Alan Partridge sound like Andrea Dworkin, but one effectively achieved by the announcement that 'there will be more of these magnificent animals on Gruntwatch'.
As for the conspiracy theories as to how Inverdale stays in post, I draw more of a blank with the passing of each director general, as there must be a limit on how many men he can possess unspeakably depraved photos of. Perhaps the most credible explanation for his endurance is that getting rid of him for his attitude toward women would open the wriggliest can of worms. I wouldn't bet against a good 50% of the BBC's senior male pundits holding time-warped views, and - more perilously - being unhampered by the sort of filter that might hold them back from voicing them in a live broadcast. They're mostly saved by the fact that they commentate on sport where the only female you could conceivably see might be running the line.
So Inverdale sails on regardless, if you can ascribe qualities of forward progress to a broadcaster whose sole identifiable advance in recent years has been his eventually learning that one doesn't pronounce Djokovic 'Joykovitch'. Still, baby steps. And at this rate of progress, let's be glad that the BBC could decide his attitudes might be faintly backward as early as 2041.