The curious who goes to the All England Lawn Tennis Club leaves the car at Southfields, a station now tuned to receive the Wimbledonians, as the tournament turns one hundred years old, and then walks on a soft green carpet and finally climbs the steps that lead to the town.
Dozens of single-family homes open to view on one side and the other. Street vendors sell white cloth hats for £39 apiece, and beyond that are ice cream stalls. Jehovah’s Witnesses are looking for recruits for their cause. Then the houses are left behind and the visitor is immersed in meadows and green fields.
The walk to Wimbledon lasts fifteen minutes, maybe a few more (the chronicler has done it a few times already).
Long queues form at the gates of the enclosure. Some lucky ones will have a prize, it depends on the draw. If all goes well, they’ll pay £30 and in.
The rest pay a fortune.
In Center Court, Cliff Richard sings Summer Holiday and the parish joins him in the choirs.
Sue Barker then introduces 25 tournament champions.
One by one Angela Mortimer, Stan Smith, Jan Kodes, Pat Cash, Conchita Martínez, Martina Hingis, Goran Ivanisevic, Lleyton Hewitt, Marion Bartoli, Angelique Kerber or Simona Halep, winners on one occasion.
And they are succeeded by Stefan Edberg, Rafael Nadal, Petra Kvitová, Andy Murray, Margaret Court, John McEnroe, John Newcombe, Chris Evert, Rod Laver, Björn Borg, Venus Williams, Billie Jean King, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, the man with the most titles in the garden (8).
-I hope to play here again -says Federer, whose future, weighed down by his battered knee, is unknown.
We know that in the fall he will play in Basel, we can read until then.
(Martina Navratilova (9) and Serena Willams, seven-time champion, frustrated a week ago, in her eighth attempt, do not appear; neither Steffi Graf nor her husband, Andre Agassi, nor Jimmy Connors, nor Pete Sampras, none of them usually lavish in this type of act)
The imposing carousel of celebrities is also solicitous, and poses for the photographers and then leaves the scene in single file, and a couple of hours later Carlos Alcaraz (19) enters, the teenager who, according to what he said a few days ago, has come to Wimbledon to learn.
And that?
Has what you have just seen impressed you? Does celebrity weight scare you, grieve and wrinkle?
Will he ever see himself there?
We will see.
For now, it will be time to wait, because Jannik Sinner (20) does not let him play and knocks him down in 3h35m, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (8) and 6-3.
The Italian tennis player, strappy redhead who was going to be an alpine skier and who had changed disciplines because he was too tall (1.88 m) and had a center of gravity that was too high, was mounted on top of him. Sinner is limited to being solid and balanced, and Alcaraz does it all, the most spectacular points – a drop shot is followed by a lob – and the big mistakes.
Among so much sawtooth, Sinner is a hammer, perhaps the confirmation of what some wise men have been predicting for some time:
-Sinner will be a Top 3 -some said in 2020, in that apocalyptic autumn at Roland Garros, when the Italian made Nadal’s life difficult.
Sinner is no longer that unexpected and upstart tennis player of 2020, and yet he is still an ice man, impossible to know what he thinks, if he is happy or frustrated. His strategy exhausts the rival, exasperates Alcaraz, who hits in bulk from the bottom of the court and can’t find the handle to hold on to.
-Sinner can do great things on grass. And I’ve started a little nervous. I was bad in the first two sets -says Alcaraz.
He sends too many balls to the net, or long balls, he is confused by Sinner’s service, which sends topspin effects, often to his feet. Alcaraz does not take that step back, he insists on stepping on the line, he wants to keep the initiative, but things go wrong.
In just half an hour the first set is gone, there is no trace of the Alcaraz who two days before had exhibited himself against Oscar Otte and, before, against Tallon Griekspoor.
When he attacks, Alcaraz is wrong.
He doesn’t handle the rallies and neither his drops nor his changes of rhythm appear.
Sinner takes advantage of the momentum to vindicate himself. Until now, he seemed to have fallen behind in the race to succeed the greats. Alcaraz (7th racket in the world) has taken a body length ahead of him in the last year, there is a lot of talk about the talent from Murcia, but the name of Sinner -it is assumed that he had reached the great showcase before, but today he is the 13th circuit tennis player- does not have the same effect in the popular imagination, neither does it seem so balmy nor does it seem so revolutionary.
Alcaraz sells t-shirts, he has a remarkable concept of the show, beginning with his game and continuing with his way of expressing himself. Sinner is aseptic, and also extraordinarily efficient. Each of his interventions carries intention and bad drool, a headache for Alcaraz, who still grows, does not stop fighting.
He offers great flashes in the tie break of the third set, when he saves two match points and ends up scoring the partial (Christopher Clarey, chronicler of the International New York Times, says he recognizes Federer moments there), but in the end he compromises and will leave his house to a Wimbledon Pass, exiting through the small door.
-The track imposes, I will not deny it. Above all, for its essence -says Alcaraz already in the London night.
-And with what feeling do you leave?
-I’m happy. I think I have been improving throughout the tournament. I did not come with too many expectations and I have surprised myself. If I had to give myself a grade, I would give myself a 6 or a 7. You can always improve, even when you’ve done very well, right?
One day we will tell his legend.
Not yet.
