We finally got a break in the heat this afternoon. It's raining outside now, and the front that moved in brought the temperature down into the 70ºs for the first time in several days. I had just enough time after the men's finals at Wimbledon ended (at last) to run out and mow the grass in the front yard before the storm hit. (More about Wimbledon below.)
Sue and I have had a nice, quiet 4th of July weekend. TJ, Amy and Amanda are down at Lake Powell with some of Amy's family. Stephanie is still down in Texas, finishing up her Teach for America training in Houston. Along with a group of about 20 corps members, she spent most of the weekend down at the beach near Galveston. She called Friday morning, a little bit homesick, because she noticed that Wimbledon tennis was on TV, and she was wondering if we were watching it. (We were.)
Stephanie will finish her training this week. After that, she is going to drive to San Antonio to visit her grandmother (Sue's mom) for two or three days. Next Monday, she will fly up to Salt Lake to spend a week with us before she heads to St. Louis to start her stint with Teach for America. It's good timing, because I got four lawn passes for the Elvis Costello/Police concert at Usana Amphitheater on July 19. Stephanie, TJ, Amy and I will go while Sue babysits Amanda. (She would have been a good sport and gone along, if Stephanie weren't here, but Elvis Costello and the Police aren't really Sue's kind of music (think Neil Diamond), and she wasn't looking forward to several hours sitting on the ground.)
We took it easy pretty much all weekend. With temperatures over 100º, neither of us felt motivated to try anything ambitious. We worked on the sprinkler system for a while yesterday, and did a little other yardwork. Sue pruned her roses. A couple of weeks ago, they all looked spectacular, with dozens of blossoms. In a couple weeks, they should go through another blooming cycle. We barbecued both Friday and Saturday evening – some pork shoulder strips on Friday and beef spare ribs last night.
Wimbledon
Both Wimbledon finals were worth watching. Yesterday, Venus and Serena Williams squared off for the women's title, and even though Venus won in straight sets, it was a good, hard-fought match. Today, the men's final featured Roger Federer, attempting to win an unprecedented (in the open era) sixth straight men's singles title, and Rafael Nadal, the four-time French Open champion, facing Federer in the Wimbledon finals for the third straight year.
Early in the match, Federer seemed somewhat tense, and was not playing as loosely and confidently as usual. As a result, Nadal jumped out to an early lead, winning the first two sets, 6-4, 6-4. Partway through the third set, play was interrupted when rain moved in. When play resumed, Federer seemed to have collected himself, and he won the third set in a tie-breaker.
The fourth set was close throughout. Nadal had some chances to end the match early. In one game late in the set, he had Federer down 15-40 in a service game, but Roger managed to hold serve. They went on to a 6-6 tie and another tie-breaker. Nadal opened up a 5-2 lead in the tie-breaker, and had two serves to try to win the match. Instead, Federer won four straight points to take a 6-5 lead, and went on to win the tie-breaker and even the match at two sets each.
Despite a few break opportunities, Federer and Nadal stayed on serve throughout the fifth set. There was another rain delay with the set tied 2-2 and Federer serving at deuce. By the time they returned after this second interruption, it was about 8:30 pm in London, and time was short if we were going to crown a winner today. Federer held service to take a 3-2 lead, then Nadal evened the set 3-3, and so on. Nadal survived one break point in the eighth game of the set, and Federer faced a double-break opportunity for Nadal in the 11th game, yet held serve. They got to 6-6, but this time there would be no tie-breaker. In a deciding fifth set for the Wimbledon title, the players must continue until one or the other has a two-game advantage.
After failing to capitalize on a 15-40 lead at 5-5, Nadal sees another opportunity slip away when Federer hangs on to take a 7-6 lead, despite losing the first two points and trailing 0-30. In the 15th game of the set, Federer again falls behind 0-30. He gets to 15-30, but then Nadal hits a winner off his backhand to give him another double-break chance. Federer gets an ace and wins another point to even the game at deuce. Nadal wins the next point, and Federer faces another break point, which he again erases with an ace. Nadal wins the next point to get the advantage, and this time he ends the game, taking an 8-7 lead and a chance to serve for the title.
The final game is as hard-fought as the rest of the match. Nadal gets to 40-30 to earn his third championship point (the first two came late in the fourth set), but the ever resilient Federer again denies him with a blistering return of what looked like a very good serve. At deuce, Nadal answers with an ace to get back to championship point. This time, Federer's forehand finds the net, and the match is finally over.
To his great credit, Federer was gracious in defeat, saying that he tried everything, but that Nadal, who he called a deserving champion, just had too much. Nadal was giddy and filled with disbelief that the Wimbledon crown was finally his. After climbing into the stands to hug his family and the Prince and Princess of Spain, who were watching from the Royal Box, Nadal posed for several minutes, playfully biting one of the handles on the championship cup in what has become his signature gesture. Cameras followed him a few minutes later as he paused to sign autographs for fans as he departed the All-England Tennis Club.
In post-match interviews with both players, John McEnroe said this was the greatest tennis match he had ever witnessed. That's saying something, coming from a man who participated in historic battles at Wimbledon and at the U.S Open against players such as Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase, to say nothing of the many matches he has since seen as a television commentator.
