After a titanic penultimate day of the championships, many would have wondered if finals day left any room for drama on centre court. After bad weather had thrown it's unseasonal spanner in the works, our finalists had been forced to play both their quarter finals and semi finals matches all in one day.
These kind of situations usually bring out the fighting spirit and thankfully at midday two gladiatoral warriors of the womens game stepped out onto a warmly receptive centre court. What made this encounter even more enthralling is that not only were they battling the fatigue of the previous days exertions, but also a very blustery wind, playing havoc with both serves and ground strokes.
Fastest out of the blocks was the promising German, Angelique Kerber, who with her platted blond locks is certainly worthy of the 'Angel' contained in her first name. Showing no signs of weariness, she bullied her way through the first three games, taking a break of serve against the initially timid, Tamira Paszek.
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| Photos by Matthew Arnold. |
Fortunately for the Eastbourne crowd, this was not going to be a swift and unsatisfying match that would have you sipping the remainder of your much-needed coffee before you'd barely stirred in the sugar. What we were about to witness was an epic battle balanced finely between two women that were both desperate to get their name on the silverware.
Initially Kerber narrowly took the first set 7-5 with some solid play, often chisseling away at the Paszek backhand, but it was spirited Austrian who turned the tables in the second set. With the crowd tilted decidedly in Paszeks favour, we saw her rally to a 6-3 reverse against a, by now, sulky looking Kerber.
The demeanor however, did not match the response, as again Kerber fought back in the decisive third set. With brute strength belying the tiredness she must have been feeling within, Kerber edged out in front and looked to have outlasted her opponent, when a little over two hours of play gone, she brought up 5:3 and love 40 on the Paszek serve. The tension was palpable as evident on every one of Tamira's support team, who had been vocal throughout the entire match. Then something happened that took this final into realms of the legendary as Angelique disintegrated into a bag of nerves and squandered nearly half a dozen championship points.
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| Photos by Matthew Arnold. |
Although the shift in momentum was obvious after that epic game, it was Paszek who was in the most trouble physically as she twice called for assistance of the trainer. Delving deep into her reserves, Paszek somehow managed to claw her way back level and then overtake her opponent with some gutsy tennis. By this time it was almost as if her name had already been etched on the trophy as after a couple of squandered oportunities, Paszek converted a championship point, sank to her knees and kissed the Devonshire Park turf in front of an elated support team.
One couldn't help feeling for Kerber as she buried her head in her towel and tried to make sense of how she let the title slip out of her hands. But this was Tamira's day and Centre Court had their preferred victor walk away with their first senior tour title.
After a brief turnaround we were treated to an almost celebrity like event, as Andy Roddick strutted onto a court many of us would only ever expect to see him do in our most ridiculous flights of fancy. He may be well down in the rankings and not even US number one, but to all of us packed into Centre Court, this was a living legend that still had magic wafting out of his Babolat Prodrive racquet. It was hard not to have sympathy for his worthy adversary Andreas Seppi, who has had a fantastic season so far and was more than capable of upending the American squaring up at the other side of the net. But with serves of 135mph and blazing forehands, this was as one-sided a final as you are ever likely to see. The first set notched up by Roddick 6-3 in roughly half an hour and victory coming in in about the same again, this was an emphatic statement that no one should ever right off Roddicks chances of finally capturing the elusive Wimbledon title.
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| Photos by Matthew Arnold. |
With just the Womens doubles left to bring the curtain down on another successful tournament, the general conscensus was that this had surely been the finest year yet at Devonshire Park. Heading through the mist of a slowly receding barbeque, I exited the grounds with an appreciative face ruddied by the sun and windburn and a whole load of happy memories that should last well beyond the 12 months I will have to wait until the next years championships.
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