Point Is Made on Grass Court, No Amplification Needed

By HARVEY ARATON
Sports of The Times
July 1, 2007

Wimbledon, England

There is nothing quite like the intimate, unpretentious but still intense tennis theater of Wimbledon after a long, cacophonous sports year in America.

I was reminded of that yesterday after arriving at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on Church Road in London, SW19, jet-lagged and sleep-deprived after an overnight above the Atlantic, not at all minding the rain that made for a slow day and especially relishing the silence between points during Maria Sharapova’s 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ai Sugiyama.

Respectful silence, that is. It happens to be a concept that doesn’t only work for the players.

My first day at Wimbledon has become a Zen-like sportswriter experience — reacquainting myself with a rare and cherished clatter-free zone — that dates to a 1994 visit after the Knicks’ long run to the N.B.A. finals that ended with a seventh game in Houston.

Three days later, hours off the plane, I stretched out in a press seat a couple of rows from the old, cozy Court 1 and fell into a sound, peaceful sleep to the continuous thwack of the ball during a Boris Becker match. It struck me later on — that couldn’t have happened at Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden without wearing a pair of noise-canceling headphones or downing half a bottle of NyQuil.

Wimbledon may reek of royalty and rigidity, but it is the preferable extreme compared with the ever-worsening assault on our senses that games have become, for the most part, back home.

So it was a pleasure again yesterday to have left behind the exploding scoreboards and ear-splitting music of the playoffs spring and the baseball summer, the clown mascots, the busty cheerleaders and the wanton juvenility that have become America’s sporting trademark. And, yes, those United States Open fans who think nothing of vacating their seats in the middle of a point when the irresistible urge for nachos kicks in.

On the expanded Court 1, a smaller version of Center Court, Sharapova’s shrieks, grunts and motivational cries of “come on” were audible to all, the only soundtrack to the 1-hour-14-minute match.

The English fans also seemed to be having a good time with Wimbledon’s bold step into the high-tech era, the replay on the colorful screen that determines player challenges to line calls. But at least that innovation is directly related to the competition, as opposed to the nonsense that makes it impossible to hear yourself think from the moment you step inside an American arena.

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Increasingly, authentic noise and artificial noise are indistinguishable, ultimately numbing. Too often lost are the subtleties of drama, which occasionally occur when you least expect it, as in a match yesterday dominated by Sharapova with the exception of an early second-set break of service by Sugiyama that didn’t hold up for long.

In her much-discussed white swan dress that belies her rhinolike approach of tattooing the backcourt with powerful winners, Sharapova broke back for 3-all and proceeded on a run that brought her to 5-3, 40-0, triple match point, just as a light drizzle was turning to a more appreciable rain.

On the first match point, Sharapova double-faulted. Then she hit a deep forehand off a short return that was called out by the linesman but was overruled by the chair umpire, Lynn Welch. The point was replayed. Sharapova hit a forehand into the net for 40-30.

Now the rain was falling harder. The pressure was mounting on Sharapova to finish a match she believed should have been over.

“It’s the third call that the guy, you know, got wrong,” she said. “You look at him and he’s wearing sunglasses. He loses all credibility at that point.”

Also at that point, Sugiyama was asking herself what she had to lose by asking for play to be suspended.

“The last two games were really slippery,” she said. “Of course, it’s not easy to stop right there. But at the same time, I didn’t want to, like, give it away.”

Welch agreed to step down from the chair, checked the grass for herself. Play on, she said. Off a short return by Sugiyama, Sharapova stepped into a forehand, rifled it crosscourt for a clean winner, then had to scamper away to avoid being swallowed up in the tarp as it was being spread across the court.

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The close call was worth it. Sharapova has two days off now. Meanwhile, Venus Williams, possibly her fourth-round opponent Tuesday, won the first set yesterday against Akiko Morigami but was down by 1-4 in the second when play was suspended for the day. Advantage, Sharapova, in what became a quirky, compelling battle against the elements as well as the respective opponents.

Today, all of Wimbledon sleeps. Tomorrow, the second week begins and we will all be rooting for less rain, tighter matches and more authentic noise the rest of the way from Center Court.