Kei Nishikori has put a new spin on a Nick Kyrgios play ahead of Wimbledon. In an exhibition match against Lucas Pouille at Hurlingham, Nishikori did one of Kyrgios’s underarm serves — and then tuned it up like Shakespeare embellishing someone else’s idea. Nishikori followed the underarm into the net, serve-volleying to win the first set. Not sure if that’s a masterstroke or a dastardly stroke. It’s an interesting stroke. On grass, drop shots bounce low or die, making passing shots extremely difficult. The net is the best place to be.
Kyrgios caused a stir with his drop shot serve against his old mate Rafael Nadal earlier this year. It was too underhanded for Nadal’s liking. Michael Chang famously did it against Ivan Lendl in 1989. Nishikori is now coached by Chang, who says it should become commonplace against returnees who retreat to the back fence.
“Back then (in ’89), you didn’t have guys returning so far, so deep. Rafa is so far back. Dominic (Thiem) is far back. So the guys are starting to go ‘Well, if the players are willing to go that far back, what’s the good shot to hit against them? It’s a drop shot. So why don’t I do that on my serve?”
At Woehampton …
Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament is played at the completely unremarkable Roehampton courts as if to emphasise there’s a place you’d rather be. The All England Club. The battlers are chasing a golden pass to Wimbledon. The emotion is extreme. I’ve seen a guy tomahawk his racquet about 30 metres over a fence. He wasn’t allowed to leave the court, so he asked a spectator to go and get it for him. She stared him down like the villainous Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love and said no. Because his opponent was her son.
I’ve seen traumatic levels of disappointment there. And pure happiness and relief. Victors are driven to the front gates of Wimbledon, where they receive their accreditation passes and an escort into the promised land. Alexei Popyrin has been cock-a-hoop to get through qualifying in a fourth-set tie-breaker this week but for every Popyrin, there’s an Akira Santillan. So close, yet so infuriatingly far.
When the Australian lost 12-10 in a deciding set to Ruben Bemelmans, he walked to the nondescript park next to the courts, smashed all five of his racquets, left them on the grass and quietly trudged away.
Wayward grass seeds
Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Toni, is peeved about the Wimbledon seedings. Nadal is seeded three despite him being the world No 2. Roger Federer has taken his spot. Wimbledon has explained it thus: “The seeding order is determined using an objective and transparent system to reflect more accurately an individual player’s grass court achievements.”
Federer is a seven-time Wimbledon champion, so he gets the lift. Fair enough. But Serena Williams, the eight-time champion, has been seeded in line with her world ranking of number 11. Odd, no?
World No 1 Ash Barty has visited Wimbledon, or good old Roehampton, on six occasions. She’s failed to qualify three times. She’s lost twice in the first round, and once the third round. And yet she’s the top seed. Toni has told Spain’s El Larguero: “It’s a well-known topic. The Wimbledon guys are used to differentiating themselves because of this kind of thing.
“It’s a bit ugly but it’s what they’ve always done. They’re used to going their own way and they act like that because they feel special and maybe they think they have the right to do things as they want. It’s a bad beginning.”
Toni is a stickler for doing things right. In Nadal’s early days, Rafa won the French Open and was offered a chartered flight to London.
Toni made him catch the train because that was what they had already paid for.
Rub of the green
Donald Trump in the gallery at the Presidents Cup? If Tiger Woods gets a lucky kick, we’ll know who to blame. The leader of the free world. And if Adam Scott’sapproach to one of Royal Melbourne’s par fives ends up in the sand … ditto. The man’s a menace on a golf course, according to American Rick Reilly, a scratch-marker of sports writers who’s written a book about Trump and his favoured sport. It’s called Commander-In-Cheat, and here’s a handful of tales about how the boss refuses to let his good walks be spoiled.
1. Caddies at Winged Foot call trump “Pele” for the number of times they’ve seen him kick a ball out of trouble.
2. He’s liberal with gimmes, especially those he gives himself. Put it this way, it doesn’t have to be a tap-in putt for him to pick up his ball and walk to the next tee. He gives himself 10-footers, according to Reilly, and isn’t afraid to give himself a chip-in.
3. He’s not a bad player. His official handicap of 2.8 is regarded as B.S but Ernie Els and Brad Faxon, two of his regular partners, say he’s a legitimate nine or 10.
4. Trump has always made out that he was firm friends with the late Arnold Palmer — but Palmer’s family say that’s a crock.
5. Trump will do anything to win at match play. When he was playing Mike Tirico , the sports broadcaster believed he had hit the shot of his life into a par five. But then Tirico found his ball in a bunker. After the round, Trump’s caddie told him, “You know that shot you hit on the par 5? It was about 10 feet from the hole. Trump threw it in the bunker. I watched him do it.”
Give us the money back, Nick
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