“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” — Oscar Wilde
We shake our heads in dismay when watching Agnieszka Radwanska play tennis. We wonder, What is she doing out there? Squatting like a bear in the woods to hit her forehand, flooping her backhand as if adding tinsel to a Christmas tree … this is tennis?
Why, yes it is. Beautiful tennis, in fact. It’s just not tennis that’s likely to win major championships.
Radwanska, using an array of strategies and shots, is one of the most expressive purveyors of out-of-date tennis on the professional tour right now. If Oscar Wilde were still around, he’d surely call it genius. But the game these days is all about power, which leaves little room for improvisation and subtlety. This fact weighs on Radwanska’s psyche, for with her Olive Oyle physique, she knows she doesn’t have the option to go big along with all the other top players.
You could say she is equivalent to the world’s greatest stagecoach maker in the years after Henry Ford created the automobile assembly line. She’s somehow continued to keep the stagecoach relevant, replacing the wooden wheels with brand-new Firestones, wrapping a pair of fuzzy dice around the reins and steering onto the expressway.
So can she win the Indianapolis 500 with that 19th-century contraption? To be more specific, can she squat and floop her way to the title at the Australian Open, which is well underway in Melbourne?
She’ll need some help, though not the kind you might expect. Thanks to upsets, the Wimbledon trophy last year was hanging there in front of her eyes like a toddler’s mobile, and it mesmerized her into losing a semifinal match she normally would win. Better that she has to face World No. 1 Serena Williams to win this Australian Open. The 17-time major champion can blast Aga off the court, and usually does, but the American also can get frustrated if she’s having one of those (increasingly rare) days where the clutch is sticking. The always-clever Radwanska, when playing at her best, can make Serena’s motor jump and stutter. (Check out the second set of the 2012 Wimbledon final for proof.) If the 24-year-old Pole can make that happen, and if she’s then bold and true in response, she can push on to the victory. The first step to making it happen, needless to say, is that old bugaboo for players who haven’t won a major: confidence. The World No. 5, following a strenuous fitness regime in the off-season, is working on that.
After Radwanska lost in Sydney last week to journeywoman Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a reporter asked her if she could win the title in Melbourne.
“Yeah, of course,” she said.
You tell ‘em — and yourself — Aga.
– Douglas Perry
Download: Read “The Fall and Rise of Roger Federer: 9 Unexpected Turning Points in Tennis History.”
From www.oregonlive.com
