Wimbledon 2010 – Beginner’s guide to celebrating Grand Slam victory
With Tomas Berdych and Vera Zvonareva on the verge of winning their first Grand Slam titles, now’s the time to study how they may like to celebrate the biggest victory of their careers, should they prevail in the men’s and ladies’ Wimbledon singles finals respectively.
Zvonareva, a player who is not shy of smashing the odd racquet when things aren’t going her way on court, has so far provided the public with little insight into how she might react if she thwarts Serena Williams’ title defence in the decider.
That’s in stark contrast to the French Open, where Francesca Schiavone’s reaction when she was crowned a Grand Slam champion was a foregone conclusion after she’d planted a kiss on the clay in both her quarter-final and semi-final matches.
“To kiss the ground for me is to thank this clay, this beautiful tournament and this arena,” Schiavone explained after the final, but that doesn’t seem to be a reaction we’re likely to see from Zvonareva or fellow first time Grand Slam finalist Berdych at the All England Club.
It will, of course, be tough to top the celebrations that were instituted by Pat Cash (pictured) after he defeated Ivan Lendl to claim the gentlemen’s singles title at the conservative All England Club in 1987.
The Australian with the chequered headband became the first player at Wimbledon to climb into the stands to celebrate the victory with his supporters in the players’ box. It may have been a unique celebration at the time, but it’s also one that has been reproduced by countless Grand Slam champions since, including Venus Williams when she won the first of her five Wimbledon titles in 2000.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if we witnessed a repeat of that celebration in SW19 again this year if either of these two upset the favourites to win the title.
There’s no need to confine the celebrations to centre court, however, as both Jim Courier (1992 and 1993) and then Andre Agassi (2001) showed after winning the Australian Open title when both players took to the, reasonably uninviting, waters of Melbourne’s Yarra River.
There’s yet to be a Wimbledon champion who has emulated that pair by diving into the Thames, but perhaps 2010 could be the year to do it. London has, after all, turned on some genuine summer weather for the grass court major this year.
We know Nadal will collapse onto the court and then sink his teeth into the trophy if he wins it; and can make an educated guess that Serena might break out that curtsy she practised for the Queen’s visit to the All England Club during the first week of action (she did so after her semi-final victory over Petra Kvitova).
But if the finals produce one or two first time champions, can they produce a winning reaction that will make an already memorable victory even more so?
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