The Baseline Top 10: Best moments of the grass season

While the grass-court season accounts for the smallest portion of the tennis calendar, there is always plenty of excitement. This time around, legends made their reputations even stronger, the courts had surprise guests of many kinds, and most importantly of all, there was great tennis.

Here are Baseline’s 10 highest moments of the grass-court season:

1

Roger Federer was the No. 17 seed at this year’s Australian Open following a six-month injury layoff. Even the 17-time Grand Slam champion didn’t think he’d win a major this year, forget about two

“Maybe if things were like, if like everybody thought, 'You know what, Roger deserves one.' And the players were just like, 'OK we'll give him a free pass for one.' Then maybe,” Federer told ESPN right after clinching his record eighth Wimbledon title with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 victory over seventh-seeded Marin Cilic. “ But two, no chance.”

It was the second Slam of the season for Federer, and his 19th overall. But even more impressive for the 35-year-old was that it was the first time that he ever went through a fortnight at the All England Club without dropping a set.

2

It is never easy walking onto a court to play a former champion of the event. It’s even more difficult when that person has won it five times, like Venus Williams had Wimbledon.

Yet it was Muguruza who appeared the most calm, saving a couple of set points in the first set before blitzing Williams in the second set to capture her second Grand Slam title and first Venus Rosewater Dish.

Muguruza had already gotten one chance to win Wimbledon in 2015, when she lost to Venus’ sister, Serena. But this time, she would come out on top, 7-5, 6-0, earning a Slam for the second season in a row after grabbing her first at last year’s French Open.

3

Petra Kvitova won a title on grass in 2017.

No, that is not a typo. Despite getting attacked in her apartment last December and suffering serious injuries to her left hand that threatened her career, Kvitova is back, and has shown that she is ready to compete.

While the Czech surprisingly lost in the second round of Wimbledon to American Madison Brengle in three sets, she won the tournament in Eastbourne the week before, in what should be one of the best feel-good stories in sports this year.

1

You can argue that Wimbledon’s best match was also its biggest upset. No.16-seeded Gilles Muller beat fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 in a fourth round match that lasted nearly five hours.

The Spaniard had just won his record 10th French Open title and was one of the clear favorites to win it all at the All England Club.

No, Nadal did not lose because he bashed his head before walking onto the court. Muller stayed calm despite losing a two-set lead and playing one of the sport’s great competitors. The man from Luxembourg held his nerve and his serve, which put continuous pressure on his opponent in the fifth set. Down 13-14, Nadal hit a forehand long to end it.

5

Every grass-court season comes to a close in Newport, Rhode Island, where an ATP World Tour event coincides with the annual International Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

What better way to close the part of tennis’ schedule that is closest to the sport’s roots than to celebrate the efforts on and off the court of those who have made it what it is today?

Kim Clijsters won four Grand Slams during her career, which includes three after giving birth to her first child, Jada. Andy Roddick, a former world No. 1, captured his lone major at the 2003 US Open, the last time an American man won a Slam.

Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch is a Paralympic champion and Steve Flink a long-time journalist and historian. Vic Braden was inducted posthumously, as the teaching professional passed away in 2014.

6

Craziest doubles point

Joe Salisbury won the most impressive point of this year’s Wimbledon, and he may as well have gotten some strawberries and cream while he was at it.

In a first round mixed doubles match that Salisbury and Katy Dunne eventually lost to Neal Skupski and Anna Smith, the University of Memphis alumnus chased a high volley that Skupski flicked straight down toward the fence on the deuce side of the court, where he threw up a desperation lob before his momentum carried him into the crowd.

Without hesitating, Salisbury leapt right back over the barrier and sprinted to net, where he poached to put away a Smith forehand with a crisp volley at Skupski, which his compatriot couldn’t handle.

7

Venus Williams’ win in the Wimbledon semifinals over British hero Johanna Konta was a statement to say the least. After Konta took out second-seeded Simona Halep in a thrilling quarterfinal, Williams sent her packing in just over an hour to become the oldest Wimbledon finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.

All of a sudden, it looked like this year’s Australian Open runner-up had a very legitimate chance to win her first major since Wimbledon in 2008.

But while the American didn’t end up winning the tournament, falling to Garbine Muguruza, it was a reminder that Williams is far from done. She did win five Venus Rosewater Dishes at the All England Club, after all.

8

There are many things that could have grabbed the headlines at Wimbledon. There have been matches lasting three days, monumental upsets, and champions creating their legacies.

But this time around at the All England Club, the bugs arrived. Flying ants, specifically.

On the opening Wednesday of the tournament, the critters invaded the grounds of the All England Club, certainly not making life any easier for the players.

"I almost wanted to stop, because they were hitting you in the face when you were trying to hit balls,” eventual semifinalist Sam Querrey, who had lost a set against Nikoloz Basilashvili when the bugs flew in his face, said. “"If I had won that set, probably wouldn't have bugged me as much."

While not funny at the time, especially for the players, leave it to flying ants to sprinkle some humor into one of the most buttoned-up events in all of sports.

9

Feliciano Lopez, who was widely-considered a darkhorse at Wimbledon, retired in the fourth set of his first round match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. It was disappointing for the Spaniard and fans who love his throwback serve and volley game.

But before that, he won the grass-court season’s biggest warm-up tournament in London at Queen’s Club, saving a match point in the process. Precisely redirecting a volley crosscourt from high in the air while at a full stretch is not as easy Lopez made it look, especially while playing for the biggest title of his career. Yet Lopez did it in a third set tiebreaker before defeating eventual Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic, 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6 (8).

10

When Professor Minerva McGonagall and Magneto are in one place, you know that something special is going on.

While Sam Querrey probably wasn’t looking into the crowd on Centre Court during his impressive upset of top-seeded Andy Murray in the quarterfinals, actress Maggie Smith and actor Ian McKellen — both British — he had some pretty powerful onlookers in attendance.

The duo stayed focused on the action, peering through binoculars throughout the day. But more than anything else, maybe Querrey was lucky that both celebrities left their on-screen powers at home, because the American played phenomenal tennis to oust the home favorite and advance to his first major semifinal.

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