And then, as I was watching Tim's match, the second on court, the thought came to me that the crowd, and indeed, my next-door neighbour, who really did have a fine pair of lungs, had been making a great deal more noise for Andy Murray than they were doing for Tim. Tim, you see, looked in the zone for large stretches of his match, so it was fairly easy to get mesmerised by the way he was playing. He didn't seem to need much help from the crowd. It's not that they were unenthusiastic - far from it, but he didn't require as much "lifting". He struggled to hold his first service game, and got broken when serving for the match in the third set - but otherwise looked in control. I was even slightly grateful for the hiccups - they reminded me of what it has felt like over the years, watching a typical Tim Henman match at Wimbledon. He said afterwards in his on-court interview that he'd spent the past few weeks preparing to play Ljubicic, and that it might not have been so easy against an unknown opponent (Roko Karanusic, upon whom Peter Lundgren had to do some last-minute scouting), but that he was happy with the way he'd played. As he should be.
I got wind that Ivan Ljubicic wouldn't be playing against Tim while I was still watching the Murray match - and wondering if he would lose it. We were seated behind the LTA team, so were able to pick out who was there and who wasn't. Tim was missing during the Murray match. My Tim-supporting neighbour disappeared to see if she could spot him practising, and came back not only having found Tim (she showed me the photos she'd taken), but having seen Ivan Ljubicic arrive to talk to Tim during his practise, then shake hands warmly with him. She spoke to Ljubicic, who she said was very relaxed about chatting to her, and he explained that he wasn't playing. She told him that she wouldn't have wanted him to beat Tim - he didn't appear to mind this at all, and told her that he'd be happy if Tim won both his matches - as long as Croatia won the other three!
Andy Murray's match against Marin Cilic started badly for him - he seemed unable to find his length, and the Cilic serve was doing a fair amount of damage (where does Croatia find all these tall big-serving players?). Eventually he began to pick the Cilic serve, and settled enough to take the second and third sets after losing the first.
In the fourth set he played three games that he said afterwards were "rubbish" (I've lost count of the double faults), and went two breaks down, but, with the aid of the crowd, including my neighbour, managed to haul himself to within a point of levelling at 4-all. Those inflatable sticks that were handed out to the crowd before the tennis started make a fine noise, like the beating of many toy drums, and they were doing heavy duty just then. So much louder and less painful than clapping! Murray at one point was urging the crowd to make even more noise, so it clearly was inspiring him to dig deep. He then got a very unlucky call - neither he nor his opponent had thought one of his balls was out, and played on, only to be told after the rally was over that the point belonged to Cilic. No hawkeye, so no challenge possible. The crowd had been wildly applauding a supposed break of serve, and now started booing. Goran Prpic and John Lloyd, the team captains, with both players, went to talk to the umpire, but not too much time was spent arguing. Murray wasn't impressed - he, unfortunately, was now at deuce, and went on to lose the game, and the set.
The fifth, however, was a different story - he broke early on and stayed ahead. When the match was over, there were no wild celebrations - he fell to his knees and curled himself up tight - I think he was fighting back tears. He also spent some time with his head in his hands on his chair afterwards. In his interview he said that he had been very nervous, especially with the added pressure of wanting to do well for Tim. But he reckoned that it was a good match for him to have won. Knowing Murray's recent injury troubles, I'd agree - he wasn't at his best, but he found a way, and I'm sure that the crowd was a factor.
After his match, Tim Henman kissed the Wimbledon grass before going to shake hands with his opponent. He said afterwards that he hadn't shed any tears. The crowd applauded him for so long that it had to be stopped in mid-flow to allow the BBC on-court interview. I wasn't impressed with that interruption. The BBC was showing Tim's match, but most of it was on its interactive service, not one of its prime channels. This meant that it wasn't available to all viewers, which is a shoddy way to treat one of our biggest sporting heroes of the past decade and more, and his fans.
More tomorrow - for now, I'm off to Wimbledon, and today the sun is shining. Mercifully, the rain never came there yesterday.
-- Rosangel
