The Joy of Choking

Everyone agrees that it's an abject thing to choke. If you think it's painful to watch, undergoing it may be the closest you can get to experiencing a public colonoscopy; everybody gets to see what you've got inside, and from the the end of you that doesn't allow for talking your way out of it. This helps explain why so many players who choke away matches get all huffy and defensive, or resort to stonewalling, spinning out all kinds of elaborate rationalizations for gagging and blowing a match. Chokers live in a shadow world of guilts, doubts, rationalizations and denials.

And then you have Elena Dementieva. Today, 'Lena blew a 6-1, 5-1 lead over Nadia Petrova in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, and barely survived to recover and win, 6-1,6-7(6),6-3. Basically, she failed  yet again in her bid to become a choker we can comfortably compare to Jana Novotna, Ilie Nastase, or early Amelie Mauresmo. But 'Lena has a huge disadvantage, compared to those aforementioned players, and it may account for why she shocked so many by winning today: She's a proud choker and doesn't care who knows it; she don't need no stinkin' rationalizations. Denial is a great ally that can keep you choking forever. Dementieva wants no part of it. Hail, a part of her even appears to enjoy choking.

"I mean, there is nothing you can do." she says of choking. "You just have to go through this experience, I mean, becaue it's okay to be nervous during the match. It's okay to be tight."

Man, am I glad somebody finally had the integrity to stand up and admit that - especially after having played on the tour for almost 10 years, most of them as a frustrated player who's had so much trouble choking away matches that she's been a staple in the Top 10 and contender at almost every Grand Slam she's played.

I must admit, the cheery, enthusiastic way Dementieva talks about the choking process, and what she went through as she tried to pull off a choke of historic proportions today, makes choking sound like. . . fun. And I don't mean fun to watch, which it always is; I mean fun to experience. Think of it as The Joy of Choking. Hey, maybe there's a book in that, why should cooking and sex, activities strictly for people of limited imagination, be the only ones to cash in?

You may remember that when we last left  'Lena at a major (the recent French Open quarterfinals), she managed to convert a lead of a set and 5-2 over countrywoman Dinara Safina into one of the great chokes of the Open era. As collapses go, it was epic - she went down, 0-6 in the third. It seemed unlikely that she could play at that level again, so soon, and in another Grand Slam.  But she nearly pulled it off. And the historic dimensions of what she was about to accomplish certainly preyed on her mind as Petrova stole back into the match.

Dementieva blushed as she recalled the precise moment when the enormity of it all sank in:  "I was like. . . Oops, I did it again. I'm out of the semifinals!"

Whereupon everyone laughed. It was a welcome reaction, compared to all the deferential nodding and somber cluckings of approval that usually occur when the discussion centers on landmark achievements.

But of course the match turned, partly because of an ill-timed bathroom break during which 'Lena changed into a fresh, dry outfit. While changing, Dementieva got distracted and, recalling the French Open, realized that she was not just about to choke, but to choke in a huge way in her second consecutive Grand Slam - something no Russian woman has ever accomplished (Natasha Zvereva came the closest, but she just couldn't back up her performance in that 1988 French Open final, where she lost to Steffi Graf in 34 minutes, love-and-love). It seemed that the pressure just got to Dementieva, halting her momentum. When she returned, she was a different player altogether - she began teeing off on Petrova's serve and ripping off forehand winners; she ran down laser-like backhands and plopped her serve into the box - the correct one, it turned out. In short, the wheels fell off.

It may seem like cold comfort to Dementieva, but let's remember that even the most venal, procedure-happy physician doesn't ask his patients to undergo a colonoscopy more often than, oh, once every three years. That fact should help Dementieva's disappointed fans put this heartbreaking performance into context. It also helps explain how Dementieva came to have a sudden change of heart once she found her game again, deciding,  "I really want to win this match because I don't want to have that experience again. . . And I won it."

That was a painful confession for 'Lena to make; give her credit for honesty, at least. In the presser, she dissected her performance expertly, demonstrating that she's got an astute mind to go along with that Annie Oakley open-stance two-handed backhand and the shoulder-height service toss. "As you could, you know, see, I was really really tight," she noted, articulating just how danged close she came to really caving.

And she graciously acknowledged that by the end of the match, Petrova had come around herself, and seemed to want to choke just as badly as 'Lena had earlier. But the ambitions of both women were partly thwarted - talk about bad luck! - by the exceptionally good weather. It just wasn't conducive to classic choking.  "At the end of the match we were both a disaster. . . it was really hot out there and we were really tired in the end of the match. It helps your nerves because, I mean you don't get that tight. You just feel more relaxed and you're just trying to hit the ball, not pushing and waiting for a mistake."

So there they were - hitting winners and eliciting unforced errors. Getting in the first serve, and punching away the volley. It was a disappointing end after the promising start, but that's how tennis is sometimes. It's a cruel game.

Petrova will be bitterly disappointed by how it all played out, but Dementieva can still redeem herself. She'll have a chance to choke again, big-time, when she faces Venus Williams in the semifinals. It won't be easy to pull off, because a true choke only happens when a player is in a position to win, and getting to that point against a player who is no choker is a big ask.  But Dementieva is a quick-strike player; if she can avoid the service yips and get a hold of Williams's 120-MPH-plus serves, she might snatch a set, maybe even go up a break in the second. If that happens, don't for a moment believe that she won't seize the opportunity to choke.

In the presser, I observed that some players thrive on drama (let's remember Martina Navratilova, who blew one of the most promising careers as a choker in the history of women's tennis) and almost seem to crave the ups and downs and emotional storms that mark a match in which at least one (preferably both) players are choking like dogs that just ate  chicken bones. She replied: "Well, I canot say that I like drama, you know. . . But I mean, playing on Centre Court, it's just a big, I think it's a big privilege for all of us. I didnt want to - I mean, I was happy in the beginning to show everyone that I can play, I can play good."

Having made that statement, 'Lena was able to move on and show that she has all the tools to be a choker of historic importance. She's very forward looking, easily wiping away memories of all those straightforward 6-4, 7-5 wins in which she served well and led all the way. She can be counted on to have a few awful stretches when her serve creeps into the high 60s, and the double-faults start to flow.  And remember, Dementieva has appeared in two Grand Slam finals and two semis, but still gets skittish as a cat when something like a Wimbledon or Roland Garros finals berth is on the line.

For Dementieva, it's not a matter of having the tools. It's just a matter of putting it all together at the right time.

PS - Kamakshi Tandon has a final blog entry that you can read here, because they closed the shop on her before she was able to post it.