So I didn't get to go to London to watch Steffi Graf play with Andre Agassi and against Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters. But I did get the next best thing - they showed the entire thing on Starsports last night!
It was a really interesting set of matches to watch. It was clear that all the players were worried to some degree at how they would be playing - obviously none of them wanted to embarrass themselves. But as it turned out, all of them lived up to the hype and delivered the goods. Kim was very consistent and her groundstrokes still carried immense weight - heck, she managed to outrally Andre a few times! Tim's volleys remain some of the best I have ever seen. Andre's hand to eye coordination was still phenomenal and he still had amazing precision in his shot placement.
And Steffi. Well, where do I begin? LOL First off, of all four players on court, she still seemed to have the perfect athletic body. You take one look at her and you wouldn't think she retired from tennis ten years ago. Her fitness level would still put most pro women tennis players to shame.
And so would her movement! In her heyday, she was known for her footwork, speed, and balance, and watching her chase balls all over the court and run around her backhand like in the old days. I seriously thought Kim would blow her off the court, especially with her powerful backhand, but Steffi managed to keep rallies going with her very precise and well-angled slice backhands. Her serve still had lots of weight on it too. She did score a few service winners and manage to set up points with it.
Of course, any discussion about Steffi will not be complete without mention of her forehand. It doesn't have as much weight as it used to - after all, she is 10 years older and hasn't played that level of tennis in years - but she still matched Kim's forehand and even got the better of her on several occasions. There weren't any match statistics, but I'm sure Steffi got a decent number of forehand winners in the match.
She eventually lost the match, 6-4, but when you consider that Kim is 25 and planning to mount a comeback and that a lot of tennis fans are expecting her to still do great things and win a few titles, 6-4 is definitely not a bad scoreline!
Watching Steffi play definitely made me wish I got to watch the Centre Court Celebration live. But even more than that, it made me wish she was still playing. She did have a smile on her face for virtually the entire match against Kim so it was clear that she enjoyed herself immensely. Hopefully that will give both her and Andre the idea to play more exhibition matches in the future. Which would definitely be a treat for tennis fans all over the world. Hopefully, I can get to see the next one (if there will be any...)
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