The grass-court season is ongoing in full fledge with the most prestigious Grand Slam being played out at the All England Club. The Championships, Wimbledon with its strict all-white dress code for the competitors to the culture of slurping down strawberry and cream and occasional gracing of the Royalty every now and then, is undoubtedly the Slam that matters the most. This year, we have the Swiss Great, Roger Federer, at 34 and Venus Williams, at 36 being the oldest competitors in the Slam. Federer, as we know is bidding for a record 8th win, here on his favourite surface.
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With top-seed and double defending champion, Novak Djokovic, being shown the door in the 4th Round and Rafael Nadal opting out of the tournament, the path seems almost hindrance-free for Roger. Venus, too is in great form and her lithe abilities powered her into the semi-finals of the Big W, for a record ninth time but sadly she won’t be playing her sister, Serena, in the final.With two such greats having the vigour to continue participating and qualifying for quarters and semi-finals at such an age where their form should be dropping and their plans should revolve around retirement instead of ways to improve their game, is really incredible. Roger Federer proudly comments , “Like I say so many times, I hope I’m still on tour for a while. There are no plans to retire yet, I don’t have a definite date, even though that would make things easier to plan.”, when probed about his desire to retire. To these greats, age isn’t a bothering factor.If we leaf through the pages of Wimbledon history, we’ll come across several winners of the singles who are treading in their early thirties.
5. Billie Jean King – 31 years old
Billie Jean King, with a staggering win of 39 Grand Slam titles, has 12 Singles, 16 Women’s Doubles and 11 Mixed Doubles titles to her name. In the year 1975, she overwhelmed an amateurish Aussie Evonne Goolagong in a final with 6-0, 6-1 match statistics and went on to possess the 6th Wimbledon Venus Rosewater Dish. King was 31 years 7 months when she achieved this feat.
The American is a star player and the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association ( WTA ) along with her husband. The USTA National Tennis Center in New York City was renamed in her honour as USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center . Having a philosophy of, “Champions keep playing until they get it right”, this woman is someone who caters to Serena’s source of inspiration and is an eminent persona of the women’s tennis fraternity.
4. Arthur Ashe – 31
Coming to the men’s circuit, Arthur Ashe was 31 years and 11 months when he rushed to win the Big W title in 1975. He was the first black player to get selected for the US Davis Cup Team and also the only the only one from the black community to have won the three Majors slams – Australian, US and Wimbledon. His life had always been peppered with disturbing health issues and it is believed that Ashe, contracted HIV following a blood transfusion during a heart bypass surgery.
In 1975, he became the oldest man to lift the trophy of Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. However, Roger Federer can break Ashe’s record if he wins the title this year.
3. Virginia Wade – 32
Virginia Wade, in the year 1977, captured the Women’s Singles Title, defeating Dutch woman Betty Stove in a gruelling three-set final and had dribbled past Chris Evert in another three-set semi-final to clinch the victory. Wade, is the only British woman to have won four titles at all four Grand Slams. She was the last British player to have tasted success in a Grand Slam Singles when she won the Big W in 1977 until Andy Murray ended the period of drought for British tennis by winning the US Open in 2012.
She famously said that “Tennis is a fine balance between determination and tiredness.” and her love for the sport had fuelled her passion for long before she retired, she had made an all-time record of appearing 26 times in Wimbledon.
2. Serena Williams – 33 years old
Let’s come to the woman who is determined on scribbling her name on every record possible and with every passing day is changing the shape of history. The most formidable player in the present tennis circuit, at 34, Serena Williams is a great force to reckon with. She is the defending champion this year and is also one of the oldest to have seized the Venus Rosewater Dish, at 33 years of age. Also an American,she defeated the Spanish Garbine Muguruza in a 6-4,6-4 clash-off.
Ranked Number 1 in the WTA rankings, she holds the most number of major titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, combined against all other active players, both male and female. Her energy is infectious and she knows all the right ways to wield the racquet and race to victory.
If she wins Wimbledon 2016, she will become the oldest player ever to win Wimbledon.
1. Martina Navratilova
To start off, we have Martina Navratilova who was all of 33 years and 8 months when she won her 9th Wimbledon title in 1990, mowing down Zina Garrison for 6-1, 6-4. She has made a record appearance in 12 Wimbledon finals, having won 9 of them. The Czech player is clearly one of the best the game of tennis has ever produced.
Having won 18 Grand Slam Singles, 31 major women’s doubles title and 10 major mixed doubles title, she has earned herself an elevated spot in this game. She is one of the three women who have accomplished the feat of achieving a Career Grand Slam in Single’s, Women Doubles’ and Mixed Doubles’, along with Margaret Court and Doris Hart. A woman skirting around many controversies, she had bravely put that, “Whoever said, "It's not whether you win or lose that counts," probably lost.”
So, age is just a number to some of these tennis greats. Wimbledon is one such Slam which statistically proves that. You have to really think repeatedly before you can suggest writing some people off. With Venus and Roger, looking in sharp and great form, another page can be added to history if any of the two emerge as the champions again. This just reveals another side to tennis-it offers more meaning than just a conventional mindless power-and-strength game; it is also the game of mind and the eventual victory of experience and intellect
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