Wimbledon: Jerzy Janowicz puts Poland in top gear

Jerzy Janowicz of Poland plays a backhand during the Gentlemen’s Singles quarter-final match against Lukasz Kubot of Poland on day nine of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon on July 3, 2013

Poland is making quite a run at Wimbledon 2013, not only due to the popular WTA World No. 4 Agniezka Radwanska but also due to another entertaining albeit less known name – Jerzy Janowicz.

The top ranked Polish player in the world at No.22 (the closest after him is ranked 127) started playing tennis at the age of 5 and just like his idol growing up – Pete Sampras – his booming serve and aggressive groundstrokes have made him a force to be reckoned with this year in Wimbledon.

But his talent had already been showcased earlier, specifically last year at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Paris, where he made a spectacular run to the final after coming through qualifying.

His serve, forehand and drop shots helped him dispatch Cilic, Murray and Tipsarevic. While he lost his match to Ferrer in the finals, his victory over Murray is fondly remembered by tennis fans as being one of the most entertaining matches of the 2012 season, and his tears and emotional state after beating Murray were combined to form one of the most heart-warming moments of the season as well.

Tennis fans now had high expectations for his 2013 season; I certainly did, but his impressive run in the fall of 2012 did not launch him into the top tier of tennis as expected.

A slew of unimpressive results came about at the start of 2013, which included his meltdown against our very own Somdev Devvarman in the first round in the Australian Open. His Indian Wells-Miami swing results were mediocre as well.

Janowicz was on a downward spiral for sure, and this spiral seemed to continue into the clay court season until Rome, where he beat Tsonga on his way to a quarterfinal loss to Federer. Federer’s Swiss counterpart Wawrinka ended the Pole’s run in Roland Garros, but a loss to Wawrinka was not a matter of shame, considering the great form the Swiss No. 2 was in at that time.

Janowicz then made his way to Wimbledon after exiting early in Halle. Expectations of him going deep in the draw were low due to his tough projected matches, and hence little attention was given to him.

Janowicz started his Wimbledon campaign by beating rising Britisher Kyle Edmund, and was dominating the always dangerous Radek Stepanek when the Czech retired. He then beat Almagro, avenging his Australian Open defeat to the Spaniard, before beating the skilful Austrian Jurgen Melzer.

He was now in the quarter-finals, the furthest he had ever been in his five Grand Slam appearances, where he faced his countryman Lukasz Kubot. The 6’8″ Janowicz was the clear favourite to get through and after 30 aces and 58 winners, the 24th seed was in his first ever Grand Slam semi-final. While his semi-final opponent – World No. 2 Andy Murray – may be the clear favourite to get to the final, the way Wimbledon 2013 has gone and the way the Pole has been playing, there’s certainly some hope for Polish tennis and Janowicz fans around the world.

If the Pole loses, the focus should not be on his loss, but more on the Pole’s talent and hunger, which resonate with that of another former Grand Slam champion – Marat Safin. The achievements of the country of Poland this year at Wimbledon 2013 (Radwanska, Kubot, Janowicz all reaching the quarters or further) should certainly attract new tennis fans from the European country.