WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND—Sports fall in and out of fashion.
Those that have disappeared — presumably forever — from the Olympic menu include: croquet, cricket, polo, something called roque, tug-of-war, motor boating, underwater swimming, tandem cycling and live pigeon shooting. Now, live seagull shooting, we’d approve of that. Even, maybe, live IOC peacock shooting.
A couple that have had an up-and-down history are golf and rugby, both to be welcomed back four years hence in Rio. Rugby rocks, man.
There’s a constituency which believes tennis should be sent to Coventry also, too posh and big-bucks for the Games, though that’s never been an anti-populist liability for, say, toffee-nosed dressage or Dream Team basketball.
Tennis, which the ancient Olympians never played, has had an intermittent record with the Games: one of the Original Nine sports when the modern Olympics were resurrected in 1896, dropped in 1924 — largely due to the emergence of professional leagues and the ban imposed by the International Lawn Tennis Federation on any player who turned pro — then reintroduced in 1988.
It still feels a little bit too white-sheep for the Games, despite a new-found enthusiasm for participation among some of the biggest stars on the pro circuit, who don’t need the relatively scant financial rewards on offer but clearly covet the glory of medals, so much more show-offy than a Wimbledon platter or a U.S. Open trophy or any other of the flashy Grand Slam tournaments.
“I don’t think you can ever have too many big events,’’ argues Milos Raonic, the 21-year-old who made his Olympics debut on Monday with a rain postponed first-round win over Japan’s Tatsuma Ito. “A lot of us players really look forward to this. It’s an icing on top of a player’s career.
“Some players can say they’ve won numerous Grand Slams but being able to add this is a bonus. It is a rare opportunity and it really is a great opportunity for us to be able to represent our nation as proudly as we can on such a big stage, not just to tennis fans.’’
Raonic did that quite splendidly way over on Court 16, dispatching the 69th-ranked Ito in a 68-minute encounter, his cannonading bounce-thumps off the purple-sheathed back wall and the spew of chalk splatter along court lines providing both visual and auditory evidence that the Canadian was well on his signature serve.
Also, the score: A mostly tidy 6-3, 6-4 result that bounced Ito out of the Games.
Raonic proceeds now to a second-round encounter with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga — fifth-seeded here and Wimbledon semifinalist — in a confrontation that should have happened during Davis Cup play back in February, had the pride of Thornhill not withdrawn citing a knee injury.
“It’s going to be a good match,’’ the strapping Raonic, ranked world No. 25, predicted. “I was bummed out not to have a chance to play him earlier in the year. But right now I don’t think there’s a bigger stage for us as far as national pride goes. For me to have this opportunity again, I think it’s a big one.
“Really, my job is to go out there, take care of my serve, try to create opportunities. But I’ll have to go out there going for the win. He’s not going to give it to me.’’
It was, predictably, Raonic’s overpowering serve that served him well against Ito. Raonic finished with 11 aces and 23 winners, converting two of three break-point opportunities.
“A few things were a little disappointing about it, but in general the goal was to win and I got through. I wish I could have stayed a bit more on top of myself. I felt in the second set, when I needed to — not only during the points but before the points — I was activating myself, forcing myself to move a bit more.’’
Raonic, of course, was just here a month ago, ousted from the cathedral of tennis in a second-round loss to American Querrey, four sets stretched over two days.
Not mental, he said, of the sacred Wimbledon factor that can easily mess with a young player’s mind. It’s all about the grass surface. “I think it’s just a lack of experience on it. It’s such a few weeks of the year that we play on it. I don’t think I have more than 10 matches on grass total in my career.’’
Raonic’s Olympics are a bit isolated. He checked out of the athletes’ village after the opening ceremonies and moved into a rented house close by here.
Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak, also making her Olympics debut, cruised through her first-round match, dispatching New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-2, 6-1, while Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil topped Romania’s Horia Tecau and Adrian Ungur in doubles, 6-3, 7-6 (9).
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