By Randy Walker
The All England Lawn Tennis Club was in a flurry of color on the opening day of the Olympic tennis competition at the 2012 London Games Saturday.
The club that normally has a strict “all-white” rule on its courts was awash in players playing in red, blue, yellow, green and pink on the lush, freshly-sodded green grass with light purple banners brazen with Olympic rings and the words “London 2012” surrounding its sides. The All England Club was so strict with its enforcement of its all-white rules that at The Championships earlier this month, it sent a committee member with a white shirt to a practice court to give to top women’s player Victoria Azarenka, who was warming up for a match wearing a non-white T-shirt.
Saturday on the opening day at Olympic tennis, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, wearing a blue shirt and red shorts, and his opponent Steve Darcis of Belgium, wearing a white top and red shorts, made history as the first players to play in non-white clothing on Centre Court. Darcis was able to do more than just be a footnote in history, but was able to register the first upset of the tennis event, defeating the 2010 Wimbledon finalist and No. 6 seed 6-4, 6-4.
No. 4 seed and freshly minted Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, wearing a mostly dark blue dress with hints of red and white, opened with a 6-3, 6-1 win over former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, decked out in an all red dress. The most famous spectator at Serena’s match was First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, sitting in the Williams box along with Serena’s older sister, teammate and doubles partner Venus.
World No. 1 Roger Federer, wearing a Swiss red shirt and white shorts, defeated Alejandro Falla of Colombia, wearing white shorts and a yellow shirt, in a topsy-turvy 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 decision. The 30-year-old Swiss, three weeks removed from his seventh singles title at Wimbledon, led 5-3 in the second set, with three match points, but suffered through a stretch of unforced errors, bad footing on the slippery grass and some excellent play from his opponent to lose the second set.
Perhaps the biggest upset on the first day of play came when No. 5 seed and reigning US Open champion Sam Stosur of Australia, wearing a gold top and green skirt, lost to Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain, wearing a light blue top and a pink skirt, 3-6, 7-5, 10-8.
On the outer courts, that featured electronic scoreboard as opposed to the wooden, manual scoreboards of The Championships, John Isner of the United States, wearing a blue shirt and black shorts, beat a man 15 inches shorter than him, 5 foot, 6 inch Olivier Rochus of Belgium 7-6, 6-4. Isner’s teammate Ryan Harrison, wearing a white shirt and blue shirt, was defeated in the first round by Falla’s teammate Santiago Giraldo 7-5, 6-3. Harrison double-faulted on match point and smashed his racquet to the grass, behavior that was chided by Pat O’Brien and Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim on Bravo Television as un-Olympic. In a match of players ironically wearing all-white –but both with red sneakers – No. 11 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia defeated American Christina McHale 6-4, 7-5.
For full results and draws of all events, go to www.Itftennis.com
To read more about Olympic tennis and its history, including stats, records, results, download the Kindle ebook “Olympic Tennis: An Historical Snapshot” for $2.99 here: http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Tennis-Historical-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B008EOXW40/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343499628&sr=8-1&keywords=Olympic+Tennis+Randy+Walker