Michel Spingler/AP
On a day when youth and audacity threatened genius, one moment illuminated Roland Garros above the many others.
It arrived a little after 6pm, with the sun aching to crack the milky cloud cover over Court Suzanne Lenglen. Trailing two sets to one and down 4-3 and 0-30 in the final set, a slim, pale novice from Belgium, only here at all because of someone else's misfortune, feathered a winning backhand volley into the empty spaces, with his opponent stuck in the ochre fully 10 yards from the ball, where he had been manoeuvred against his will. The youth (who looked like he'd popped into the tennis on his way to gigging in a boy band) swivelled in triumph, raised his spindly arm and bowed to the four sides of the court as he drank in a standing ovation from a congregation...
Becoming a Grand Slam champion can present new and anxiety-inducing challenges and pressures, as Sam Stosur learned after she won the U.S. Open last September. But it also yields many benefits beyond the two most obvious ones,... more »
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