“When the players came out I thought, ‘It’s now or never’, so I just did it. “I knew it had never been done before – and it had to be done, really, didn’t it?
I am a bit of a naughty girl and I definitely have a wild streak in me. “I did it for a bit of a laugh, although I was encouraged by all the others. “It was my suggestion entirely,” she said. Melissa – nicknamed Missie – of Wandsworth, London, was in high spirits after gaining a design degree at Manchester Polytechnic. I suppose that means I have got the sack.” “They demanded my pinny back immediately. Then Krajicek pounced, conceding one point in the next four games.“But my employers were very po-faced,” said Melissa. Play was suspended for the third time after the opening game of the third set. He fought off two break points in the ninth game of the second set before conceding serve to a trio of Krajicek forehands. If Krajicek had seemed nervous early in the second set, Washington thereafter lost the laser focus he needed. Over the next 77 minutes, only five were spent playing. The crowd revealed its support for him every time Washington punched an overhead or a forehand back at the bigger man.īut it was all he could do to stay even with Krajicek. Born in New York, he was raised and coached in Michigan by his father, William Washington. Krajicek was seven inches (16 centimeters) taller, but in pace and rhythm Washington might have been holding down Krajicek by the shoulders as the first interruption of rain came early in the second set.īy then Washington's play at the net seemed to be withstanding the Dutch cannons. His service improved steadily, until by the start of the second set he was holding without deuce, largely because he was playing his second serve to Krajicek's weaker backhand. Krajicek ran up a 3-0 lead on big serves, forehands and overheads. "Then she comes out, and at least for me she put a smile on my face. "I was a little bit tight," Krajicek said. He opened with one big serve after another as if he had never wondered whether he could make it this far. She was the first streaker ever to play Center Court, and Krajicek, among others, was happy to see her. THEY WERE standing at the net for photographers, awkwardly trying to recreate the casual poses of more famous players, when a naked woman came streaking along the length of the grass floor and turned them from cardboard cut-outs into two men with the giggles. The players had the look of two contest winners trying not to gawk at their five-star hotel. A little self-consciously they appeared Sunday behind a short man in a long white coat carrying their bags. Washington had his debut on Center Court just two days before.
They had never played each other, had never contested a Grand Slam final and between them had won just one tournament this year. He earned 11 break points, while conceding just 17 points on serve overall to Washington.
Krajicek has always had a big serve, averaging 118 miles an hour (189 kilometers an hour) in the final with 14 aces, but recently he added a strong return and the patience to pass from the baseline. It took the 6-foot-5-inch (1.96-meter) Krajicek 93 minutes to apply the same formula he had used against the 1991 champion Michael Stich and Sampras in earlier rounds. "For the fortnight, I was the second-best player in the world." "It's great when you can come into a tournament when everyone's there, all of the great players, and you're still standing at the end," said Washington, ranked 20th in the world when the tournament began. Washington, who had lost six of his nine Wimbledon matches before this year, was the first African-American finalist at Wimbledon since Ashe beat Jimmy Connors in 1975. Though Krajicek was ranked 13th in the world - and will move into the Top 10 this week - he was not seeded among the top 16 because he had lost his opening match at Wimbledon each of the last two years. Krajicek joined Becker, who was 17 when he won in 1985, as the only unseeded Wimbledon titlists. Between them, Krajicek and Washington had 13 career titles - one-third as many as Pete Sampras, the three-time defending champion knocked out by Krajicek last week - and neither had any prospects of winning when the world's greatest tennis tournament began two weeks ago. Krajicek's parents had him registered with the Dutch tennis federation by the time he was 6. Meanwhile Washington was pretending to toss his runners-up plate like a Frisbee and flashing his chest like the streaker who four hours earlier had helped start their match on the right foot. Later, while posing for photographers, Krajicek was trying to hold the trophy as if it were a baby when the lid fell off.
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