LIke Roddick, her last chance may have come and gone at last year’s Wimby. She’ll likely retire as the “best player never to win a Slam”. I had to say it.
Yet I root for Demmie not in spite of her frailties, but because of them.
And as for talent and hard word, well let’s just say you don’t reach 7 semis and a couple of Slam finals by accident – mainly it has to be said on the back of her returning and fitness rather than any inherent guile - that’s somewhat closer to Kolya rather than Nalbie, that other “Best Player never to have won a Slam”.
I’m not going to go through the match. Demmie would fail to hold four match points before Stosur held one of her own and who now, along with Venus, Sveta, Masha, Bepa and Franny remains my last stand against Woz and Kim.
The pictures tell you all you need to know.
Most gut-wrenching moment of the past week: Stosur at match point, 6-2 up in the deciding tie break.
Demmie had left everything out there and had still pulled up short.
In a thespian moment which might well serve as a tragic metaphor for her career, staring up tearfully to Vera and, one suspects, with an acute sense of awareness of her limitations, she shook her head lightly & mouthed the word "no".
It was over.
And I fear it is too. :’(
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