THE ADAB TIMES
The Most Trusted Voice in the Nation, Est. 1878
The Most Trusted Voice in the Nation, Est. 1878
GAMES OF THE XV OLYMPIAD
Bloodied but Unbowed, Rederer Advances to Semifinals
John Oldman
Sunday, August 13, 2034
ELECTRUM – At the end of his men’s singles tennis quarterfinal match today against Tumbra’s Rhys Escott, Foger Rederer, reportedly a man of wide literary interests, quoted from William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus”: “In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud / Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed.”
No one would dispute that those words are a perfect description of Rederer. Two weeks ago he was an 18-year-old tennis prospect hoping to make a “somewhat good run” in the Olympics. Today he is an Olympic semifinalist. Bloodied and battered – some would even say broken – but unbowed.
Rederer’s titanic struggle in the round of 16 against Ostankin’s Mikhail Sonin – a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 victory which took nearly four hours to resolve – had clearly left a lasting effect on the young Adabian. When he emerged onto the court for his encounter against Escott, Rederer – who had caused quite a stir during the Olympics with his jocular manner and antics, notably exclaiming excerpts from a Charles Darwin book and singing to spectators – appeared nearly a ghost of himself, not even half the man who took on Sonin just two days ago. He was weary, scowling, barely mustering a smile when he acknowledged his audience with a wave (his growing legion of fans greeted him with cheers) that gave away the impression of a world-weary man barely able to raise his arm.
It was a testament to Rederer’s endurance that he was able to walk away from this match with a win against the 36-year-old veteran.
Struggling with his footwork and unable to consistently muster enough power for his shots, Rederer quickly fell behind in the first set, with Escott relying on his years of experience to run circles around the still-exhausted Rederer, firing off textbook forehands and lobs with such precision that the Adabian was left stumbling around his side of the court, chasing the ball that had bounced twice long before Rederer caught up to it. Escott was already up 0-3 in the first set when Rederer, flailing and surely knowing that he could not stride back and forth across the baseline forever, advanced forward and began consistently volleying the ball, gradually forcing Escott to come close as well. Though Rederer’s speed was still somewhat less than what he was capable of during the Sonin match, it was just enough to counter Escott’s own attempts at volleying the ball or producing a drop shot, and the Adabian began to produce passing shots with greater regularity, easily putting the ball out of Escott’s reach.
As the first set went on, Rederer’s movements became more fluid and his playing showed increased confidence and energy, mixing up his volleys with passing shots and lobs. He was able to cut his deficit to 2-3 as Escott slowed down and made errors of his own, reacting to Rederer’s shots by retreating back towards the baseline and relying on half-baked groundstrokes that the young Adabian managed to return.
Now more acclimatized to the match, and perhaps sensing that Escott himself was tiring, Rederer played on with increased vigor, engaging the Tumbran in a series of rallies that could not have benefited the 36-year-old’s legs. Rederer took over the lead and made it 5-3 in his favor, but Escott took the next game as Rederer began losing speed once again and his movements grew rather stiff and labored, allowing Escott to go against his weaker backhand. Escott tied the score at 5-5 as Rederer’s playing faltered even further, with the Adabian appearing to have exhausted his burst of energy and barely able to respond as Escott – who, to be clear, did not appear to move very fast either – shot forehand after backhand after forehand.
Escott made it 6-5 as Rederer continued flailing around ineffectively somewhere between the baseline and the net, apparently unable to make up his mind on whether to play from the former or the latter. But Escott himself was beginning to show signs of tiring, most notably attempting to fire off a smash that ended up landing well outside the court. Lacking mobility, both players increasingly abandoned the edges of the court, with the action once again moving closer to the net. Escott’s shots became increasingly unsteady in the twelfth game, with Rederer producing a highlight of the match by reacting to a weak lob by Escott with a backward tweener to win the game and make it 6-all, forcing a tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker would ultimately prove detrimental to Escott; while he did win it – and with it the first set – he only did it with legs that were growing slower and increasingly inconsistent shots against a younger opponent who was recovering his powers. Tiring and breathing heavily, Escott won the first three points, only for Rederer to come back by winning the next three. Appearing much more confident in himself now, Rederer had by now again marched back to the baseline, hitting perfectly-executed groundstroke after groundstroke which forced Escott to sprint all across the back of the court in his struggle to return them. A 23-shot rally for the seventh overall point was won by Escott to put himself up 4-3, but only because he managed an unexpected drop shot that landed on the other side of the net and bounced too quickly for Rederer to catch, a bright spot in an otherwise dreadful rally that saw Escott produce easily returnable lobs, each one with seemingly less power than the one before.
Rederer and Escott traded the next two points, and Escott won the one after that – going up 6-4 after a 17-shot rally - as Rederer slowed down, producing predictable and methodical shots as if evaluating Escott and preserving his own energy instead of trying to beat him. Escott, for his part, did win the pivotal seventh point with a rare on-target smash down the middle, but the strain of the first set had left him with wobbly legs and looking rather dreadful, whereas Rederer, although he still struggled with his footwork, was adapting to the pace of the match and increasingly showing glimmers of the true extent of his powers. In short, he still had more left in his tank.
Indeed, the first set would prove to be Escott’s peak, if only narrowly, and he was unable to recover his form for the rest of the match. Perhaps hoping to tire his young challenger, Escott stayed closer to baseline throughout much of the second set, launching forehands that lacked in power and were quickly countered by Rederer’s increasingly fluid movement, enabling him to move from the baseline to the net and back in short bursts of speed and hit lobs and volleys effectively at will. Rederer easily took the first two games, before Escott momentarily recovered his power and speed to turn a Rederer slice into an Escott smash to win the third game, but such shows of brilliance from Escott’s part were fast becoming rare, and that smash left Escott breathing heavily and holding his knees for a moment.
Rederer easily cruised past the fourth game to increase his lead to 1-3, not allowing Escott even a single point and sending a smash right over the latter’s shoulder and to the back of the court for the game point. Perhaps aggrieved, Escott came on strong for the fifth game, luring his opponent into a fast-paced 21-shot rally. While this rally put Escott up 40-30, aiding him as he eventually took the game with a respectable, if shaky, backhand, it was a bizarre – and maybe even fatal – decision on his part to keep the rally going as long as it did, instead of rushing the net to end it with a volley or drop shot. While he may have known of Rederer’s prowess on the net, Escott was surely aware that continuing to play from and run across the baseline, hitting continuous but weak groundstrokes and not allowing himself time to recover, could only do further damage to his game, and indeed by the end of that fifth game he appeared unsteady on his legs as he walked to the courtside chair. His shots were already rapidly losing their power and precision, and now his legs were rapidly deserting him. Youth was gradually winning over age.
And youth won Rederer the second set. Escott came into the sixth game a pale shadow of his former self, able only to watch feebly as Rederer, showing improved footwork, outpaced and outmaneuvered him, raining down powerful groundstrokes like a hailstorm. Escott moved to the net to force Rederer to do likewise, but this left him painfully exposed to passing shots to which he was too slow to respond. Rederer blitzed through the game to make the score 3-3, then won the next to retake the lead at 3-4. His burst of energy ended in the eighth game, allowing Escott to hold out – just barely – and play a defensive game that again tied the score at 4-4, but this was not to be a comeback. Shifting again to close-range combat, Rederer smashed the ball in to take the next game, then volleyed it to take the one after that – and win the second set.
Rederer again adopted a more cautious – and relaxed – stance at the beginning of the third set, engaging the tiring Escott in a somewhat slow-paced rally that at times seemed to come out of a practice session than an actual match. He appeared unperturbed when Escott scored with a shaky forehand and then took the first game with a drop shot. In any case, perhaps thinking that Escott could not hold out for much longer, Rederer quickly secured the lead, winning the next three games as Escott’s speed disappeared and his forehands were returned with ease. No longer able to consistently produce powerful groundstrokes from the baseline, Escott moved forward but Rederer refused to take the bait, instead launching shots to the back of the court which forced Escott to turn backwards and expend his diminishing power to retrieve the ball. Escott did secure the sixth game in a final burst of energy to reduce Rederer’s lead to 2-4 in the set, but the Adabian responded by slamming a backhand smash down the middle to take the second game and leave him just one game away from victory. With the match slipping away from him, Escott made one last valiant attempt at a comeback with a 13-shot rally, but no longer able to summon the speed nor the power to back up his shots, the rally was plodding and labored rather than exciting, with Rederer simply returning the shots right back at Escott before ending the whole affair with a backhand that landed too far away for Escott to catch, bringing Rederer up 15-40 for the match point. This he secured with a half-volley, his knees nearly buckling as he raced to the net to intercept the ball.
Rederer and Escott shook hands and hugged, with the former showing his biggest smile since entering the court. Bloodied and unbowed, he had secured his ticket to the semifinals. A pretty good run so far.
