They used to say about Richard Krajicek that the only place youwould find his name in the latter stages of a tournament was on asick note. They used to. Krajicek has for long been the greatunderachiever, a man either injured or thinking about his nextinjury. The strength of his body was not matched by the grey stuffin his skull.
All that changed this fortnight in a single moment. Krajicek wasin a third-round tie-breaker with Brett Steven, of New Zealand,having lost the previous set (the only one he dropped alltournament) when the hobgoblins began multiplying in his mind.Previous themes such as his recent mistakes and the iniquity ofgrass were revisited, the sort of self-pitying that formerlyprefaced defeat.
But then Krajicek decided to try. He beat Steven followed byMichael Stich, Pete Sampras, Jason Stoltenberg and, yesterday, inthe final, MaliVai Washington.
Those who know Krajicek talk of a shy, sensitive man, nothinglike the personality you would imagine from his much-repeated quoteof 1982. Then, with PR skills borrowed from Oliver Reed, hedescribed 80 per cent of women players as 'lazy, fat pigs'. Despitethis unwise observation, Krajicek has never been deserted by thepublic of his native Netherlands. The son of Czech immigrants doesmuch to nurture the junior game in his homeland. Tennis is notpurely a middle- class sport in the Netherlands, it stands secondonly to football in popularity. Krajicek's progress through thetournament has been followed in the media there with as muchfervour as England afforded Tim Henman.
In the bad old days, Krajicek could be guaranteed to drop hishead and stomp around in a permanent bow for at least part of amatch, but yesterday his 6ft 5in frame was pylon straightthroughout.
The body language of the loser came from Washington.
For the first time since 1975 and the year of Arthur Ashe'svictory, 50 per cent of the playing personnel was black, but againit was not a ratio that could be applied to the crowd. In theUnited States, too, tennis is a game more associated with cucumbersandwiches (crusts removed) than bangers and mash, and the nets inAmerica's inner cities tend to be drooping from a basketball hoop.
There are far more black American women on tour than men(Washington and Bryan Shelton are the only ones of note) but thenthere are fewer alternative sports for girls across the Pond tochoose. Some will see Washington's deeds as pivotal in gettingyoung black boys interested in tennis, but the Ashe experiencesuggests that would be a fallacy.
At times this fortnight, on television at least, Krajicek'smatches have appeared to get in the way of a study of a blondewoman in the players' guests box. Daphne Deckers, Krajicek's27-year-old girlfriend, is well-known in the Netherlands and nowtoo over here, thanks to drooling BBC cameramen.
Henman and her old man should move aside - Daphne was the faceof Wimbledon 96.
