Looking Back, It Was Almost Anger’s Day

Anger was in Ivan Lendl’s eyes.

It was the fourth set of a Wimbledon match that had dragged out for two days.

It was the 18th point of a tiebreaker that could have been settled in seven.

And here was this stranger, trying to shoot him down on the grassy ground, trying to keep him from winning the tennis tournament he had never won.

The guy took the first set to a tiebreaker. The guy took the second set to a tiebreaker. Now he had taken the fourth set to a tiebreaker. Didn’t the guy know whom he was dealing with?

But at last, Lendl was at match point. He finally had the upper hand against the Westerner standing in front of him, this kid from towns with names like Walnut Creek and Pleasanton, this kid with the cowboy-novel name.

Matt Anger.

Ride out of town, boys, Matt Anger’s a-comin’. Go git Sheriff Anger. Matt Anger, wanted dead or alive. What a rugged name. Who was this kid’s coach, anyway--Louis L’Amour?

Lendl fixed his gaze upon the guy from California. He had just endured three set points. So far, he had kept the kid from taking him to a fifth and final set.

Now he was up, 9-8. All he had to do was break the Californian’s serve this one time, and the match was his.

Anger served. Lendl returned. Anger hit one back softly, too softly. There it was. Right on Lendl’s forehand. Open court in front of him. A view to a kill.

Lendl swung. But the ball did not zing the strings of his racket; it hit the top of his racket instead. An easy, wide-open shot, and he shanked it off to the right, toward the crowd.

Anger. Once again, the tie-breaker was tied. And now it was the other guy’s serve.

Anger served. Lendl returned. Right into the net.

Ten-nine, Anger. Lendl looked at the ball, lying at the base of the net, took his racket and clubbed it like a 5-iron.

Ivan felt terrible.

He was that close to blowing up, to going off the deep end, to throwing another Wimbledon onto the junk heap. Not once had this great player stayed alive until the final of this tournament, much less won it. Now he was in danger of departing this one, the one he was favored to win.

So close, Matt Anger came.

But Lendl survived. He lived to play another day. It took him 22 points in that final tiebreaker to do away with Anger for good, but finally Tuesday’s match was his, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 7-6.

Anger knows how close he came. The Czech was ripe for the picking. This was the match that would have put Matt Anger on the tennis map, the one that would have made him not just the 29th-ranked player in the world but one of the big boys.

“I feel pretty terrible right now,” Anger said afterward. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that I got to the final 16. It was my best showing in a Grand Slam ever. But I still think I should have won. It was there for the taking.”

He had been one of two American men left in the tournament. Lendl lives in Connecticut, but that doesn’t count. Now it would be up to Tim Mayotte to carry the flag, to face Lendl in the quarterfinals.

Had Anger learned anything about Lendl, had he seen any signs that the top seed might be in trouble?

“There’s nothing about Lendl that I know now that I didn’t know before the match,” he said. “His forehand is very good. He can hit the ball anywhere with it.”

A polite young man, Anger did not mention any forehands that Lendl hit into the net or the crowd.

“He’s got a strong serve and a very good topspin lob,” Anger said. “I was going to say his second serve wasn’t so strong, but it was a lot stronger today than it was yesterday.

“It’s tough for me to say what the chink in his armor might be. Maybe if I had won, I would know. But I’m still figuring it out.”

Anger made no excuses, used no mid-match postponements as alibis, made no references to calls that might have gone another way. He handled himself perfectly on Centre Court of Wimbledon and left a very strong impression that he would be back.

Before this, the biggest success of his pro career, since leaving USC, had been a tournament victory in South Africa. Steadily he has scaled the rankings’ ladder, from 177th in 1984 to his current position. But to some people in tennis circles, he was better known as the guy who used to date Tracy Austin.

“My immediate goal is to try to crack the top 20,” he said. “I’ve been vacillating between 23-30. Everybody wants to be No. 1, but I’ll just take it as it comes. I’ve got to hit 20 first.”

A victory over Ivan Lendl at Wimbledon would have been one of those things that would have made people look back on Anger for years. Lendl himself would have been seeing Anger, feeling Anger and hearing Anger in his head for at least the next 12 months.

But it didn’t happen. Ivan Lendl got grazed but not killed. He took a couple of good shots, but it is Matt Anger who will have to be moving on. This town just ain’t big enough for the both of them anymore.