365 Flicks - THE TENNIS MATCH - not a movie, but the AU OPEN - the Underdog vs the Champion!!!

Now, some of you might be thinking I'm going to talk about Match Point by Woody Allen... but I'm not and I haven't seen that one yet!

Nope, I'm going to talk about last night's Australian Open, Round Two match between Venus Williams & Carla Suarez Navarro.

Now, I love the AU open... so it's rather taken over my movie watching time... but I gotta tell you... LAST NIGHT WAS ONE HECK OF A STORY!!!

I was watching this nail biting match and all I could think was of BLAKE SNYDER'S STORY STRUCTURE from SAVE THE CAT and all the other screen writing books I've been reading over the past year of Michael Hauge, Syd Field, Karel Sagers blog from the Story Department... This match went like clockwork.

Ok, so picture this:
you start with a relative unknown. You're typical underdog. She young (only 20) ranked like 46th in the world, playing her first Grand Slam tour... and she's up against Venus Williams - a woman who's like a goddess of the tennis court. She has OWNED the grand slam SEVEN TIMES already in her career. This set up was like a no-brainer. Young gun will be shown the back of Queen's racket. Should be a nice quick match to warm us up for the men's game.

And that's what happened in Act I. Venus dominated. Carla Suarez Navarro was hanging in there, but pretty much didn't look like she had a shot. But you couldn't help but feel for her... she was up against insurmountable odds...... This set ended up 6-2 to Williams.

BRING ON: ACT TWO!!!

There was a gear change in Carla... it was visible. She had been making some nice shots in Set 1, but here in the second set, something had shifted and she was just GOING FOR IT. She had some fantastic winners from the base line, she would trade with Venus power for power until she had the slightest advantage and then, without hesitation, she would take it home. There were even a few games where they were battling it out at deuce for who could bring it home.

It was clear to us as spectators and audience of this match, that Carla found something deep down and said "You may be big. You may be mean. But I will not go quietly into that good night." and she fought back to take the set 6-3. This plucky, gutsy young girl moved from underdog without a chance to our 'hero' who was willing to do the impossible.

MID POINT. Carla, by now well and truly our hero, wins set two.

Ok, set 3 and Venus comes out with the charge. They trade games with serve until Venus broke and held her next serve (had to hold hard coz carla wasn't backing down) to get to 4-1. Both Carla & Venus hold their serves and suddenly it's 5-2. SURELY, ALL IS LOST??? This is the point where any young rising star must break, surely? Surely they could not have the experience and game fitness to pull back from such a lead to one of the worlds greatest players???

But Carla will not say die! She holds her serve to 3-5 and then BREAKS VENUS to bring it to 5-4.

BREAK INTO THREE!!!

So here we are, in the final games of the match. And Venus starts to crack. You see it in a double fault here, in a missed line there... But Carla, even as she gets closer and closer to the finish line... does not tense up. She stays fluid, alert... focused... She is, ladies and gentlemen, IN THE FLOW!!!

She breaks Venus, holds her serve in a deuce battle (as in saving match point on her own serve) and takes it to 5-5. At the end of each game she looks like she is about to cry, but by the start of the next, she is clear, calm and focused.

She breaks the champion to take it to 6-5 and then she serves it home for 7-5!

What a match, what a victory, what a story!!!

I was up and on my feet at many points in that match, hollering and cheering from my home...

Now THAT's what i call SOLID STORY STRUCTURE!!!

Wickid,
Miri
xxx