The first twinge, likely noticed by only a few, came on the changeover at 3-4 when Steve Johnson was down a break in the third set of the U.S. Clay Court Championship final in Houston, Texas.
Johnson went to the cooler to get a drink. In the short distance back to his chair, his left leg buckled.
Later, after the leg went into such spasms Johnson had to stop play, he still managed to prevail 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) over Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil and win his first career clay-court title.
Johnson got a lot of help from Bellucci, who either failed to see Johnson’s distress early enough or, more likely, saw it and let it get into his head. A notorious sweater himself, Bellucci was feeling the effects of the heat and the occasion nearly as much as his opponent.
After Johnson went ahead 5-4, he tried to ingest everything he had at warp speed: water, sports drinks, gels and some substance that tasted so foul he had to spit most of it out. “I told you it was nasty,” his trainer said to him later on.
When the cramps hit …
At 5-all, 40-30, the big wave finally hit. Johnson had to back away from the service line. He got a time violation warning.
The chair umpire even had to come out of his chair, likely to explain to Johnson that if he didn’t get on with it he would face increasing penalties for going over time.
The only thing he could do was receive treatment for the cramping on the next changeover – but only for the regular 90-second break.
That’s where Bellucci essentially lost the match. After that long pause, Johnson managed to get a second serve in play. All the Brazilian had to do was put the ball in the court. From there, the chances of breaking and serving out looked pretty good.
He put the backhand return into the net.
Bellucci knew it, too; the rueful smile on his face as he walked to his chair said it all.
“I wasn’t cramping, but I was so tired that I couldn’t think to win the match. He was a little bit worse than me (physically), but he was playing unbelievably,” Bellucci told the Houston media.
Last, final bit of energy for the homestretch
At 4-3, up a mini-break in the third-set tiebreak, Johnson won it. After just spinning serves in the last part of the third set, his legs completely useless, he went for broke and cranked one 120 mph. Then he cranked another one at 127 mph. One final go-for-broke forehand down-the-line winner, and Johnson was the winner.
“I can think things through even when times are tough,” Johnson said. “I knew I just had to take a few deep breaths and just get enough going in my body to last another five to 10 minutes out there.”
Johnson, along with teammates Jack Sock, John Isner and Sam Querrey, went from the U.S. to Brisbane, Australia for Davis Cup last weekend. They flew to Houston right from there. That’s a lot of stress to put a body through – not to mention they had to instantly change surfaces to clay with no practice, and deal with the comedown from Davis Cup drama.
He was the last one standing among the four.
Sock no doubt sympathized; a similar thing happened to him a year ago in the Houston final against Juan Monaco, to the point where he even tried an underhand serve. Johnson himself has had it worse than that, in the first round of the 2014 US Open against Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.
“To win on U.S. soil and win when you’re not feeling great is a testament to my willpower and competitiveness. My body has just physically run out of gas after this week. ” Johnson told the media. “Coming in from Australia kind of put me behind the eight-ball and then the nerves of trying to close out the final, a lot of factors go into cramping. I was very fortunate to get out of that.”
If anyone deserved the jump into the River Oaks Club pool, a tradition for Houston champions, it was Johnson.
Probably not the greatest thing for a guy who’s been cramping to do. But it was the winning thing to do.
(All screenshots from TennisTV)
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