From Serve to Stroke

I have met few great sportsmen but hearing about Andy Murray's reduction from Briton to Scotsman over last weekend, led me to think about a drink I had with David Sawyer, in the 'Old Tom' pub in Oxford in the early 1970s. David who?

Sawyer was a good American tennis player - good not great although he might have become so had he stayed on court. I think he was one of those excellent young college players whom the Americans produce from time to time, the most famous being John McEnroe, of course, who got through to the quarters or semis at Wimbledon when still a college amateur.

But Sawyer gave up tennis because he didn't like, he said, the psychology of the game. Whereas duffers like me concentrate merely on getting the ball back, players of Sawyer's potential class and anyone in the higher rankings, know it's a question of dominating the other person - making them loose confidence and therefore quality - in Sawyer's terms, "You have to grind them down".

And of course the grinding may be overt - such as when Sampras in his heyday destroyed the excellent Boris Becker in that 1995 Wimbledon final when having the lost the first set tie-break Pete then played perfect tennis taking the next three sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 and to my recollection, missing no services, returns of service nor lines.

Or it may be more subtle when - for me the mark of a tennis champion - you refuse to give way on break points in the way that Federer did against Murray a few days ago and so created the (very real) impression of invincibility which it is pointless to challenge.

But Sawyer gave up tennis and became a rower winning, I think a silver medal for the USA either in eights or fours at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He then went to Oxford where, it became clear, he was either genetically indisposed to feel pain or exhaustion or was so bloody-minded that he'd fight on through no matter what.

He said to me he very much preferred being a part of a 'crew' rather than being on his own on court and he also, more jocularly preferred facing backwards (although in his case from the stroke seat, this again meant he ended up looking at the failing opposition).

Sawyer's strength of body and of character became legendary at Oxford but in fact, it was this that probably cost Oxford the Boatrace in 1973 when, it is said, Sawyer refused to allow the boat back to the banks (before the start) to empty it after hitting a series of bad waves and, it was claimed at the time, then lost with one of the greatest crews the university had ever produced and with a boat half filled with the Thames.

Despite this loss, I would strongly argue that Sawyer and his spirit were the starting point for what has become known as the Revival which led Oxford to win 17 of the next 19 races. Not bad for a base-line jockey!