But Stakhovsky had played imposing serve-and-volley tennis, a style seldom seen nowadays, and as the fourth set unfolded on Center Court, it became clear that he was not going to succumb to nerves.
Yet European elites embraced the notion of economics as morality play, imposing across-the-board austerity, tightening money despite low underlying inflation, and have been too concerned with punishing sinners to notice that everything was going to blow apart without an effective lender of last resort.
And then came Saturday's national semifinal against the Wichita State Shockers, who played angry, played nasty, imposing their will on a team that had already expended a great deal of emotion and energy over the past week.
I like to improvise, singing and playing without imposing structure on the music.
The university suspended itself from 2002-3 playseason play, imposed its own financial sanctions and gave up all victories earned while Webber and the other players were on the team, erasing the legacy of the Fab Five.
The ensemble, conducted by J C Sanford, played with imposing dynamism, often building elaborate structures over a drone.
It was the Victorians who formalised the rules of many of the sports played today, imposing order on what was then anarchy.
The band played an imposing set that was sprinkled with unrecorded new songs and one old one, "Trani," that its lead vocalist, Caleb Followill, said it had last played live at its Bonnaroo debut in 2004.
Sammy Lee has attempted to stamp his mark on the team he inherited from Sam Allardyce by encouraging his players to "get the ball down and play" and imposing on them an expansive 4-4-2 formation.
