Thursday, June 27, 2013

'It's gonna be OK.'

POSTED BY BESS: Day three of Wimbledon 2013 was a doozy, to put it mildly.  Mary Joe Fernandez called it Wacky Wednesday. The Twitterverse dubbed it #Wimbleweird.
  • Seven withdrawals, many due to slips and falls on the grass, including a few top talents. Azarenka, Tsonga, Cilic, IsnerDarcis (STEVE! The guy who beat Nadal), Stepanek. Who am I forgetting? Wild. 
  • Seven former number ones took the court; all lost.
  • #3 seed Maria Sharapova lost to #133 in the world. 
  • And late in the evening (at least when I finally got to watch it), #3 seed, 7-time and defending Wimbledon champion Roger Federer lost to #116 in the world, breaking his streak of making it at least as far as the quarterfinals in 36 consecutive majors. A NINE-year record.
I mean.

It was crazy.

Players voiced their incredulity. Commentators struggled to make sense of it. But in the wee hours of this morning, as I watched the Federer post-match press conference, the voice of a tennis legend, yes perhaps the GOAT, put it all in perspective.

When asked how his fans should feel after watching his incredible quarterfinal streak broken, Federer quickly replied (and I paraphrase because it was late and I wasn't taking notes), "It's gonna be OK. I'm gonna be OK."

Yes. It will be OK. And hopefully order can be restored to the All England Club today.

But it *was* a bit insane.  And yes, wacky. Weird.
Wonderfully so.

After all, it's Wimbledon. It doesn't get bigger than this.

In the midst of all the shocking withdrawals/defeats, a whole host of lesser known players had banner days they'll remember forever--for all the right reasons. If you missed Dustin Brown (who?) beating former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, you missed a talented, entertaining, gutsy player make the most of the best opportunity his chosen sport has presented to date.

Brown was brought to tears on court after winning. And soon after, he delivered a compelling and poised post-match interview in which it was clear just how much this meant to him. Just great stuff.

Will he be a factor in this tournament or any in the future? Too soon to tell.  But the possibility is there.

And either way, it'll be OK.

2 comments:

  1. Stakhovskiy also had a GREAT post-match interview, immediately after leaving the court. Although he claimed he hadn't processed beating Federer yet, he was insightful and poised and gracious. And happy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. From all reports, including this one, it's clear that I missed an incredible day of action and commentary from AELTC. (sigh)

    ReplyDelete