'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, Isner, Darcis (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.

First round bracketology

Let's cut right to the chase. In the bracket challenge, the first round results are:

Bess
Women: 40/64
Men: 53/64 (nice!)
Total: 93/128

Dave
Women: 37/64
Men: 43/64
Total: 80/128

So far, I am in the lead! Never fear, friends of Dave. This will likely not last long. He has a history of winning these things. All. The. Time.

In other news, I was able to get caught up on some of the matches last night, but not a lot.

Some highlights for me:

• Dave's right that Kimiko Date-Krumm was impressive and refreshing. You go, 40-year-old! Your level of fitness is enviable. And the tennis was downright entertaining. Congrats to Venus on a good win.
• I, too, was sad to see James Blake go. I didn't get to watch that match, but as I said, it was bittersweet either way as I also love Marcos Baghdatis. Hopefully he can stay alive for a few rounds and make it worth the price of Blake. Next up for Bags is Seppi and then, gulp, Novak Djokovic.
• The big news seemed to be Milos Raonic's injury just three games into his match against Gilles Muller. I'm bummed about this, because I've been hearing great things about Raonic and have yet to really see him play. And I'm not bummed about this, because had he won he would have played Nadal, so we just cleared Nadal's path a little (and he had one of the toughest draws, so it's a bit of a relief for me.) Silver lining.
• WTHIGOW Marin Cilic? He was the hot new prospect about a year and a half ago, yet he hasn't done much of late, and lost in the first round here. I sort of like him and his game, so was sad to see this result. Maybe Dave knows what's up?

On the women's side of things:

• I'm bummed that I bought into the (albeit dwindling) hype about both Sam Stosur and Jelena Jankovic. For some reason I took them both 2-3 rounds in, but both lost in the first round. Particularly deflating for me since I truly should have trusted my gut on that Jankovic pick.
• I had picked Christina McHale to make it to the second round, which she did, beating Makarova who was seeded. Nice job, young American-I-Couldn't-Pick-Out-Of-A-Line-Up! (Sidenote: She's from New Jersey!) And since Peer lost, McHale's second round just got a little easier, we'll see how far she can go.
• The other notable loss (and questionable fashion... see Dave's post below) was Bethanie Mattek-Sands. I get that it was a tough, three-set loss. But refusing to shake the chair umpire's hand? Especially when, according to the commentators, that last shot you thought was in really wasn't? That's no way to comport yourself on court. And, as Dave also noted, it makes your ridiculous outfits seem even... more ridiculous.

That's about it for my first round wrap-up. On to round two! But next, I think we should talk fashion...