The Queen and Rafael Nadal…
5. It took 33 years for the Queen to visit the Championships again and understandably so, there was a tremendous buzz around it. As it turned out later, she proceeded to watch Andy Murray play on the Centre Court and British fans would have hoped for ‘Lady Luck’ to have helped their local champ win the title this time.
Unfortunately, that was not to happen and the guy who actually beat their man created his own share of buzz with respect to his meeting with the Queen, the one that never happened actually.
Nadal was asked whether he’d like to meet the Queen but the world no. 1 was playing on the same day and was busy doing his pre-match rituals. As a result, he declined to meet Her Highness and later justified his decision to not compromise on his match preparations by saying, “I am playing in Wimbledon. It's not a joke. I have a lot of respect for the queen. I have a lot of respect for this tournament. [But] Today is a match day for me, no? So I have my things to do.”
India & Pakistan come together…
4. "Stop war, start tennis" was possibly not aimed at any political party across the spectrum. It was just a simple yet strong way to put their point across by India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani doubles partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. The pair was one of the highlights of the tournament for the Indian subcontinent, not just for their tracksuits that bore that strong message but even for their good show during the Championships that took them to the Quarter-Finals before they bowed out. Early days in their career but Bopanna and Qureshi have most things in place to become a fine pair in the years to come and it could become quite a regular sight then in the future, to have Indians and Pakistanis sitting side by side on the stands, cheering for one another!
Federer…
3. Yes, he hadn’t won anything since the Australian Open in January. Yes he had once again dropped to no. 2 in the rankings. Losses against players who he ‘owned’ earlier were becoming way too frequent. Most importantly, his nemesis, Rafael Nadal was back on the prowl. Yet, all of that didn’t mean that people were ready to not see Federer contesting a Wimbledon final, at least most people were still unprepared for that. Even if you accept that most good things come to an end, this one did come as an unpleasant surprise. For the first time since 2002, Roger Federer didn’t feature on the second Sunday of the Championships. And to make things worse, he’s not even the World no. 2 anymore!
Nadal…
2. The ‘animal’ as John McEnroe describes him, Nadal ‘completed’ his comeback by winning what he calls his ‘favourite’ tournament in the world. The man who was title-less for 11 months till April this year, has now won 3 Masters Series and 2 Grand Slams within the space of three months and must be itching to win that one Slam to have eluded him so far, the US Open. A tremendous achievement for a tremendous athlete who was muddled in self-doubt not too long ago; questioning whether he’d ever be able to play the way he always wanted to with the man being constantly bothered by his knees. Though his knees are far from 100% even now, there’s little doubt that Nadal’s here to stay and punish his challengers for a few more years. However, his amazing story still doesn’t excite enough to be ranked as no. 1 at this year's Wimbledon.
Game, set, match Isner, 70 games to 68……..
1. Nadal may win many more such titles, Serena could walk away with another ’14 sets to love’ campaigns, Bopanna and Qureshi could come up with even better lines and surely, the Queen will finally get to shake hands with the current World no. 1 sometime in the future. But a final set scoreline reading 70-68, even in the next 100,000 years will never happen again. 11 hours, 5 min on court, nearly 6 hours for the 5th set alone. John Isner, Nicolas Mahut, take a bow!
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