Scott 52010 Wimbledon Review
July 7th 2010 07:47
Well with the win of Rafael Nadal on Sunday night (AEST), comes the end of what has been a most extraordinary fortnight at Wimbledon. From crowd spats to long games, with the mandatory upsets and shocks, it's fair to say that this tournament delivered more than usual.
I will highlight a couple of stories that emerged and also provide a rollcall of all winners
John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut
Nicolas Mahut qualified through the qualifying tournament held before Wimbledon itself and had already won an epic 3rd set in one of his matches 24-22. Looking at this, you would've picked Isner for an easy win. Little was anyone to know that this would turn into the greatest match of tennis ever.
The first 4 sets were pretty routine with both players claiming 2 sets each 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7). It was the 5th set though that this game will be forever remembered for. At the end of day 1, the game was 2 sets each with bad light to blame. At the end of day 2 it was 59-59 after 7 hours on court and then Isner finally claimed the win 70-68.
This match broke a number of records with a semple of them listed:
Record number of aces in a game - 215
Most number of games at Wimbledon - 183
Longest set of tennis ever - 8 hours 15 minutes
Most number of games in a set of tennis - 138
This will go down as one of the greatest matches in history and will always be remembered for ever.
Victor Hanescu implodes
From the sublime, comes the ridiculous with Court 18 witnessing a shameful effort from Romanian Victor Hanescu. Hanescu was 2 sets to 0 up before completely imploding. He lost the next 2 sets and was receiving treatment for a leg injury before exhibiting some extraordinary behaviour in the 5th set. Someone in the crowd said something and he spat in their direction before deliberately double faulting, swearing at the crowd and receiving a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. After all this, he then retired, trailing 3-0 in the 5th set with a hamstring injury.
This will go down as the strangest thing I've ever heard occuring on a tennis court besides the famous day when John McEnroe was defaulted at the Australian Open in 1990 for inappropriate comments to the chair umpire.
Aussies at Wimbledon
Yet again it was another abysmal tournament for the Aussies at Wimbledon. Predictably it was the women that performed better than the men however the biggest surprise of the lot was Sam Stosur being knocked out in the opening round. Anyway here's a list of the Aussies that competed and the round they were eliminated in
Women
Sam Stosur - 1st Round
Anastasia Rodionova - 3rd Round (Scored massive win over Svetlana Kuznetsova)
Casey Dellacqua - 1st Round
Jarmila Groth - 4th Round
Men
Peter Luczak - 2nd Round (knocked out Tommy Robredo though)
Carsten Bell - 1st Round
Lleyton Hewitt - 4th Round (knocked out Gael Monfils though)
Bernard Tomic - 1st Round
Rollcall of Winners
Mens: Rafael Nadal
Womens: Serena Williams
Mens Doubles: Jurgen Melzer/Philipp Petzchner
Womens Doubles: Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova
Mixed Doubles: Leander Paes/Cara Black
So at the end of the tournament, it's strange to not see Roger Federer there as champion as he's owned this tournament of late but having said that, it's been good to see the upsets and drama in both the mens and womens competitions.
Bring on 2011
I will highlight a couple of stories that emerged and also provide a rollcall of all winners
John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut
Nicolas Mahut qualified through the qualifying tournament held before Wimbledon itself and had already won an epic 3rd set in one of his matches 24-22. Looking at this, you would've picked Isner for an easy win. Little was anyone to know that this would turn into the greatest match of tennis ever.
The first 4 sets were pretty routine with both players claiming 2 sets each 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7). It was the 5th set though that this game will be forever remembered for. At the end of day 1, the game was 2 sets each with bad light to blame. At the end of day 2 it was 59-59 after 7 hours on court and then Isner finally claimed the win 70-68.
This match broke a number of records with a semple of them listed:
Record number of aces in a game - 215
Most number of games at Wimbledon - 183
Longest set of tennis ever - 8 hours 15 minutes
Most number of games in a set of tennis - 138
This will go down as one of the greatest matches in history and will always be remembered for ever.
Victor Hanescu implodes
From the sublime, comes the ridiculous with Court 18 witnessing a shameful effort from Romanian Victor Hanescu. Hanescu was 2 sets to 0 up before completely imploding. He lost the next 2 sets and was receiving treatment for a leg injury before exhibiting some extraordinary behaviour in the 5th set. Someone in the crowd said something and he spat in their direction before deliberately double faulting, swearing at the crowd and receiving a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. After all this, he then retired, trailing 3-0 in the 5th set with a hamstring injury.
This will go down as the strangest thing I've ever heard occuring on a tennis court besides the famous day when John McEnroe was defaulted at the Australian Open in 1990 for inappropriate comments to the chair umpire.
Aussies at Wimbledon
Yet again it was another abysmal tournament for the Aussies at Wimbledon. Predictably it was the women that performed better than the men however the biggest surprise of the lot was Sam Stosur being knocked out in the opening round. Anyway here's a list of the Aussies that competed and the round they were eliminated in
Women
Sam Stosur - 1st Round
Anastasia Rodionova - 3rd Round (Scored massive win over Svetlana Kuznetsova)
Casey Dellacqua - 1st Round
Jarmila Groth - 4th Round
Men
Peter Luczak - 2nd Round (knocked out Tommy Robredo though)
Carsten Bell - 1st Round
Lleyton Hewitt - 4th Round (knocked out Gael Monfils though)
Bernard Tomic - 1st Round
Rollcall of Winners
Mens: Rafael Nadal
Womens: Serena Williams
Mens Doubles: Jurgen Melzer/Philipp Petzchner
Womens Doubles: Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova
Mixed Doubles: Leander Paes/Cara Black
So at the end of the tournament, it's strange to not see Roger Federer there as champion as he's owned this tournament of late but having said that, it's been good to see the upsets and drama in both the mens and womens competitions.
Bring on 2011
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