The Wimbledon tennis tournament, which had originated in 1877, is today undisputedly regarded as the world’s most prestigious and premier Grand Slam event. The annual sporting extravaganza began on 1st July this year. Despite the massive cricket world cup fever, there was huge crowd attendance in all the Wimbledon matches including the finals between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic on 14th July. This was despite the fact that England was playing the finals of the quadrangular ICC cricket mega event after a gap of 27 years in its own backyard which, by itself, spoke volumes of the unrelenting passion and love for tennis among the English sports lovers.
The first major upset of Wimbledon 2019 was when 15-year-old American, Cori "Coco" Gauff, the youngest ever player to have qualified in Wimbledon tournament, annihilated five-time Grand slam winner, Venus Williams in straight sets. Incidentally, both Venus and Serena Williams are the “idols” of the American teenager. And then, an unseeded Reilly Opelka went on to trounce Stanislas Wawrinka, three-time Grand Slam champion, in the second round. It is such upsets that make the Grand Slams exciting and a feast for the eyes and minds. However, the euphoria of the 21-year-old American was short-lived when he lost to the experienced M. Raonic in the third round.
Taking a journey down memory lane, connoisseurs of tennis can never forget the day when Boris Becker, a 17-year-old unseeded teenager from Germany, had caused a major upset in the “post World War II period” of Wimbledon history to lift the men’s Champion’s trophy in 1985. Becker repeated his ace performance in 1986 to win once again. However, in sheer irony of circumstances, the two-time defending champion was shocked to the hilt when 70th-ranked Australian Peter Doohan trounced him in the second round of the 1987 edition of Wimbledon. The British press promptly nicknamed Doohan as “Becker-wrecker.”
The performance of Richard Krajicek is even more remarkable. Krajicek was holding the 17th position in ranking and was not in the original list of players playing in the 1996 edition of the Wimbledon tournament. He got the entry at the last moment replacing 7th ranked Thomas Muster who had pulled out of the competition due to an injury. It is now part of history that Krajicek had made optimum use of his golden opportunity to play and effected the mother of all upsets to emerge as the Wimbledon champion. However, dame luck was not in his favour any more and his Wimbledon 1996 feat remained a flash in the pan.
Arthur Ash, Rod Laver, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras, to name a few all time greats of men’s tennis, had enjoyed tremendous support and adulation in their hey days. But the popularity and fan following of Roger Federer across the world is monumental, overwhelming and unprecedented.
There was spontaneous worldwide showering of accolades, commendation and praise mingled with astonishment at the towering achievement of Roger Federer - described as the “greatest tennis player of all time” - winning the Australian Open, 2018 emphatically to emerge as the only player to lift 20 Grand Slam singles titles - the most in history by a male player. Federer held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a record total of 304 weeks erasing all hitherto existing records. Admirers of sport can never recapitulate any instance of entire sporting connoisseurs rising to one man to offer love and admiration in such a splendid manner as they have done to Federer. The likes of Sir Garfield Sobers, the cricketer, or the football wizard Pele were also equally prominent and admired across the world. But their achievements did not create such frenzy of admiration as was witnessed at the feat of the Swiss maestro following the Australian Open triumph in 2018.
Federer had a fairly easy ride till the semifinals of the just concluded Wimbledon tournament, 2019. Except losing one set in the first round match against Harris and one set against Nishikori in the quarter final, he had beaten all his opponents in straight sets in his run up to the semifinal. The expected tough semifinal against Nadal was won with relative ease that raised hopes in the minds of teeming millions of his fans of a 21st grand slam title. The five-setter final against Djokovic was pulsating, nail-biting. The partisan crowd was cheering for Federer alone. However, his fans were shocked to watch the maestro losing two championship points and thereafter conceding the match. A rare faux pas! The sight of a sheepish Federer in the post match customary speech was an enormous disillusionment for his countless followers even as the camera zoomed in on his twin kid daughters and their vacant, disheartened look.
“Old order changes yielding place to the new,” goes the saying. Notwithstanding the scintillating performances of the celebrities, watching underdogs displaying stellar performances has a great moral-boosting effect besides enriching the tennis world with fresh and young blood.