MARATHON MATTERS: As the fifth set of the John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut mega-marathon reached its 173rd minute, one pressroom wag claimed that he’d had marriages that hadn’t lasted as long as the fifth set. Others claimed that Isner had grown his rather substantial entirely during the fifth set. As the record-breaking match got to the 57th game of the fifth set, a literary type said, “This is like Beckett. Forget ‘Waiting for Godot’ — this is ‘Waiting For a Break of Serve.’”
SERENA ON SOCCER: Serena Williams, who’s been front-and-center in many a controversy, from saying that Justine Henin was “lying and fabricating” at the French Open to her meltdown after a footfault call at last year’s U.S. Open, was none too happy on Twitter about the officiating in America’s soccer game against Algeria. Serena wrote: “I’m watching football/ soccer online this is outrageous!!! World cup? World cheat. No wonder USA doesn’t get into soccer. It’s all a set up!!! I can’t watch this. These people are not fair. R they paying the umpires to cheat USA?? I have never seen such injustic since I played us open 2004, and 2009… Also Venus Wimbledon 2004.” Andy Roddick wasn’t too happy either. The Texan quipped, “It’s safe to say we may or may not be getting screwed again today.”
ROYAL DISS: If the officiating in the World Cup wasn’t painful enough, Wimbldon (or maybe it was the English Royals) decided not to have be have any Americans play before the Queen on Thursday. For the second match of the day, the women’s match, the Committee could have selected the defending champion, Serena, who has only won a total of 26 Grand Slams (That 12 singles and 14 doubles titles.) But Serena is rowdy and kind of wild. She grunts and is unpredictable. So the Committee made the safe decision and chose the benign, controversy-free Caroline Wozniacki to play against Taiwan’s Kai-Chen Chang, whose highest ranking was No. 1
PRIME TIME: Has there ever been a more compelling and wide-ranging stretch of sports events than the eight days from June 17 to June 24. First there was a rare seventh game then in the NBA Championships (in which the Lakers downed their arch rival, the Celtics. Then Tiger Woods faltered and Ireland’s Grame McDowell won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, arguably the most beautiful course in the world. Then, in the opening match at Wimbledon, the indomitable Roger Federer almost suffered the worst upset in tennis history on the biggest stage in the game. On Thursday Queen Elizabeth will be coming to Wimbledon for the first time in 33 years and all the while the World Cup is drawing rapt attention from remote outposts in the Andes to tiny Korean villages.
THE PAINT JOB ON THE TITANIC SURE WAS SWELL: There are no Englishman in the Wimbledon draw for the first time. Britain recently lost to Lithuania in Davis Cup and now, in order to be relegated to the very lowest level of Davis Cup, will be playing without their two best players, Andy Murray and Alex Bogdanovic and all the English women in the Wimbledon draw were relegated to their gardening by the second. This was the worst English Wimbledon in its 133-year history. But this didn’t stop the head of the Lawn Tennis Association to claim (with a straight face) that “British tennis is really, healthy, vibrant and growing.” Murray was a bit more real, saying that British tennis “is not great…It’s not ideal. Everybody who’s working at the Lawn Tennis Association will be disappointed.
THE MAN WHO WOULD PLEASE US: Most fortunately, Rafa Nadal is charming, charismatic and engaging. One senses the man, who just the other day seemed to be a boy, wants to make people happy. Having said that, it is interesting that he calls every major tournament of the spring-summer circuit (Monte Carlo, Madrid, Roland Garros, Wimbledon) his favorite tournament.
TRIPLEHEADER: All at one time Wednesday afternoon, Andy Roddick was battling Michael Llodra on Centre Court, John Isner was playing his 27th gam game of his fifth set against France’s Nicolas Mahut and ALL of England was pre-occupied with England’s quest to escape World Cup infamy.
THE ULTIMATE LOYALISTS: Certain tennis commentators were infamous for going on and on about the wonders of the golf. Even Jack Kramer said tennis was a superior game. Ouch. But the All England Club went in the opposite direction. Not only did they ban from Wimbledon broadcasts of England’s do or die game against Slovenia, they went so far as to pulling the blinds on the windows of the media center so fans could not even look into the area and take in the game on reporters’ TV monitors.
