WIMBLEDON ARRESTS: Court 18 was in the news again after Romania’s Victor Hanescu walked out of his third-round match against German Daniel Brands trailing 3-0 in the fifth set. During the decisive set, Hanescu, who appeared to be battling a hamstring injury, repeatedly complained to the chair umpire about unruly fans and later spit toward the crowd. According to reports, four arrests were made after the match.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A ROUND MAKES: In his second-round match against Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker, John Isner had 112 fewer aces, won 87 fewer games and played for 10 fewer hours than his marathon first-rounder against Nicolas Mahut.
GO FIGURE: After witnessing Isner’s intense pre-Wimbledon workouts, his coach, Craig Boynton, told him, “You’ll be able to play for 10 hours.”…The BBC analyzed Andy Murray’s bows to Queen Elizabeth in slow motion…Until the final game of his match with Mahut, Isner hadn’t won a back-to-back point on the Frenchman’s serve…After holding serve 84 straight times against Mahut, Isner lost his serve on the first opportunity against De Bakker…When Isner bends over in exhaustion, he’s still well over five feet tall.
LUCKY LOSER: Lucky losers get into the draw of tournaments as replacements for last-minute withdrawals. Does that mean Andy Roddick is a de facto lucky loser? After all, when Murray decided not to meet the Queen before the match he was going to play in front of her, Roddick took his place.
REFLECTIONS ON MEETING THE QUEEN: Roddick joked on Twitter, “Met the Queen today. She said I loved you in all the American Pie movies.” The Texan later followed up, “Just so we are clear…she did not say that…it was an attempt at humor…didn’t think that was gonna get taken seriously.”
FASHION COMMENTARY OF THE WEEK: “It was an outfit to match the sky.” —The BBC on the Queen’s blue dress and hat.
GOOD QUESTIONS: Reporters asked Isner: “Why did you think this match took so long?”, “In the end was it the will to win or the fear of losing that got you across the finish line?” and “Were you jealous that Thiemo De Bakker only had to play a 16-14 fifth set?”
THE NUMBERS
515: Un-returnable points on serve in the Isner-Mahut marathon.
16,000: Approximation of calories Isner and Mahut each burned during their match.
3: Times Andy Murray bowed to the Queen.
REFLECTIONS ON THE ISNER-MAHUT EPIC
“Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever.” — John Isner
“I never in my wildest dreams thought we’d ever get close to this.” — John McEnroe
“I mean, what can you say about that?” — Novak Djokovic
“I don’t know if I was crying or laughing. It was too much.” — Roger Federer
“Mahut and Isner are — like Ali and Frazier, and like brutish prizefighters – eternally entwined now, whether they like it or not.” — Kevin Mitchell, The Age
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing…Maybe it will take another couple hundred years to happen again.” — Serena Williams
“The guy’s a sucker for punishment.” — BBC commentator Gigi Salmon on Isner
“You don’t default if you have a pulse on the lawns of Wimbledon.” — Luke Jensen
“We played the greatest game in tennis in the greatest place in tennis.” – Nicolas Mahut
“To share this day with him was an honor. He was an absolute warrior.” — Isner on Mahut
“It’s a form of sporting sadism.” – The BBC on Mahut having play doubles shortly after losing to Isner
QUEENLY COMMENTS
SERENA WILLIAMS
A CURTESEY WITH AN UNFORCED ERROR
“My bow didn’t go the way I wanted. I didn’t get my wrist action that I thought I would have, and then I got nervous. So my knee kind of got tight, and I felt a lot of pain in my left knee, so I couldn’t get as low as I wanted to…I’m going to blame my injury…I feel like I had the No. 1 curtsy and then I just got nervous. Next time I’ll have to take more Advil. I definitely handle pressure way better on the court than off. No comparison.”
ON MEETING THE QUEEN
“It was amazing to meet the Queen. I mean, it’s just like history. Also to meet her at Wimbledon, and then to have her come when she never comes out. It was a very, very — it was really an unbelievable moment…She’s the ultimate. You meet presidents, you meet people, but you never really meet the Queen. So that was really exciting. She’s the Queen of England. You know, with all the history that’s behind England, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years. So it’s like, you know, the families, you think of — is it Henry VIII? You think of all these people. She’s the latest Queen of England. So that’s pretty impressive.”
ON SMALL TALK WITH QE2
“I was supposed to say, ‘Your Majesty.’ I totally choked. I was like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you’ — total American style. Maybe she’ll remember me.”
ON THE QUEEN’S OUTFIT
“I really liked it. It was definitely good for her. It was nice, it was great, it was conservative. It was a nice tweed. It was perfect. She does blue well.”
ANDY MURRAY
ON MEETING THE QUEEN
“It was just a quick few-minute chat. I’m sure she’s very busy…Just had a quick chat. When you’re nervous, it’s difficult to remember exactly what was said…I don’t want to get into what was said. It was a private conversation. That was why nobody wanted cameras or anything there to pick up everything that was getting said. It was a private conversation.
ON PLAYING IN FRONT OF THE QUEEN
“It’s great. I think for all the players, it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us…It was a big deal for everybody…I definitely enjoyed it.”
ON HIS BOW
“I saw the slow motion replay…It just looked a little bit awkward. But, like I said, I’m not used to doing it…Obviously meeting the Queen, everybody’s going to get very nervous.”
ROGER FEDERER
ON LUNCH WITH THE QUEEN
“Enjoyed sitting right next to her at lunch really and getting a chance to know what kind of a person she is, because you hear a lot obviously about people of her status. It was nice. She was very friendly, very relaxed. You could tell she’s done this a million times, you know. She made everybody feel very special at the table, one of those things you’ll never forget, and be able to tell to your kids or someone down the line.”
ON THE QUEEN’S TENNIS IQ
“She knew about my tough first round. She knew she was going to watch Andy at 1 p.m. She knew about the Isner-Mahut match. She also was very excited to be back at Wimbledon finally, that her schedule allowed it, because usually she said she was in Scotland during this time. We were all very thrilled she finally made it.”
ON THE QUEEN’S ADVICE
“She said I should hit more backhands down the line.”
