Early exits
“Why are so many seeds out at Wimbledon already?” the BBC asked on its website on Friday morning.
Were “false rankings,” which don’t take into account player injuries and pregnancies, to blame? That’s how an unseeded Stan Wawrinka came to face, and beat, Grigor Dimitrov in the first round. Was it “nature,” in the form of rain, heat, slippery grass, or even flying ants? Marin Cilic was the victim of an untimely shower on Wednesday night.
How about fatique after a long clay season and a turbo-charged grass season? That may have been at the root of early exits by Petra Kvitova, Dominic Thiem, and Caroline Wozniacki. Finally, the BBC wondered, with so little separating one player from the next, should we even care about seedings in the first place?
We definitely don’t need to care about them on the women’s side right now. By Thursday, six of the top eight WTA seeds had departed, and No.9 and 10, Venus Williams and Madison Keys (above), were sent packing on Friday. That leaves just Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova among the top tier - as well as, of course, No.25 Serena Williams, who may now be the favourite to win her eighth Wimbledon despite hardly playing at all for the last year and a half.
The question that many fans might be asking now is: Should we be delighted or distressed by all of the carnage we see around us on the grounds? Are we in the middle of a mind-blowing party that will lead to an extended hangover when we wake up next week and see the names that are left in the draw?
Something similar happened during the infamous Wimblegeddon of 2013, when six former No.1s, including Roger Federer, lost on the first Wednesday. Most people remember the end result on the women’s side: An uninspiring and one-sided final between Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki.
What gets lost about 2013, though, and about other majors where upsets have run rampant, is that even if the final is a little strange and random, getting there is a thrill.
First, you have the upsets themselves, which come with their own, uniquely exhilarating mix of tension and release. When a lower-ranked player tries to knock off a high seed, an emotional roller coaster typically ensues. That’s what made Kiki Bertens’ overtime win over Venus Williams the match of the day on Friday.
The third round matches between Evgeniya Rodina and Keys, and Pliskova and Mihaela Buzarnescu - one ended in an upset, the other didn’t - both featured wild comebacks from seemingly insurmountable deficits.
Second, you have a chance to watch and connect with a new group of players that you haven’t seen much of before, and may not see much of again. Over the course of the first week, we’ve had a chance to get to watch, among many others, Aliaksandra Sasnovich weave a shotmaking web around Kvitova; Donna Vekic hold her nerve against Sloane Stephens; Vitalia Diatchenko stand up to Maria Sharapova; and Ekaterina Makarova choke, and then unchoke, against Wozniacki. In these moments, you’re reminded of how much variety - variety of background, playing style, and personality - exists in this global sport.
Third, once anyone can win a Grand Slam title, the stakes in each match sky rocket. Next week, every fourth round encounter will be freighted with more significance than normal, because the difference between winning and losing could be the difference between being remembered as a Wimbledon champion - or not. Just ask Agnieska Radwanska (or, on second thought, don’t ask her).
In 2013, she lost a brilliant semi-final, 9-7 in the third set, to Lisicki. If Radwanska had pulled that final set out -and she had her chances - she would have faced Bartoli, a player she had beaten in all seven of their previous meetings, for the Wimbledon title. No wonder that semi-final was so hard-fought, and no wonder Radwanska could barely bring herself to shake Lisicki’s hand when it was over.
Like wild parties or beer for breakfast, seed carnage shouldn’t be a regular occurrence at the Slams; if it were, upsets would cease to be exciting - they cease to be upsets, in the first place. But when Wimblegeddon is upon us, the pleasures outweigh the perils, and it’s best to stop worrying and enjoy it. Who knows, maybe Serena Williams will win the title this year, and we’ll look back and think the 2018 Championships were just business as usual.
