(June 27, 2013) -- It may be a little cruel, but it sure seems like the two Wimbledon finals just became
Andy Murray vs.
Novak Djokovic and
Serena Williams vs. Who Cares.
Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and
Victoria Azarenka are all spectators at Wimbledon just three days in. For the women, it's unprecedented. At no time in the Open Era have two of the top three seeds been out so early at Wimbledon.
For the men, it's been five years since two of the top five seeds were bounced so quickly, but the full weight of losing two men who have combined for 29 Grand Slam titles - nine of them on the All England Club's lawn - is staggering.
Upsets are great. And Cinderella stories are rarely anything but compelling. But too many of them can spoil the thrill. While we love a shocker, we still want to see the very best in the world battle through the rigors of a Grand Slam tournament to face each other at the end.
Take the NCAA basketball tournament. Every year, some tiny squad from an unknown conference will upset a higher-ranked team in the early going, and some of them carry the hot streak a round or two further.
But when multiple Cinderellas emerge and keep on winning, things start to lose their luster. More specifically, if you shelled out top dollars for Final Four tickets in anticipation of seeing the likes of Duke, Indiana and North Carolina, you're not going to be all that thrilled when Coppin State, Gonzaga and UC-Santa Barbara show up instead.
At Wimbledon, Djokovic's path to the finals seems pretty clear from the get-go. No. 4 seed
David Ferrer has never been great on grass, and No. 8 Juan Martin Del Potro has never quite regained the form that saw him knock off Federer in the 2009 US Open final.
Tomas Berdych is the only guy left in the field outside of Djokovic or Murray to actually make the Wimbledon final, but he's still "just another guy" at this point.
Murray, meanwhile, should be buying lottery tickets after having a couple of unheard-ofs take out Federer and Nadal for him, not to mention the injuries that felled No. 6
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 10
Marin Cilic, and the first-round upset of No. 11
Stanislas Wawrinka. There are only six seeded players left alive on Murray's side of the bracket - the highest being No. 15
Nicolas Almagro, who is about as dangerous on grass (career 11-12 entering this year's tournament) as Murray is on clay.
For the women, Williams might be playing too well and too driven for it to have made much of a difference if either Sharapova hadn't lost or Azarenka hadn't gotten hurt, but at least it could have been a bit more compelling.
The Serena-Maria war of words would have only ramped up as a finale between the two got closer, and Azarenka is just fun to watch and listen to.
On Serena's side of the bracket, it's up to either
Agnieszka Radawnska, Williams’ 2012 final opponent, or
Li Na to stop her.
On the other side,
Petra Kvitova remains the only single-seeded player alive in the field, which has also seen
Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Sara Errani, Varvara Lepchenko, Sorana Cirstea and
Jelena Jankovic go out not with a bang, but a whimper.
Kvitova, at least, would make it a match of the last two remaining Wimbledon champions (she won it in 2011), but she's also a big 0-for-4 lifetime against Williams.
Somebody wake me up for the championships.
|
(Photo Credit: Stephen White/CameraSport) |