Curious Cases at Wimbledon

As the Wimbledon enters its second week and continues to enthrall us, here I would like to talk about some interesting events witnessed in tennis over the past couple of years & especially in the ongoing Wimbledon Championships.

1.Wobbling Women’s Tennis

No one to take the baton from Navratilova and Graf in women's tennis?

In any organization, succession planning is one of the key HR activities. Men tennis seems to have diligently adopted the practice, with one legend taking centre stage when the previous one gets into twilight of his career. The scenes in women tennis are a complete contrast , with the legends of Steffi Graf & Navratilova not succeeded by anyone who can be particularly termed a “legend” (Williams sisters are great but their performances have been marred by injuries more often than not in the recent past). The scenario of first two seeds going to women who have not yet won Grand Slam tiles is not a very pleasant sight, especially in the face of the achievements of the top trio in men’s tennis. We are already in the second week of Wimbledon, but no one in the women category has looked particularly ominous with the finalists of the French Open already back home.

2.A Legend meets another …..legend?

When two legends met

The front page of newspaper carried a picture of two sportsmen meeting each other at Wimbledon..One was our very own master blaster & the other was a player currently seeded number 3. The question I ask to all those who had written off Roger is why would the cricketing legend seek to meet the player who is now the 3rd best in the world? Possible answers are previous acquaintances between them &/or fact that Federer has won the tournament more times than most others, living or dead. But this brings us to an important insight. A sportsperson may not be the most dominating player at any one point of time, but his legendary achievements of the past are good enough to garner respect of others & generate news for quite some time, at least till a new legend has completely established his identity..

3.What happens in the 3rd set??

Two days back we saw a match between the defending champion & an unknown player. The first 2 sets went down the wire, with the rookie going down fighting valiantly with the champion in both. The third set was a complete contrast with the newbie managing to win only a handful of points & going down 6-0. My question to such talented players is why give up after fighting so hard in the first 2 sets..Why insult your own talent by surrendering meekly to the inevitable defeat in the remaining set(s). Giving the champion a run for his money will only do good to their confidence & ranking.

These are a few observations I intended to write about the glorious game of tennis & more importantly in its ongoing glorious tournament called Wimbledon…