Wimbledon 2013: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Best...

It was a roller-coaster of a fortnight that culminated in a crescendo long awaited, and yet it was completely surreal. It was a fortnight that brought forth a series of firsts. A fortnight that sent the proverbial shockwaves soaring into the rafters and then when they had quieted down, brought the entirety of the sport to a standstill.

A galore of adjectives can be used to describe the action and momentousness contained in these two weeks, referred by the world simply as ‘Wimbledon’ in absolute veneration. But for now, we might as well to stick to the bare bones of the 2013 Wimbledon fortnight, with a look at the ‘Good, Bad and the Ugly.’

Murray poses with the Gentlemen’s Singles Trophy and Bartoli (R) poses with the Venus Rosewater Dish trophy at the Wimbledon Championships 2013 Winners Ball on July 7, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

The Good

Andy Murray ending a 77-year wait for the men’s Wimbledon crown for his country is the biggest and the most obvious good that came out of the All England Club this year. He started off strong, and finished with aplomb, the latter of which was seemingly missing in the Murray of the past. Done with consummate finesse, nothing gets bigger than Murray’s 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic in the finals.

We move onward then to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, who tasted her first Major success six years after reaching the finals for the first time.

German Sabine Lisicki may have been the favourite to win the title after her ouster of the top seed Serena Williams. But what transpired in the final was a complete volte-face. Bartoli, with her unconventionality, dominated the proceedings and reduced the German to tears. The end, when it came, couldn’t have come sooner for the German who had no answer for the Frenchwoman’s barrage of shots coming from all over the court.

There were a lot of feel-good stories too that made up the numbers.

Argentine Juan Martin del Potro battled his knee injury to blast his way past Spaniard David Ferrer in the quarterfinals. And he came close ousting the world number one in the semis too. It was a remarkable tale of fortitude as it was of determination, as del Potro continued to dig deep in a manner so resilient of his own.

So did diminutive Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, who did enough to snuff out the hopes of Petra Kvitova in their quarterfinal. As Flipkens knelt down and kissed the grass after her victory, Kvitova looked shell-shocked and completely bemused by her loss.

It was a great day indeed for the Belgian who had triumphed after a long battle with life and career threatening injuries. The icing on her cake: former Wimbledon finalist and countrywoman Kim Clijsters’s congratulatory tweet.

Maria Sharapova of Russia speaks to members of the media during a press conference on day three of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club on June 26, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

The Bad

To say that the tournament had a bad start would be an understatement. The first day saw Rafael Nadal losing to unseeded Belgian Steve Darcis in straight sets. Totally out of sorts, Nadal put up a meek response to the Belgian and was totally upended by the missiles that Darcis flung his way.

Even more was in store, as Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Sara Errani went crashing out of the tournament (through upsets and withdrawals) in the first couple of days itself.

The biggest shocker however was Sergiy Stakhovsky packing off defending champion Roger Federer in the second round – the latter’s earliest exit at Wimbledon since his loss to Mario Ancic in the first round in 2002. This defeat also ended Federer’s record of 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances since the 2004 Wimbledon, marking his earliest loss in a Major in almost a decade.

The totality of nine injury-related pull-outs during the course of the tournament was the most that the Open Era had ever seen. These incidents paled the aura of Wimbledon considerably, and after Serena Williams’s defeat in the fourth round, Djokovic was left as the lone Wimbledon titlist remaining in the fray.

Federer’s trainers during his gentlemen’s singles first round match against Victor Hanescu on day one of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club on June 24, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

The Ugly

‘The grass is green, the attire white…

Etiquettes and propriety, do so matter right

Shoes set not in whitish monochrome,

Caused a champion to be waved,

With a flouting under the rule-book tome…’

Federer, who rarely ever gets it wrong fashion-wise, put a huge foot wrong with the tournament authorities. His orange-coloured soles were deemed unacceptable by the Wimbledon standards and he was asked to do away with them. It was not that Federer didn’t adhere to the rules, but this was probably the first time that the seven-time Wimbledon champion was foot-faulted over such a matter.

Marion Bartoli however waved aside all comments upon her person by senior BBC commentator John Inverdale about her appearances and appeal. Inverdale apologised for his blatantly rude and chauvinistic comment about Bartoli’s supposed lack of good looks being a major disadvantage for her as a tennis player.

Bartoli’s calm response made her a heroine all over again even as she attended the Champions Ball, causing the likes of Inverdales of the world to go green with envy.

Murray joins (L-R) Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Prime Minister David Cameron, Labor leader Ed Miliband and SNP Westminster leader Angus Robinson during a cross-party reception in the garden of Downing Street on July 8, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

…and the Best!

We may be soon calling him ‘Sir.’ The British Prime Minister has called for Andy Murray being knighted by the Queen as an acknowledgement of Murray becoming Britain’s first male Wimbledon champion in the Open Era.

Knighthood would be the highest honour bestowed upon Murray, who has already been conferred with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the past. It would be a rank truly befitting a champion, who finally got there in the end.

He took his time

Starting out slow

Making the world wait

Match after match…

To behold,

Excruciating agony

Closer always,

But never too close

The chasm always yawning…

A transition unfolded then

Making the world pause

With bated breath

Time stood still

In that one victory

Past left far behind,

Present glittering and glorified

Future, his alone to conquer

Nought to weigh him down

Rising to ascendency

The Scot’s creating history…