Fans catch fleeting glimpse of Federer, Djokovic
Stars’ opponents exit early as result of apparent injury, but some aren’t buying it
WIMBLEDON— So you’ve queued overnight to get last-available tickets or shelled out a fistful of cash to buy far in advance.
But in the most anticipated matches you get Novak Djokovic for 40 minutes and Roger Federer for 46 minutes before they wave goodbye.
Not the fault of one-half of tennis’s Big Four.
Indeed, both had felt so bad about the back-to-back injury retirements by their opponents on Tuesday — Martin Klizan and Alexandr Dolgopolov, respectively — that they almost took up the chair umpire’s joking invitation to come back out for an encore appearance against each, even as a practice session.
“I found him in the locker room,” Federer told reporters after he’d won, by default, his 85th Wimbledon match, moving ahead of Jimmy Connors for most in the open era. “I told him maybe we should go out and play another set. It’s not going to happen.”
Of course not. The rules forbid an exhibition performance to appease disappointed fans.
But those same rules, Grand Slam rules, need a serious re-thinking. Because first-round participants who are clearly ailing and possibly shouldn’t be competing at all have been nevertheless dragging themselves onto the court.
Want the cheque? Step foot on the court.
That’s 35,000 pounds to show up and play in the singles competition — a honking huge amount of do-re-mi for players who aren’t getting rich off tennis and, barring early upsets, aren’t expected to go any deeper in the draw.
“When I went out, I felt like there was a bit of a letdown from the crowd,” said Federer, of following the disappearing Djokovic onto Centre Court. “They couldn’t believe that it had happened again, exactly the same situation.”
Both matches were halted in the second set, a 2-love and 3-love.
Federer explained that Dolgopolov had justified his decision due to pull the chute thusly: “His explanation to me is that he felt too much pain on the serve, maybe on the jump. It (was) getting worse. At that point, obviously, when you’re down a set and a break, it’s getting worse, he’s in pain. I see the point. If you feel like it’s getting worse and you can hurt yourself even further, it is better to stop.”
But a lot of tennis fans weren’t buying it, with Dolgopolov — who claimed an ankle problem — in particular getting crucified on social media.
There’s no way of knowing for sure if chicanery was afoot or if either Dolgopolov or Klizan (calf ) well knew, before their matches began, that they weren’t fit to finish.
On the tour — excluding majors — rules differ. Injured players can receive their share of the prize purse when withdrawing in advance of competition, if they’ve qualified. That opens up a draw spot for a replacement. There’s no financial disincentive.
It takes a virtuous person to pass on 35,000 pounds.
“It’s a lot of money,” said Federer, who’s gunning for a record Wimbledon title. “For some it’s more, for some it’s less. For some, they just want to be out there because they feel like miracles happen.
“Miracles happen and you never know, if you hang around, you start drop-shotting the guy, he twists his ankle, you move on. Maybe a big cloud’s coming in. We’re here in Britain, so . . . ”
The bottom line is that, in the first two days of Wimbledon, there have been seven retirements — all but one of them by male players. And that probably is due to men playing bestof-five matches. Gritting out an injury is more likely in best-of-three, which the women play, for the same prize allotment.
“I hope it doesn’t happen,” said Federer, who favours the best-of-five format at Slams. “But I believe more players clearly would finish their matches.”
Djokovic, who is on the players’ council, applauded the ATP’s adjusted rules but was not so skeptical that injured players would deliberately connive for guaranteed money. “This tournament has a special place in players’ careers. The aura of Wimbledon has always been the strongest of any other tournament. I’m sure that most of the players on the tour, if not all, feel that. Especially if you walk out on the Centre Court, there is a responsibility.”
One player who wasn’t feeling at his best Tuesday — though there was no injury to account for it — was Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, loser in three straight sets — 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 — to No. 10 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria.
“Comparing the last six, seven weeks, it was definitely the worst I’ve felt all-around,” admitted Pospisil afterward. “I was trying to find solutions but I was just doing everything pretty mediocre. Honestly, I don’t know why today I was just not feeling good, with my legs.”
At least Pospisil, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2015, isn’t done with Wimbledon 2017 yet; he’s competing in doubles with American partner Jack Sock.
It was one and done, however, for qualifier Bianca Andreescu, of Mississauga, making her debut at SW19 as a senior.
The 17-year-old was eliminated by Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova 6-4, 6-3.