Player of whom to be proud
I’M DOUBLY proud of Kevin Anderson for his historic semi-final at Wimbledon. This was a match of epic proportions, the third-longest match in tennis history and the second-longest singles match at a major tournament.
I write this before the weekend. If he loses the final due to fatigue, he can blame it fairly and squarely on the genius Wimbledon tennis bosses.
The reason I say I’m doubly proud of Kevin is because he had the guts to speak out against the Grand Slam hierarchy, to change the rules for a tiebreak in the fifth set for semi-finals.
It is a no-brainer for any semi-final to go on forever. The winner will be at a great disadvantage going into the final for obvious reasons, especially if the other semi-finalist’s match ended normally. If the other semi ends abnormally, it complicates matters even further.
It is a stupid rule, for want of a better word, and does not make sense at all for so many reasons.
The second semi-final between Djokovic and Nadal indeed could not finish in regular time, so they had to come back on Saturday morning to complete theirs, and if their match also went into extra time because of this silly ruling it might even be worst for whoever won this semi-final, because that player would have much less time than Kevin to recuperate.
When you read this, we will all have been rooting for a Kevin win yesterday.
However, if he does not win the final, he has already won the admiration and hearts of many tennis lovers worldwide for his epic record-breaking semi-final win and by ending off without any celebrations out of his great respect for the loser.
He is also a winner for speaking out instead for the betterment of tennis worldwide and I have no doubt that his unbelievable effort on and off court and his subsequent appeal for rule changes will not go unnoticed. MO NOOR JOSEPH Crawford