Wimbledon: triumph of the underdogs

So Novak Djokovic is “mortal after all”, said Simon Cambers in The Observer. At Wimbledon last Saturday, the Serb’s bid to win a fifth straight Grand Slam title “came crashing down” when he was beaten by Sam Querrey, the big-serving world No. 41, in the third round. Watching the collapse of this “seemingly unbeatable” champion, who had previously won 30 straight Grand Slam ties, was a truly shocking sight. Just a month ago, when he won the French Open, Djokovic’s dominance appeared absolute, said Barry Flatman in The Sunday Times. He was finally able to complete his collection of Grand Slams – but the effort that went into that achievement seems to have drained him, and on Saturday he “mentally unravelled”.

This has been a Wimbledon for the underdogs, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. Startling as Djokovic’s exit may have been, Marcus Willis’s second-round tie with Roger Federer was even more “implausible”. Tipped for glory as a teenager, Willis came to earn a reputation as a “party boy”, and was written off as one of the sport’s “waifs and strays”. By the start of the year, the 25-year-old was reduced to playing a tournament in Tunisia, where he earned just £258; had his girlfriend not convinced him to keep going, he would have quit the sport altogether. Just making it to Wimbledon was an extraordinary feat: as the world’s 772nd best player, Willis had to survive six rounds of qualifying. Some doubted whether he would win a single point against Federer; yet although he lost in three sets, he still fought “for longer than most could have thought possible”. A famously jocular man, Willis hammed up the occasion for all it was worth, celebrating each ace as if he had just won a set. When it finally came to an end, he could only “grin at the glorious absurdity of it all”.