I quit! Federer, Djokovic benefit from Wimbledon retirements
Roger Federer (left) shakes hands with Alexandr Dolgopolov after winning their Men’s Singles Match on Tuesday at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London.
LONDON — Novak Djokovic’s first-round match at Wimbledon lasted all of 40 minutes Tuesday. Roger Federer’s, which was next in the All England Club’s main stadium, went 43.
When two of tennis’ biggest stars crossed paths after both advanced when opponents stopped playing because of pre-existing injuries, they kidded each other about a way to try to make it up to the fans.
“We had a little joke about it in the locker room,” Djokovic recounted, “saying we should maybe play a practice set on the Centre Court, have the crowd stay.”
The short workdays for the two were quite similar. Djokovic led 6-3, 2-0 when Martin Klizan retired with a left leg problem that has bothered him for about two months; Federer was ahead 6-3, 3-0 when Alexandr Dolgopolov quit because of a painful right ankle he first twisted last month.
Those still go into the books as wins, allowing Federer to collect his 85th at Wimbledon, breaking a tie with Jimmy Connors for the most in the Open era. Djokovic picked up his 234th match victory at all majors, moving ahead of Connors and alone into second place in history, behind only Federer’s 315.
But the way the afternoon went meant Centre Court spectators who paid 56 pounds (more than $70) per ticket, some of them waiting in line for hours, got only brief glimpses of seven-time champion Federer or three-time champion Djokovic. They did, however, have the Alastair Grant / The Associated Press opportunity to watch a pair of top women, current No. 1 Angelique Kerber and former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, win full-length matches.
“I feel for the crowd. They’re there to watch good tennis. Proper tennis. At least they see the two of us, who gave it all they had. They saw other players that tried, at least,” Federer said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened.”
Two other men also stopped midmatch Tuesday, 19th-seeded Feliciano Lopez (left foot) and Janko Tipsarevic (right leg), bringing the first-round retirement total to seven. That equals 2008 for the most by men in the first round during the 50 editions of Wimbledon in the Open era.
It sparked discussion about whether Grand Slam tournaments should change their rules to allow players to still receive prize money if they withdraw before an event. That’s a system being employed on a trial basis this season on the ATP Tour — which doesn’t run majors — and lets someone who lost in qualifying take the spot in the main draw of an injured player.
The theory behind that setup: Players who are injured won’t step on court simply to collect their prize money as an entrant, before calling it a day without finishing the match.
“Even if I had a torn muscle today, and the doctor says, ‘You shouldn’t go on court, you have serious damage to risk,’ I could have faked it, stayed there for two less games, and still picked up the paycheck,” said Tipsarevic, who stopped while trailing 5-0 after only 12 minutes against Jared Donaldson of the United States.