Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Upsets - Wimbledon

Part of the reason we love sports is for the upsets and the underdogs who complete them. It can be great fun to cheer on the lowly rookie or the unranked competitor when he or she steps into the David versus Goliath situation. Just not all the time.

The 2010 Wimbledon grand slam at the All England Club has certainly been a memorable one, and it's not even over yet. If you love upsets, you might just be sick of them by this point. An upset in tennis is generally an unranked player beating a ranked player, or a lower seed beating a higher seed (21 over 2).

Some of the casualties of this year's tournament? Venus Williams, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters are some of the more notable names in singles. Oh, and the big one? Roger Federer. Yes, the man who won his 16th grand slam last year in an epic match against Roddick lost in four sets. He even lost one set 6-1; that's just amazing.

On the doubles side, the American sibling powerhouses named Williams (Venus and Serena) and Bryan (Bob and Mike) both fell short before the goal of a title.

If all the upsets weren't enough, let's not forget about the longest tennis match in history between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut back in the first round. You know, the one with the 70-68 fifth set in which Isner finally won after more than 11 total hours spanning three days? Of course, Isner somewhat expectedly had a letdown in the second round with a straight-set loss.

I think I was the most disappointed about Roddick's upset, even more so after Federer was bounced in the quarterfinals. Andy came oh-so-close to winning the grass title last year, and I was really pulling for him this time around.

On the men's side, Tomas Berdych has twice been the spoiler. First, he was the one to knock out Federer in the quarters, and then he pulled off another upset when he beat Djokovic in the semis. If he can pull a third rabbit out of his tennis hat, he'll win the Wimbledon title in his first final appearence in a major. But he'll have to go through Rafa Nadal to do it.

Nadal moved on to the final after a 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 win over sentimental favorite Andy Murray. After Federer was gone, I was hoping Murray could pull off some magic of his own to win Wimbledon. This was his shot. But not only is Federer a huge hurdle, Rafa certainly is no slouch either. He's playing amazing tennis right now.

All that's left is Breakfast at Wimbledon this weekend for the men's and women's finals. Serena Williams looks untouchable as she will face No. 21 Vera Zvonareva. And Rafa should have the edge in the men's final.

So, will it be the dominant past champions Rafa and Serena? Or will Upset Wimbledon 2010 continue with another act or two?

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