A look back at Wimbledon 2013

Wimbledon 2013 is over and it’s proven to be one of the most eventful tennis tournaments in years. We’ve seen many injuries; losses by several major players and a British player make history. Why did all these events occur though? The finer details to these events are sometimes foreshadowed by all the focus on the matches and moments relevant to the British teams; so to go into a bit of depth, here are some of the notable events at this year’s Wimbledon and the possible causes for each.

The injuries

This year’s Wimbledon seemed much more painful than previous years with seven players pulling out on the 26^th of June alone. A few of these players complained that the courts were far too slippery while others said that they just weren’t used to playing on grass as opposed to clay or hard courts. It’s a constantly debated topic from grass courts being host to more fast and furious matches to Murray suggesting that it’s all about how players deal with their injuries that counts. It wasn’t a record breaking number of injuries but the players may have to watch their footing in the future.

The exits of Federer, Williams, Nadal and the like

High ranked tennis players Rodger Federer, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal among several others attended the competition as usual this year all hoping for a chance to add another Wimbledon title to their belt. But it was not to be as these titans of Tennis saw upsets as early as the second round. The knockouts also included Maria Sharapova, Sara Errani and Victoria Azarenka; all of whom were in the top 5 seeds for women’s tennis.

Why did these well-known players leave so soon? It could be down to age; Federer and Williams are both 31 whereas their opponents (Sergiy Stakhovsky and Sabine Lisicki) were younger, perhaps giving them the edge in terms of finesse and agility. Are we to assume that tennis players near a sort of expiry date in their thirties nowadays? On the other hand it could be underestimating the odds. Nadal the world No 4 was beaten by No 130 Steve Darcis; with such a vast gap between the two Nadal may have assumed the match would be a walkover but instead went through the match too surprised to fight back against his opponent. These players may make comebacks next year but for this year the biggest tournament in tennis was rough for them.   

Murray’s Victory

It was an intense final and the last set he needed to win seemed to last an agonising eternity but Britain’s finest tennis player finally triumphed over the world number 1 seed. As the first British player in 77 (and the first Scot in over 100) years to win the tournament Andy Murray has and continues to receive great praise from the lowliest tennis fan to the Houses of Parliament and there are even talks of him being knighted for this victory.

What went into this achievement? Of course Murray trained long and hard for his final against the tricky Novak Djokovic but there was a lot more to it than that. Our own greatest modern tennis sportsman played hard and fast wearing the world no 1 down whilst maintaining a strong lead throughout the three sets.

So there we have it; another major tennis tournament done and dusted. Will Murray continue to rise? Will the other major players make comebacks? Only time will tell.