Wimbledon Takeaway #13: A flurry of retirements

A peculiarly scorching sun had its way with the Wimbledon grass over this fortnight. But the sun also sets. Here, our ongoing roundup of passing shots from SW19, a curated much-ado-about-everything–if a bit less manicured than the Wimble-lawns themselves.

See No. 14.

13

Retirements galore. That was the story of the first round on the men's side at Wimbledon, as seven gents stopped their matches to find physical relief. Even Novak Djokovic, the three-time champ, ceased his efforts to avoid further injury in the quarterfinal round.

Then there was Bethanie Mattek-Sands. In the most gripping, flat-out scary moment of the tournament, she twisted her knee, severely injuring her patella on a net approach early in the third set against Sorana Cirstea.

She would also release a statement via Tennis Channel:

Friends including Jack Sock, Mattek-Sands' 2016 Rio co-gold medalist; journalist Mary Carillo; and Cirstea herself rooted for her recovery, both in words and in non-verbal ways:

While Sock himself was something of an actor on-court, an injury that doubles specialist Oliver Marach actually suffered.

Mattek-Sands’ fall was not an outlier. Others went down in similar ways over two weeks on the slick grass surface:

That brings us to Nick Kyrgios. In another eventful-and-yet-not major for him, the “reluctant rising star” (New Yorker’s words) dropped his opening singles match and left from there.

Kyrgios–who might need a chaperone or at least a PR aide–was seen hours later partying with a pair of teenage up-and-comers. The “mystery women” he was hugging on were later reported to be junior players:

Kyrgios received his due flak for the showing, and the world No. 20 remains a streaky character, both on and off the court. In the vein of compatriot Bernard Tomic’s comments, Kyrgios noted that batting around fuzzy yellow balls beats working at Chipotle.

Later, he hit out at legendary countryman Ken Rosewall, who had criticized him publicly, before deleting a likewise crit-tastic tweet.

Thus from Mattek-Sands to Kyrgios, we have cases ranging from the ever-grateful to the nonplussed. In the end, be glad for both the overt clashes and the simple differences in personalities because tennis takes all comers. 

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.