ESPN
The lawn of the All-England Club was red today drenched in the blood of former champions. Tennis analyst Pam Shriver summed it up best: “It was literally the most stunning day of tennis I have ever seen.”
In all, seven players who had been ranked #1 at some point in their career took the court Wednesday. They all lost. Seven players withdrew or retired from their match because of injury. Among them, John Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Victoria Azarenka. Former world #1 Caroline Wozniacki lost. Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic lost. Former Wimbledon champ LLeyton Hewitt also lost.
And that’s not even the worst of it.
Seven-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer fell to 116th ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky. The loss snapped Federer’s streak of 36 straight Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances. It was his first loss to a player outside the top 100 since 2005. For Stakhovsky, it was his first win against a top-10 opponent.
The loss was so stunning that Patrick McEnroe completely lost his mind on Twitter.
Era over?
— Patrick McEnroe (@PatrickMcEnroe) June 26, 2013
But that’s not all. Third seeded Maria Sharapova lost to Michelle Larcher de Brito, a woman who hadn’t won a WTA match in over a year.
Wednesday July 26th will be forever be known as Wimbledon’s Red Wedding.
[ESPN]