So, this friend of mine has a theory, and telling the story will hopefully explain an uninteresting tennis picture on a football blog. Last Sunday, while enjoying a lunch together and trying to keep the kids from falling off stuff, I mentioned that I had almost missed the fact that Wimbledon was happening. At which point he said 'Yes, and what drew your attention to it?', and I said 'That silly record-breaking set where two unknowns played for half a week, or something', to which he responded 'Want to hear my theory?'
I remember seeing a post on Twitter, probably while trying to watch football, asking whether anyone else was watching a particular tennis match where something interesting was apparently happening. The answer was obviously No. Then I heard about something which had gone for two days and figured it must have been a weather issue, being the UK. When I eventually heard about the score, 40-odd each at that point, I figured it must've been a tie-break scoring system where a 'play' results in a point and someone must win by two. I did not realise until later that those were full games being counted, and that Wimbledon does not use a tie-break scoring arrangement in the final set. In the end, American Isner beat Frenchman Mahut with the final set going to 70-68 (!) in a match which took 11 hours and 5 minutes and yielded 215 aces. The two exhausted gents then stood in front of the tired score board for photos. Incredible.
Imagine for a moment that there was some lack of English excitement about all the attention which the Football World Cup was yanking away from that prim sport in soggy England, especially since their team was not performing well and was due to be knocked out two days later. Then, imagine for a moment that late night phone-calls were made and meetings had which would result in some, er, arrangement. An arrangement which would make heros out of near-unknown athletes and would slap the competition back onto the sporting radar. Some people who tuned in on days 2 and 3 mentioned that these guys seemed to be knocking it around like it was a Sunday afternoon, not like it was Court 18 at Wimbledon. Knocking it around until a point, that is. The point at which it was probably decided that it would be time to play properly and the best man would win. Perhaps? Who knows.
Mahut himself, in an interview thereafter, was quoted as saying 'The numbers speak for themselves.' They certainly do.
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