The first week of this year’s Wimbledon will perhaps be remembered most – unfortunately – for the heartrending screams of American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands as she lay on the ground in agony during her second-round match. After popping her knee during the third set, the 32-year-old collapsed near the net and screamed, “Help me! Please help me!”
The sight was so gruesome that TV cameras panned away from it, but anyone who heard those screams is not likely to forget them soon. “Her knee was in a very weird position,” Sorana Cirstea, who climbed over the net immediately to try and help her opponent, later said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, probably, except in the movies.”
Currently ranked number one in women’s doubles, Mattek-Sands was going for her fourth consecutive doubles Grand Slam with Czech partner Lucie Safarova. It turns out that she dislocated her patella and ruptured her patella tendon.
Two days later, Mattek-Sands thanked her fans on social media and apologised for swearing in pain at the time. She said, “I remember everyone getting ready to straighten my leg, and I said, ‘If anyone straightens my leg I’m going to kill you’ – I think that was heard. I did say that, because I was in pain, because I thought they would adjust my leg on the court and I said I want to be knocked out in hospital before they do it.”
The sight of Mattek-Sands lying on the ground screaming was one indication of an extremely emotional week at Wimbledon. We are so used to focusing on the tennis itself, with all it involves – the matches, the results, the rivalries – that we tend to forget what the players are well aware of. That no matter how long or how hard they train and practice, they never turn into machines.
Over the years, Wimbledon has seen its share of devastating losses that have left players in tears. The most famous of those scenes is from 1993, when Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, perhaps the best grass-court player of her generation, choked during the ladies’ singles final against Steffi Graf. After leading 4-1 and 40-30 in the final set, Novotna ended up losing the match. Afterwards, during the trophy presentation, she sobbed on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent.
Like any sporting event, the tournament has also borne witness to plenty of on-court injuries that have aborted matches, leading to both pain as well as crushing disappointment. Then, of course, there have been tantrums, such as the ones thrown by former player John McEnroe, which have become the stuff of legends.
To be honest, displays of emotion add drama to tennis and and make the whole experience of watching the sport more entertaining – even cathartic–for the fans. But it’s when the emotions stem from off court events, from circumstances that have little to do with tennis, that we are truly reminded that tennis is just one aspect of the players’ lives, and not always the most important one.
American Steve Johnson knows this. He broke down during a changeover in his third-round match on Friday against Marin Cilic of Croatia, when he thought of his father, Steve Johnson Senior, a respected coach who died suddenly in his sleep at age 58 in May.
Johnson, who was very close to his father, a man who introduced him to tennis and nurtured his talent, had wept openly after his matches at the French Open last month. At Wimbledon, even his opponent noticed that he was distraught when he came to the net to shake hands after the match. Cilic was muted in his celebrations out of respect, and later admitted he could not imagine how Johnson was competing and fighting after such loss.
The emotional tone for this year’s event was set perhaps on the very first day, when five-time champion Venus Williams entered her post-match press conference. When reporters asked her about the June 9 car crash she was involved in, which led to the death of a 78-year-old man in Florida, and the subsequent lawsuit for negligence and lawful death filed by the victim’s family against Venus, she attempted to answer.
“There are really no words to describe how devastating and ... I’m completely speechless,” she said. But then, she was overcome and unable to speak any more. The media were requested not to pursue the topic any more.
It is not always clear what individual players are dealing with off the court. John McEnroe recently tried to explain Novak Djokovic’s slump in form over the past year by speculating about his marriage. He compared Djokovic with Tiger Woods for having “some off-court issues with the family.” Whether or not this is accurate, the reality is that players, irrespective of their rank or reputation, do have to deal with a myriad of personal issues, just like the rest of us.
Luckily, these issues are not always negative. Petra Kvitova was emotional after her first-round match because she was grateful and relieved to be back after a horrific stabbing incident late last year. Tennis can sometimes provide a cure or at least a comfort as well.
And if you want a feel-good image from the first week, you don’t have to look any further than this Twitter post from former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Playing in only her second tournament since the birth of her son Leo last December, Azarenka admits that travelling with him is an adjustment, but it’s one that she clearly cherishes. Motherhood might make competitive tennis more challenging but it also offers a new perspective. That a tennis match is just a tennis match. Real life is played out off court. The range of emotions we witness during a two-week Grand Slam event is but a reminder that tennis players are human too.