04/23/24
June 26, 2002
World Cup fever strikes SW19?: With five seeds losing at Wimbledon today, including Safin, Sampras and Agassi, the men's singles draw is wide open. Throw in the fact that the upsets took place at the hands of unfancied qualifiers from countries with no real tennis tradition, are we seeing a demographic shift along the lines of the World Cup, where the gap between the best and the rest is narrowing; or is this simply the last hoorah from the stars of the 1990s?
As the World Cup went awry I kept comforting myself we'd always have SW19, where rankings were properly done; the climate and courts were well known; upstarts would be duly put in their place and the old, beloved order would prevail. Alas, the contagion has spread and nothing is safe anymore. I just might have to start following darts or something. I blame you, etagloh - you started all this wrong-way-round stuff - long before the World Cup had begun!
posted by Miguel Cardoso at 07:23 PM on June 26, 2002
yes.