Two weeks after Wimbledon

Wimbledon, the third tennis major of the year, concluded two weeks ago but I was still in the middle of blogging about my trip to Russia and I didn't want to interrupt it. Anyway, big tennis fan that I am, I thought I would be amiss if I didn't write about it, no matter how late. So here are some of my thoughts:

First, I am extremely pleased that Andy Murray won. The pressure on him to win in Wimbledon has been immense, being a Brit playing in a country that hasn't had any homegrown success on the men's side since Fred Perry won the Men's title in 1936. (Let us not forget, however, that Virginia Wade from the UK won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles title in 1977.)

Andy has been in the top 4 for many years now and I have always felt that if he had played in another era, he would have won a few major titles already. Unfortunately, he plays in the era of two of the greatest ever (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal) and of another who is likely to join them on their lofty pedestal (Novak Djokovic). Don't look now but of the "big four", Andy is the one who is holding two Grand Slam events at the same time. Plus the Olympic title. That he became a multiple Grand Slam event titlist on home soil makes this victory even more meaningful.

Here's a though: on the men's side, every Grand Slam event this year been momentous. Andy Murray becomes the first Brit to win Wimbledon in 77 years. Before that, Rafa Nadal won his 8th French Open title, the only time any man has won 8 singles trophies from the same major event. And to start off the year, Novak Djokovic became the first man to win three consecutive Australian Open titles.

While most people were massively shocked by Rafa Nadal's first round loss, somehow I wasn't. Or well, not so much. I could see during Roland Garros that Rafa was getting fatigued, and it seemed like he was just running on adrenaline after winning more matches than anyone else this year. Too bad it happened in Wimbledon. The good news is that he didn't really have a lot of points to defend. Also, despite that early loss, he has still won more points this year than any of the other men and he remains on top of the race to London.

Personally, I think it is Roger's Federer's second round loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky that ranks as the biggest shock of the tournament. This loss snapped Roger's streak of 36 straight Grand Slam events where he got to at least the quarterfinals. That is happened in Wimbledon which he won last year and on Centre Court where he has raised the trophy 7 times before is even more shocking.

Not far behind though is Serena Williams' loss to Sabine Lisicki. Williams lost the first set to Lisicki before putting on a master class in power tennis in the second set and jumping out to the 3-0 lead in the third. Given how well Serena has been playing this year and how far ahead of the rest of the pack she seems to be, it seemed crystal clear what the final result would be. And when Serena had multiple breakpoints to go up 5-3 and serve for the match, most people would have expected the match to end a few minutes later. Instead, Sabine took a page out of Serena's book and fought back come from behind to win.

Of course, Sabine was overwhelmed with "stage fright" or big-match pressure in the final and couldn't overcome Marion Bartoli, who won on her second chance at the Wimbledon title. Big congratulations are in order for Marion, whose unorthodox style of play and quirky behavior make her really interesting to watch.

Massive, massive props also to the Bryan Brothers who have won a non-calendar Golden Slam in doubles, by winning four in a row (from the US Open last year to Wimbledon this year) plus the Olympic title. (The only true Golden Slam was won by Steffi Graf back in 1988 when she won all major titles plus the Olympic gold all in the same year.)

This last Wimbledon has to be the overall most eventful and dramatic major tennis tournament in a really long time. So many stunning early-round losses, significant results, and shocking sexist comments from TV broadcasters. I'm definitely looking forward to the US Open to see how things pan out for the top contenders.