{"id":20887,"date":"2013-07-03T23:19:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T21:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/wimbledon-takes-a-turn-into-the-weird-zone\/"},"modified":"2013-07-03T23:19:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T21:19:04","slug":"wimbledon-takes-a-turn-into-the-weird-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wimbledon-takes-a-turn-into-the-weird-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon takes a turn into the weird zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wimbledon<\/a>\u00a0has been an exceptionally strange tournament this year<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wimbledon Championships. Photo: Eurosport<\/p>\n

But only once you lay it all out do you realise just what an unusual edition of the tournament we are witnessing. And in the spirit of strange, could the strangest thing of all happen and a British winner be crowned?<\/p>\n

Have a look at the signs and see if it might be Andy Murray\u2019s time after all.<\/p>\n

1. The American men\u2019s disaster \u2013 for the first time since 1912, the USA didn\u2019t have a single player in the third round of the men\u2019s singles.<\/p>\n

2. British woman makes it to the second week and still faces a player ranked lower than her \u2013 it\u2019s amazing that Laura Robson<\/a> became the first British woman to make it to the last-16 since 1998: it\u2019s even more amazing that she still faced a player in world number 48 Kaia Kanepi who was ranked below her.<\/p>\n

3. Sabine Lisicki<\/a>: The French Open champion killer \u2013 the German\u2019s wonderful win over Serena Williams<\/a> wasn\u2019t a shock if you take all the omens into account. In four of the last five years, Lisicki has knocked out the reigning French Open winner: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Li Na, Maria Sharapova<\/a> and Serena Williams.<\/p>\n

4. 42-year-old wins a match \u2013 Kimiko Date-Krumm first played in Wimbledon\u2019s main draw 24 years ago, retired in 1996, but eventually made a comeback and is still going aged 42.<\/p>\n

5. Maria Sharapova and Michelle Larcher De Brito go head to head, but the loudest noise isn\u2019t about grunting \u2013 the two loudest grunters in world tennis faced each other in the second round, but it was the unusually slippery grass that generated even more screaming.<\/p>\n

6. It\u2019s barely rained in a week and a half \u2013 barring a few hours lost to the weather on Thursday, it\u2019s been almost perfect. That makes it the best Wimbledon weather since the rain-free event in 2010 \u2013 which itself was the first rain-free Wimbledon since 1995.<\/p>\n

7. Roger Federer<\/a> gets told off about his trainers.<\/p>\n

8. Federer not the only legend to be reprimanded \u2013 Mo Farah provoked the ire of organisers when having the cheek to take a couple of pics of himself and his celebrity pals while in the Royal Box on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

9. Crocked competitors dropping like flies \u2013 this year saw the casualties list reached record-equalling levels \u2013 six days in.<\/p>\n

10. Gender lines blurred by Serena\/Murray \u2018battle of sexes\u2019 challenge \u2013 do you remember those days when Wimbledon was the centrepiece of the tennis calendar? Now it\u2019s just a vehicle to set up intergender exhibitions in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

11. Prime Minister and some pop band give birth to a megastar \u2013 Laura Robson will be disappointed that she wasn\u2019t able to take her chances against Kanepi and make the quarter-finals, but at least she is a bona fide celebrity now \u2013 David Cameron and One Direction made sure of that.<\/p>\n

12. Nadal, Federer and Serena all go out \u2013 lest we forget, the weirdest three twists of all: Nadal and Serena both came to Wimbledon in devastating form and Federer is, well, Federer. How on earth did they all go out before even making the last eight? \u2013 Eurosport<\/a><\/p>\n

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