2. The Injuries Of "Withdrawal Wednesday"
Withdrawals in the middle of a tournament are to be expected, for reasons from the minor to the more serious. Nobody quite expected the drama of the 26th of June though, leading to a record number of withdrawals in one day - whilst several other players took tumbles that seemed to take them out of the tournament too, even if they saw out their matches. John Isner put his name as the bookend of the record books as he injured himself almost immediately in his match, tweaking his knee after a serve; he has now played the matches with the most completed and the least completed games of all time. Soon to follow was Steve Darcis, whose falls against Nadal injured his shoulder and meant he could not follow up on his wonder victory. Similarly injured on Monday was Victoria Azarenka, who suffered a horrific fall on her knee but managed to finish her match. Still the names tumbled though. Radek Stepanek injured his hamstring in his match, soon followed by Queens runner-up Marin Cilic having to retire before his match. Yaroslava Shvedova was next out before her match, and finally Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired halfway through his match with Ernests Gulbis after a knee injury started to hamper him. The grass also seemed to play havoc for Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova, both women falling during their matches and requiring treatment before being defeated by much lower ranked opponents. Some of the players, most notably Azarenka and Sharapova, complained about the state of the court, whilst others have defended it and pointed out that everyone has the same playing conditions. The fact that so many of the names were seeds though has made the many catastrophes stand out, as well as throwing the entire draw wide open.