Wimbledon diary: Between familiar rituals and unfamiliar calls

The Hindu

a day ago

The Diary likes certainty and repeatability. Ever since its first Wimbledon in 2019, it has always filled its stomach in the afternoon with a bowl of pasta and vegetables. It keeps the Diary going for a good six hours — the typical duration of work — considering the deadlines back home in India.
Whenever it enters the media cafeteria, it sees nothing but the pasta counter and the chefs, who have remained unchanged for the past six years. So, when an 'avocado controversy' hit Wimbledon, the Diary was at first oblivious, but then turned curious.
News agency Reuters reported that there were multiple claims suggesting the All England Club had culled avocados from the menu as a sustainability-driven move — given that growing vast amounts of avocados is considered environmentally unsustainable.
The World Avocado Organisation (WAO) sprang to the defence of the beleaguered fruit, stating that such 'misconceptions can have non-desired impacts and affect small farmers who rely on growing avocados to make a living.'
Wimbledon clarified that avocados were very much alive and cooking in their kitchens. The Diary, like a true journalist, heard both sides of the story — and then diligently stood in the queue at the pasta counter for one more bowl.
Djokovic, Alcaraz and the full house that wasn't
Not done yet: Despite his loss to Jannik Sinner in the semifinal, Novak Djokovic confirmed that he would return to Wimbledon next year. | Photo Credit: AFP
In the three times the Diary has been to Wimbledon, it has seen the best, the worst, and the middling of Novak Djokovic.
The best: His epic 2019 final win over Roger Federer.
The worst: The straight-sets demolition Jannik Sinner handed him this year in the semifinals.
The middling: His loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the summit clash last year.
Each time, the Diary has looked forward to the Serb's press conference to better understand the genius' mind. Generally, players turn up for media duties a good hour after a match. So when it was announced that Djokovic would arrive barely 10 minutes after the loss to Sinner, scribes sensed something big.
Rumour mills buzzed: was the 24-time Slam winner — without a Major since 2023 Flushing Meadows — about to call it quits? Or was he going to announce that this was his last Wimbledon?
The Diary rushed to the already-packed press room, only to be told midway that Alcaraz would be coming in first. The Spaniard walked in and, seeing the overflowing media presence, grinned: 'Haven't seen it this full, ya.' Little did he know why we had all assembled.
Djokovic eventually turned up, and gladdened everyone's hearts by saying he would return to SW19 next year. The Diary was doubly relieved because it was in no mood to write a retirement tribute.
AI — Yay or nay?
Since landing at Wimbledon Park, the Diary has witnessed more than just tennis. Controversies have swirled around the electronic line-calling system, introduced for the first time in the tournament's 148-year history.
There were claims of malfunctions. In one match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal, the system was even switched off inadvertently. But more than the accuracy of the calls, the Diary was heartened by the players' yearning for a return to human touch.
'I'm more for line umpires, to be honest,' said Russia's Karen Khachanov. 'You feel the court is a little bit too big, too alone, without them.'
Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, offered an even stronger take. 'I don't like it (that the line judges have been removed),' he told Carole Bouchard of The Tennis Sweet Spot.
'The line judges are a part of the tennis family. Maybe they were, at some stage in their life, trying to be a tennis player. Or they love sport, and it's so difficult to become a chair umpire, as you have to go through so many tournaments — juniors, national-level tournaments, Futures, Challengers, first-line referee, then the chair umpire — to get this experience to be at Wimbledon. You just get rid of this huge family of people who love tennis and were doing their job incredibly well. You erase this, which is, for me, very, very, very, very bad.'
Sport is supposed to be the theatre of human expression. Who wants a sanitised environment?
The Diary always liked Cilic — and its respect for the big man from Croatia has now gone up a notch.