"59 all, Do Not Adjust Your Screens."

I did Wimbledon today! Finally. 3 slams down, Flushing Meadows to go.

I guess it’s impossible for anyone to mention Wimbledon today without talking about the total insanity that is the Nicolas Mahut/John Isner match. Has anyone been watching that? I can’t believe it. 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-7... 59-59.

The first time we dropped by Court 18 it was already 16 all in the 5th. We took a walk around the grounds and came back; it was 24 all. We strolled over to Henman Hill to watch the big screen; it was 28 all. We decided to head home at 31 all. We took the subway back to London and stopped by a pub with a TV for dinner; it was 41 all. We went to the supermarket where it was on the radio; it was 50 all. We finally got home and it was 53 all and we watched til poor Nicolas Mahut asked for it to be postponed at 59 all before he keeled over and died. Although that's probably being somewhat unfair to Mahut because that man is a fit freak. Isner looked like the walking dead for 6 hours and this guy is bouncing around like nothing's wrong.

And it’s not over yet! Personally I don’t think it’s ever going to end. I think Isner and Mahut will just keep coming back to Court 18 to keep at it for the rest of their lives. Our children will grow up watching this match. Our children’s children. I think we will eventually devise a new way of telling time based on the score of this last set. “I have an exam at 344-343. What time is it now?” “Oh, it’s still 319 all. But make sure you get there at least one changeover before.”



That said: Wimbledon is pretty overrated, I think. Hot as hell, crowded as hell, and for some reason I didn’t know many of the players today. We got the ground pass for the outside courts, which usually guarantees at least a couple solid matches from slightly less famous players. Today however - I don’t know if it’s because I’ve not watched tennis properly for a year, but I didn’t recognize 70% of these names. Where did everybody go? I felt like a stranger in my own home. It was awful. I was like some aging hippie, some mid-life crisis who walks into an MGMT concert and tells everyone, all this new electronic stuff is shit, you kids don't know what real music is, you should have heard Dylan, Hendrix, the Stones... like, yeah, get with it, Grandpa.