Legendary writer-of-sports Dan Jenkins loved to toy with Wimbledon, mocking its stodgy obsession with protocol and calling its comically severe officials "wing commanders", as if they'd all done their duty with the RAF during WW II.
I can only imagine what a good chuckle he's having in the Big Pressbox In The Sky this week.
It seems that during a third-round match between Anastasia Potapova and Mirra Andreeva, some fan decided to get a trifle rowdy. And in a totally Wimby sort of way.
Popped a champagne cork, the fan did. Right in the middle of Potapova's serve.
This prompted the presiding wing commander, Australian umpire John Blom, to admonish the fans for their out-of-control behavior.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you are opening a bottle of champagne, don't do it as the players are about to serve," Blom announced over his microphone.
Now, you can ask yourself, as I have for awhile now, how lousy a professional tennis player's concentration must be if she's being distracted by a "pop!" from the stands in the middle of her service motion. Or why fans are not supposed to talk or move around in the stands during a serve.
I mean, really? You're telling me the best tennis players in the world let their attention wander that easily?
I find it hard to believe the best of them even know there are fans present when they get locked in. I tend to think they have the kind of laser focus that narrows their sensory world to the carefully proscribed rectangle of grass in front of them.
Apparently I'm wrong about that. But there's one thing I'm not wrong about.
A chair umpire scolding a fan for popping a champagne cork?
Most Wimbledon thing ever.
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