The Queen presides over AI glitches & human glory

In as much as evergreen British hopes, riding high on former British No 1, Cameron Norrie, their last player standing in the Wimbledon Quarters, were dashed 6-2, 6-3,6-3 on the rock that is two-time defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, the Brits can walk away with something to celebrate this week.

For the first time  in decades, they have a reigning monarch, Queen Camilla, as a regular in the Royal Box, genuinely applauding the King of Grass, Novak Djokovic, fighting off young pretenders to his 7x throne.

Lest we forget Queen Elizabeth 11, was no tennis fan and only attended  SW7 on her Silver Jubilee & the Championship’s centenary.

Moreover in tandem with the modernization of the monarchy, Wimbledon, the last bastion of traditionalism has loosened up like veteran Djokovic stretching his weary limbs to accommodate the onslaught of a new generation of aggressors and embraced not only A1 technology, but  thrown caution to the wind regarding dress codes: Bare backs, mini skirts and pink hair were all on display in those plush seats behind the elegantly attired Queen.

Fortunately Her Majesty was too intrigued by Djokovic’s dramatic exhortations to the Gods above and his own box, at a set down against Italian, Flavio Cobolli to notice.

Unfortunately whilst one can turn a blind eye to human errors of judgement, incessant computer glitches, that delay matches at critical moments  are a little harder to ignore: Following a farcical episode, in which the umpire halted a match between Britain’s Sonny Kartal and Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, because the electronic line calling device was accidentally switched off, costing the latter a point, Quarter Finalists, Taylor Swift and Karen Khachanov, were rudely interrupted mid rally, when the same machine incorrectly called “fault” again.

Be this an embarrassment to the All England  Club, given British No 1s, Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper are among the protagonists asking for linesmen to be reinstated, Chief Executive, Sally Bolton displayed stiff upper lip, in refusing to be swayed in this giant leap towards A1. 

Djokovic proved as unwavering in guarding his own piece of Centre Court turf: It was painful to watch the Serbian icon struggling to fend off this new breed, proving a handful with their serve volleying skills, something he admitted to his nemesis, Roger Federer, also watching from the Royal Box, was still missing from his otherwise immaculate repertoire.

However one can only admire the sheer depth of mental superiority from which Djokovic draws to escape defeat, when the chips were down against first Alex De Minaur and then Cobolli. World No 1, Jannik Sinner- Djokovic’s Semis opponent- represented the ultimate test in mental fortitude.

Frankly the Italian by his own admittance, should’ve been on a plane home. Instead Sinner has enjoyed more than a devils luck in this event; he evidently has the new Popes powerful blessing, because a tragedy dealt him his pass to the Semis: Brilliant “Baby Federer” aka Grigor Dimitrov, employed  the perfect aggressive volleying tactics to break Sinner’s  baseline rhythm, until at two sets up and two all in the third, the Bulgarian damaged a pectoral muscle, after serving an ace and was forced to retire from his third consecutive Slam, from a position of ascendency.

If ever there were a veteran deserving of a Major win, it is Dimitrov. Instead the Gods rewarded 15th seed, American, Amanda Anisimova  with a riveting Semis 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over World No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, to become the first American Wimbledon Finalist since Serena Williams. Meanwhile Alcaraz looks rock solid to break another record on his best surface.