{"id":34387,"date":"2025-07-03T04:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T04:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34387\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T04:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T04:29:11","slug":"a-look-back-at-the-craziest-day-in-wimbledon-history-where-roger-federer-was-shocked-and-chaos-ensued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34387\/","title":{"rendered":"A look back at the craziest day in Wimbledon history where Roger Federer was shocked and chaos ensued"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wimbledon has seen a huge number of shocks at the tournament already this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps none other than Roland Garros<\/a> champion Coco Gauff, who was beaten by Dayana Yastremska<\/a> in her first round match.<\/p>\n

There have also been many big name casualties in the men\u2019s singles draw including Holger Rune, who received criticism<\/a> for what he said after his defeat to Nicolas Jarry. <\/p>\n

All of these surprising results have drawn parallels to the crazy day at Wimbledon<\/a> in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"SergiyPhoto by Mike Hewitt\/Getty ImagesA look back at the crazy day at Wimbledon in 2013 when Roger Federer was shocked<\/p>\n

The year of 2013 had already seen some big shocks at Wimbledon, none more so than Rafael Nadal losing to Steve Darcis<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

However, things were set to reach another level of surprise on day three of The Championships, when chaos ensued at SW19.<\/p>\n

Federer<\/a> was coming into Wimbledon that year as the defending champion, and was coming in with some form after winning his sixth title at the Halle Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Swiss had also won his first round match against Victor Hanescu in comfortable fashion, setting up a meeting with world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky.<\/p>\n

Despite being the heavy favourite, Federer was beaten by Stakhovsky<\/a>, 6(5)-7 7-6(5) 7-5 7-6(5), in one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history.<\/p>\n

After suffering a huge upset in his Wimbledon title defence, Federer admitted his disappointment when speaking in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I mean, it\u2019s always a disappointment losing any match around the world, and particularly here,\u201d said Federer. \u201cI\u2019ve had some great moments here, but also some tougher ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, can\u2019t have \u2019em all. It was a tough loss today. Appreciated all the standing ovation and all the ovation I got leaving the court, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This was just the tip of the iceberg on this famous day at Wimbledon, with a total of eight seeded players all exiting the tournament that day.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s singles draw, casualties included Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No.6), Marin Cilic<\/a> (No.10) and John Isner<\/a> (No.18).<\/p>\n

While the women\u2019s field lost Victoria Azarenka<\/a> (No.2), Maria Sharapova<\/a> (No.3), Caroline Wozniacki<\/a> (No.9) and Ana Ivanovic (No.12).<\/p>\n

What was particularly notable about the exits of Tsonga, Cilic, Isner and Azarenka in particular was that they all either did not take to court or retired mid-match due to injury.<\/p>\n

Nadal\u2019s<\/a> conqueror Darcis was also unable to take to court due to a right shoulder injury, with 2006 quarter-finalist Radek Stepanek also withdrawing.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned Cilic described it as a \u2018very black day\u2019 when speaking to press<\/a>, with the infamous day now being referred to as \u2018Black Wednesday\u2019.<\/p>\n

Why were Wimbledon criticised on \u2018Black Wednesday\u2019?<\/p>\n

Due to the nature of the injuries caused at Wimbledon that year, there were some complaints from players including second seed Azarenka.<\/p>\n

Azarenka slipped during her first round victory at Wimbledon, with a knee injury causing her to withdraw from her subsequent match.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian did not hold back when speaking about the Wimbledon courts, claiming that they were \u2018not in a very good condition\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m wondering (if there is something different about the courts) because the court was not in a very good condition that day,\u201d Azarenka said. \u201cMy opponent fell twice; I fell badly; there were some other people who fell after.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VictoriaPhoto by BEN STANSALL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

While not directly responding to Azarenka, All England Club chief at the time Richard Lewis disputed any claims that these injuries were linked to the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a high number of withdrawals at The Championships today and we sympathise with all the players affected,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cThe withdrawals have occurred for a variety of reasons, but there has been some suggestion that the court surface is to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no reason to think this is the case. Indeed, many players have complimented us on the very good condition of the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court preparation has been to exactly the same meticulous standard as in previous years and it is well known that grass surfaces tend to be more lush at the start of an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe factual evidence, which is independently checked, is that the courts are almost identical to last year, as dry and firm as they should be, and we expect them to continue to play to their usual high quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were only two more retirements after this day of the tournament, with Marion Bartoli<\/a> and Andy Murray going on to win Wimbledon<\/a> titles in their respective events.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wimbledon has seen a huge number of shocks at the tournament already this year. Perhaps none other than…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[13158,62,1464,67,132,68,2071],"class_list":{"0":"post-34387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-roger-federer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114787422303492753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}