If men are indeed from Mars and women's tennis players are named Venus, then what planet was Ted Watts on when he umpired a second-round match at Wimbledon between Croatia's Karolina Sprem and the aforementioned Miss Williams?
Watts mistakenly awarded a point to Sprem in a second-set tiebreaker. No one noticed, including the players, and Williams wound up losing the tiebreaker and the match. While he'll never sit in the chair at Wimbledon again, Watts can look forward to a bright future as either a star of those "Wanna get away?" ads for Southwest Airlines or Florida's Secretary of State.
SportsCenter immediately concocted a piece on the greatest officiating blunders of all time. But Watts' whiff made me think of two things for which I'm exceedingly grateful:
First, my screw-ups aren't televised...with the exception of things like "butt darts" and "youranalysis", which I brought upon myself.
And second, the number of good breaks I've received so far outweighs the bad it seems blasphemous to even put them on the same scales.
In the case of the latter, though I've dangled my share of chads, no recount is necessary.
2 comments:
I've duped my share of Chad's.
(insert cricket here)
Wow! I thought I had the corner on all the tennis analogies! Thanks for the words though, I had not taken the time to feel for the umpire. Seems to me that we rarely do feel for the enforcer of the rules, even when they show that they too are human.
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