Wimbledon is known for all-whites and pomp and circumstance, but for Nicolas Mahut, it’s mostly been a house of horrors. Mahut, you may remember, had one of the longest Wimbledon matches in history against John Isner in 2010. It was a grueling match that took more than 11 hours and three days to complete and, what’s worse, he lost the last set, 70-68, to lose the match.
It’s hard to imagine having a worse time at the most famous lawn tennis facility in the world, but he got pretty close on Saturday when in the Wimbledon men’s doubles final. Mahut was paired with against Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the finals. Sports are riddled with war metaphors and it’s uncouth and unfair, but this tennis match included this shot, so…
Meanwhile during the men’s doubles final. This is in slow motion imagine it in real time. Mahut is actually going to continue playing what a warrior. #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/b7N0ZAd077
— Joshua 👨🏾💻🇳🇬 (@big_man_joshyy) July 13, 2019
Seriously, he kept playing after that. And that’s when the worst thing that could possibly happen in a sport with balls routinely moving more than 120 miles per hour. But first, let’s talk about Woody Harrelson, who is somehow an important component to this whole thing.
ESPN showed Harrelson a number of times during the match, and it certainly paid off when a player in the final got hit in the Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. Seriously, even if your laptop is dying and you have a few moments of juice left on your cell phone or even if you’re in a public place, please spend your precious battery to watch the video below.
This is the most gruesome and violent tennis match I've seen in decades of watching the sport, and this is the least of it pic.twitter.com/zs6eAQkYAA
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 13, 2019
If you for some reason cannot watch, please enjoy the brief recap below.
Smash-cut to:
Please know that the camera stayed on Harrelson, in horror, for a full three seconds before it went back to the professional athlete splayed on the grass. But the juxtaposition was just too much.
Woody is the reaction when you've seen a guy take another shot to the beans (r @kjhogo) pic.twitter.com/eqhFHwFtuR
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) July 13, 2019
Everyone involved seems to be OK and the match continued, but it was certainly a gruesome moment on Center Court. And it got even worse for Mahut, who lost in five sets. Here’s what the match looked like when it ended.
Agony and ecstasy. What a contest.#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/7HAGtiBXKn
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 13, 2019
In any event, congrats to the new doubles champions. You just won quite a match.
