Great (changing) expectations

LONDON – I came for Wimbledon.

Well, not exactly. But one of the main reasons I made this journey was to see perhaps the most famous of all Grand Slams.

But on Friday defending champion Rafael Nadal announced his withdrawal from Wimbledon because of a lingering knee injury.

Not only was I looking forward to attending an actual match, but also I was hoping to see whether the drama of Rafael Nadal versus Roger Federer would play out again. I wanted to see if Nadal would again defeat the Scotsman Andy Murray, also known as Britain’s hope. I wanted to see Grand Slam fever take over this country as Federer, Nadal and Murray would compete as the top three seeds.

I had expectations, ideas of what I wanted my Wimbledon experience to be.
Sports, like life, is built on expectations. We expect No. 1 seeds to win, champions to repeat and superstars to succeed.

When athletes, coaches and teams fail or surpass our expectations, it makes news. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sammy Sosa busted for performance-enhancing drugs, Tim Floyd resigning from University of Southern California or Tiger Woods (as of now) failing to win the U.S. Open.  

But surprises can be good. Nadal himself lost to Robin Soderling, ranked No. 25, during the French Open, a Grand Slam he has won four times.

No one expected Sonderling to oust the current King of Clay, paving the way for Federer’s eventual victory at Roland Garros. And though a fifth consecutive French Open would have been amazing for Nadal and his fans, his upset was just another headline that will be forgotten next week.

Upsets are called so because people expect “result A” and are so shocked when they get “result B” that they have to term it something different.  

But what if fans didn’t set expectations? Instead of expecting a defending champion to repeat, they should expect injuries, mental breakdowns and pure luck to defeat them. Expect nameless players to succeed, former champions to rise again and current favorites to falter.  

Fans can’t plan sports. They can’t choose weather conditions, pick referees or change game locations. They just have to accept these changes and prepare to have their expectations shaken.

Sunday was a day that started off-plan. I had bought tickets to Greenwich to see the National Maritime Museum. But ticket confusion, station delays and time restraints prevented my trip. I was disappointed. The trip I had so carefully planned for two weeks was gone.

So my friend Nick and I boarded the Tube and spent the afternoon walking around Leicester Square. We looked up our stars in an astrology bookshop, saw a salsa group on stage and ate Chinese food in Chinatown.  

Our expectations for the day changed, but they were good. Instead of the museum-hopping we usually do on the weekends, we walked where we wanted to, stopped in stores and didn’t look at the time.

So when I go to Wimbledon this week, I’ll expect to wait a few hours for tickets. I’ll expect not to get tickets to see Murray. I’ll expect to spend more than my budget can afford.

But I’ll try to be a good fan, ready for upsets.