Wimbledon Takeaway #15: Losing with grace or post haste

A peculiarly scorching sun had its way with the Wimbledon grass over this fortnight. But the sun also sets. Here, our ongoing roundup of passing shots from SW19, a curated much-ado-about-everything – if a bit less manicured than the Wimble-lawns themselves.

See No. 16 here.

15

This is independent-contractor work. A good many players may be sore losers at times, fending for largesse or even just plane-ticket funds. Still some others, with respect to sportsmanship, don't even win well.

Then there's Andrea Petkovic. Felled in the Wimbledon first round, 9-7 in the third set to Dominika Cibulkova, Petkovic rather eagerly approached the net, hugged her vanquisher and delivered the customary air-kisses to both cheeks.

Yea, some pros should take notes from Petkovic. For one, witness the mess that was Bernard Tomic's brief SW19 experience this year. There is losing with grace, and then there's losing post haste. He performed the latter.

Stating in his press conference that he felt "bored" in the midst of his desultory loss to Mischa Zverev, Tomic extrapolated: "I couldn’t care less if I make a fourth round at the US Open or I lose first round. I’m going to play another 10 years, and I know after my career I won’t have to work again."

Tomic was fined a remarkable $15,000 for his comments, which surely arrived as a seeming blemish on the Wimbledon brand itself. While it's true that a million people the world over would gladly trade places with Tomic, his comments were received by others as solely being guilty of honesty.

Doubles star Bruno Soares saw it a different way when Head dropped its sponsorship with Tomic, releasing a righteous statement that his words and ways didn't meet the brand's standards. Fair enough. Even so, Soares tweaked Head over its steadfast support of Maria Sharapova during her outage over use of meldonium.

It's a worthy point, and one hopes that Head continues to consider the consistency of how it supports players across the board–and certainly that Tomic will put up more of a fight in each event moving forward, especially in New York.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.