Worst choke ever? David Goffin loses after leading Tomas Machac 5-0 in the fifth at Wimbledon

It’s been a year to forget for David Goffin at the majors.

The 33-year-old former No. 7 took a first-round loss to Ugo Humbert at the Australian Open. He won his opener at Roland Garros over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in five sets, but not before being “insulted for three-and-a-half hours” by French fans, according to the Belgian.

Safe to say Goffin would have put up with some more crowd hostility, had he been able to escape his first-rounder at Wimbledon.

Postponed due to inclement weather, Goffin entered Wednesday leading Tomas Machac 6-3, 4-2. When the lucky loser who benefitted from Andy Murray’s late withdrawal dusted off the second set, it appeared to be worth the wait.

It was not.

Not only did Goffin lose the match in five sets—3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (5)—he did so after leading Machac 5-0 in the fifth.

It’s not as if Goffin can’t play on grass—he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2019 and 2022. And while Machac is a quality ball striker, he had never before won a main-draw match at the All England Club. Prior to today, the Pimm’s Cup set likely knew the 23-year-old Czech best for his incredibly short shorts.

Perhaps that has changed, after this astonishing comeback/incomprehensible collapse.

It was unclear if such a failure had previously happened before in professional tennis (Coco Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert, was trying to find out), and it’s hard to come up with comps from other sports. One candidate may be Rory McIlroy’s inability to hold his final-round lead at this year’s US Open, after missing two short putts on the 16^th and 18^th holes. McIlroy was 496 for 496 on putts three feet or less in length he walked the green on 16, but his streak ended at the worst possible time.

The other candidate is a choke that didn’t happen. In the recently concluded Stanley Cup final, the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers led the Edmonton Oilers three games to none, only to see their lead completely evaporate. NHL teams leading a playoff series 3-0 were 206-4 before the dramatic Game 7—which the Panthers, to their great relief, won.

Maybe the best comp of all is in recreational tennis, where large leads go to die and nerves impact a match more than any other. Well, maybe except this one.