Goodbyes are Never Easy
I felt sad watching Martina Navratilova walk off the court after her final match on the Wimbledon grass, a mixed doubles loss in the third round. Clearly, it had to be very emotional to lose both her quarterfinal women’s doubles and mixed doubles matches on the same day. But I think I felt sadder that she couldn’t “enjoy the moment” than that I will never have the joy of watching her play her magic on the lawns of Wimbledon. It was such a different scene from her previous “final exit” from Wimbledon – remember when she reached down and plucked some blades of grass from Centre Court and then smiled and waved goodbye to the crowd? My gut reaction told me that this time it was Martina’s competitive streak and simple frustration with losing that made her exit the court head down, barely acknowledging the standing ovation from the crowd. But somehow I would have felt that Martina was more at peace with walking away if she could have acknowledged the crowd as for example, Andre Agassi did when he took his final bows on Centre Court. We’ll just have to wait to hear what Martina really felt in that moment because she refused to speak to the press after her mixed doubles match…
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