LONDON -- When I started following the professional tennis tour, I set out with many misconceptions, none more ludicrous, I soon realized, than my assumption that since I was as passionately interested in travel as I was in tennis, the experience would prove to be doubly enjoyable. Although I knew I would spend much of each day watching matches and interviewing players, I imagined there would be ample opportunity for me—as well as the players—to visit famous museums and landmarks, lollygag in cafés, and sample the cuisine in celebrated restaurants. I was wrong on all counts.

 True, I did a lot of traveling. That is, I took planes, trains, buses, and boats. But the journey didn’t lead to a place. It led to a condition — a kind of claustrophobic fugue state, a fierce case of tunnel vision that leaves people on the tennis circuit with little time or inclination for cultural excursions. My life became a blur of interchangeable hotel rooms, sports arenas, and indigestible meals. Between matches, I imitated the players and spent hours staring into space, wondering where I was and why I was doing this to myself. Fatigue, boredom, homesickness, sophomoric humour, wild mood swings, a sense of living in a hermetically sealed capsule—these are the hallmarks of the international tour. If a camera is the symbol of the tourist, then Air Pods are the symbol of the circuit. Whereas travellers are eager to see and record what is around them, the typical tennis pro is obsessed with creating a placid inner environment where he can escape from all outside distractions.

 Recent events at Wimbledon bear out just how murderously tunnel visioned the players are. When asked during the first week of the tournament whether she intended to take off from practice to vote in the British national election, Emma Raducanu smiled her beatific smile and responded, “No, I think I’ll have a lie-in, then I’ll come to practice. I didn’t even know it was tomorrow, to be honest! Thanks for letting me know.”

 Raducanu wasn’t alone in her indifference to the election. Katie Boulter, the British No. 1, declared, “I’m going to stick to tennis right now. I don’t see myself as someone who’s going to get involved in anything but tennis that day.” Her second-round opponent, Britain Harriet Dart, answered, “I haven’t given it much thought.” 

 For the first three rounds Raducanu played impeccably, reminding fans of her historical run to the championship of the US Open in 2021. British journalists were predicting – or were they just praying? – that she was a good bet to advance deep into the tournament and perhaps even win the Wimbledon title. After all, her fourth-round opponent, Lulu Sun of New Zealand, didn’t figure to offer much competition. Ranked 129 in the world, she had had to struggle through the qualies just to make it into the main draw. To put things in a financial framework, Raducanu is estimated to be worth 10 million US dollars. By contrast, Sun (née Lulu Radovcic) has earned 313,832 US dollars for three years on the tour.

 The day before her match with Lulu Sun, Raducanu had agreed to play mixed doubles with Andy Murray in what could prove to be his last match at Wimbledon. “For me it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I think some things are just bigger than tennis. I think some things are a once in a lifetime memory. . .at the end of my life, at the end of my career when I’m like 70 years old, I know I’m going to have that memory of playing with Andy Murray in a home slam. To me it was an honour to be asked.”

 But then abruptly Raducanu had a change of heart and mind and decided it wasn’t such a hot idea to play with Andy after all. Not when their Centre Court match was scheduled to be played last and might well run as late as 11 p.m. She claimed that she had come down with stiffness on one of her wrists that had been operated on and thought it best to kiss Andy good-bye and focus fulltime on her match with Lulu Sun. Andy and his entourage received this information barely two hours before he was about to take court. There was muted criticism of Raducanu and no doubt more than muted criticism from the Murray entourage. But as Stuart Fraser put it in the London Sunday Times, “It is ruthless by Raducanu, yet reminiscent of some of the decisions Murray made in his career.” Spoken like a true tennis cynic.

 Still there was a kind of Karmic justice. The low-ranked journeyman Lulu Sun rose up and caused Raducanu no end of trouble with her slice backhand, her forehand approach shots, and her crisp volleys. She won the first set 6-2, seemed to sag under the weight of the occasion in the second set, losing it 7-5. But in the third and deciding set, both women had difficulty on the slick courts and Raducanu took a hard fall that required medical treatment. Sun hung on to win 6-2 and advance to the quarterfinals.

 In a fourth-round match that was equally surprising, Emma Navarro defeated Coco Gauff, the tournament favourite after Iga Swiatek lost in the previous round. Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced to the quarterfinals over Madison Keys who had to retire at 5-5 in the third set. Again, the slick court seemed to have been responsible for Keys’ defeat. Similarly in the match between Grigor Dimitrov and Daniil Medvedev the players sometimes appeared to be on ice skates. Dimitrov required medical treatment when losing 5-3 in the first set and was deemed unfit to play on.  At the top of the men’s draw, Jannik Sinner hammered his way past hard-serving American Ben Shelton in straight sets. Carlos Alcaraz had more difficulty with Frenchman Ugo Humbert, a lefthander who took the first set 6-3 only for Alcaraz to up the tempo and take the next three sets. Barring a major shock, Alcaraz and Sinner figure to meet in the semifinals. Meanwhile, on the other side of the draw, Novak Djokovic, seven time Wimbledon champ, continues to make halting progress with a wrapping on his right knee which was surgically repaired less than a month ago.