The 2024 version of Wimbledon is four days old and one of the biggest stories so far is the amazing comeback that happened on Wednesday in round one. That is when Tomas Machac of Beroun, Czech Republic won six of the last seven games in the match before defeating Belgium’s David Goffin 10-5 in the fifth set tie break.
You can call it a great comeback by Machac, or an absolutely historic collapse by Goffin, who was unable to advance to round two despite being up 5-0 in the fifth set. At the end of the day, Machac came through with an amazing 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 win.
Ed McGrogan of tennis.com asked in his headline if Machac’s loss was the “worst choke ever?” The answer is, it could be. The last time we have seen anything remotely close was at the 1958 French Open, which at the time was known as the French Championships. That is when American Budge Patty, the fourth seed, lost to the 13th seed, Robert Haillet of France, even though Patty was up 5-0, 40-0 in the fifth and deciding set in the fourth round. Haillet ended up winning the last seven games in winning by a score of 5-7, 7-5, 10-8, 4-6, 7-5.
Unfortunately for Machac, he lost his second round match to Russia’s Roman Safiullin, 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 on Thursday. Machac has had a solid doubles season too as he reached the semifinals of the Australian Open with Zhizhen Zhang of China.
At the Sporting Base, we have documented great comebacks in National Football League history, and National Basketball Association history. It is refreshing to document a great tennis comeback.
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