Was this the craziest day ever at Wimbledon?

The seven-times Grand Slam champion was on the money once again on Wednesday after he labelled what he had just witnessed at the All England Club "the craziest day ever".

'Black Wednesday', 'Wild Wednesday', 'Wacky Wednesday', 'Wednesday Wipeout' - call it what you want, the events of June 26 in SW19 will certainly go down in the record books as one of the most remarkable in the sport's long history.

Amid the slipping and sliding across the venue's famous lawns, muscles were tweaked and joints jarred, resulting in no less than seven players withdrawing through injury, including big names like women's second seed Victoria Azarenka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic and John Isner.

As if that was not enough, the King of Wimbledon Roger Federer, a seven-times champion in South West London, left the Centre Court crowd in an utter state of shock after falling to a stunning defeat - just a couple of days after Rafael Nadal had done likewise.

And another former winner Maria Sharapova was sent tumbling, both literally and figuratively, out of the competition, complaining of "dangerous" on-court conditions on her way. Just for good measure, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic also departed.

Just what on earth was going on? Wimbledon is no stranger to major shocks - think McEnroe against Kevin Curren in 1985, Boris Becker against Peter Doohan two years later, Pete Sampras against George Bastl in 2002 and Nadal against Lukas Rosol last year - but never two in a day and certainly not two as huge as Nadal and Federer in the space of 48 hours.

On Wednesday, some players' immediate reaction was to target the surface, Azarenka in particular complaining about the condition of the courts. The Belarusian's criticism drew a swift response from organisers, who claimed they had prepared the courts in exactly the same way they do each year.

All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis added that the withdrawals were "for a variety of reasons" and that the courts could not be blamed. It is an exchange that we have not heard the last of and the accusations and rebuttals are set to rumble on as the fortnight progresses.

All of which is very un-Wimbledon-like. Indeed, there seems to be something in the air in SW19 this year, something is setting it apart from years gone by. The very public verbal spat between Sharapova and Serena Williams clearly set the tone - it's not every Wimbledon the top two players in the women's game get themselves into a tit-for-tat slanging match.

That, of course, was entertaining stuff for the neutral, although we may now have to rely on more of those ancillary incidents to provide our kicks for the remainder of the championship, considering the spate of withdrawals has only served to effectively end the tournament as a spectacle.

While both the men's and women's draws have been 'opened up' by the exits of Nadal, Federer, Sharapova and Azarenka, what it really means is that the inexorable paths to glory for Novak Djokoivc and Serena have only been simplified.

At the beginning of the tournament, it was considered that Djokovic had been dealt a great draw, so much so that he would only really be tested in the final. The same still rings true post-Wild Wednesday, only the identity of his final opponent is now a little more certain - Andy Murray. Meanwhile Serena was the hot women's favourite four days ago and despite yesterday's events, nothing has changed in that department either.

And that's the way it will stay unless, of course, this year's biggest giant-killer, the Wimbledon grass, pounces again. Given Wednesday's craziness, perhaps the madness is not yet over.