Wimbledon tweet starts hell of a racket

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Ask a silly question in the age of Twitter and you can expect a whole lot more than a silly answer.

Georgia Ford, a 21-year-old English-woman, found that out when she tweeted during the tennis championship men's final on Monday: "Is Wimbledon always held in London?"

She almost instantly became the subject of widespread ridicule, gained her own support group and won the backing of one of the world's best known personalities.

As Switzerland's Roger Federer took on Scotland's Andy Murray, Ford's question was retweeted more than 7000 times, with many users poking fun at her. "Where do these people come from? What planet?" asked @CharMarie-22, while @GeorgePenny16 said, "My faith in humanity is depleting rapidly."

The negative attention all appeared to be too much as Ford deleted her account, prompting @handlewithcare to comment, "And now she's deleted her account. Another dark episode in Twitter's mob history."

CNN presenter Piers Morgan came out in her defence, tweeting, "We all say daft things. Let's get her back." Morgan also pointed out: "Wimbledon was a borough in the county of Surrey until it was absorbed into the Greater London Borough of Merton in 1965 ... So, technically, @Georgia-Ford was right to ask the question because the Wimbledon Championships weren't held in London until after 1965."

An @Georgia-Ford fan club page - @GeorgiaFordFans - was launched to try to attract her back and by last night had 246 followers. Ford's user name, though, was still inactive.

According to a tweet by @fieldproducer, the whole episode served as a warning for other users. "Bit of a lesson there about thinking before you tweet ..."