Crossword Genius

To choke, losing heart in Wimbledon, is hard to explain (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

strange

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'hard to explain' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'to choke losing heart in wimbledon' is the wordplay.
'to choke' becomes 'silt' (silting is a kind of choking).
'losing heart' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'in wimbledon' becomes 'range' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'silt' with its middle removed is 'st'.
'st'+'range'='STRANGE'

'is' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for strange that I've seen before include "Odd, peculiar" , "Unusual, odd" , "Slightly odd, a bit weird" , "Weird, eerie" , "Eccentric" .)

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