Djokovic in the house at Wimbledon (Photo: Wimbledon)
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Happy St-Jean Baptiste Day to those of my compadres celebrating today. Enjoy the barbecue, the festivities, or whatever you have planned.
Across the pond, two among us will not have the day off. They’ll be on duty – attempting to make the first Wimbledon main draws of their careers.
Alexis Galarneau, in fact, is playing the first grass-court match of his life, as he takes on France’s Manuel Guinard.
And Gabriel Diallo, who made the second round of qualifying in his debut a year ago, meets Tunisia’s Aziz Dougaz.
(Update: Both made it through. Diallo will face accomplished grass-courter Richard Gasquet in the second round).
Wimbledon qualifying schedule and scores are here.
Other Canuckians on the schedule Monday including Leylah Fernandez in Eastbourne (against No. 7 seed Barbora Krejcikova) and Bianca Andreescu in Bad Homburg (against Anna Blinkova).
Monday tournament weather forecasts
Rain has wreaked havoc on the grass season so far, although typically Mallorca has always been insulated from all of that, which makes it a good choice for those playing the week before Wimbledon.
But nothing is certain any more.
Indeed, Mallorca has the least-good forecast of all the tournament sites. But even theirs is pretty good. So we’re already starting off on a better foot.
Here are the Monday forecasts at the various venues.
Roehampton (for Wimbledon qualifying): Sunny and warm
Eastbourne (for the women’s 500 and the men’s 250): Sunny and cool
Bad Homburg (for the women’s 500): Sunny and warm
Mallorca (for the men’s 250): Partly sunny with a slight chance of showers mid-afternoon.
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Djoker is in the (Aorangi) house
After undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on the medial meniscus in his knee less than three weeks ago, Novak Djokovic arrived at the All-England Club on the weekend and was practicing on the Aorangi courts.
He also had a sleeve on his right forearm as he went through his paces.
There’s still no guarantee he will actually play. But clearly he’s giving himself every chance to try. And the fact that he’s made the trip to London is certainly a good sign.
If he does withdraw, it’s too late for an alternate to take his spot in the main draw. And so that would go to a lucky loser. This is the same for anyone uncertain of participating, including Andy Murray.
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Murray a gametime decision
After feeling a new and concerning type of back pain, and even a loss of feeling in his leg, when he retired in the second round of Queen’s Club, it turns out that Andy Murray had a spinal cyst.
The problem which was addressed in a procedure performed Saturday.
In the wake of that, in that echo chamber that is tennis media these days in which there is very little original reporting, and a whole lot of cut-and-pasting (don’t get us started), the “news” was that Murray would be out for six weeks.
That would mean he would be out of Wimbledon, and likely out of the Olympics as well.
The ATP Tour’s social media stated this as fact, amplifying a report the Telegraph tagged as “exclusive”.
The story stated that Telegraph sources said there was a “likely six-week layoff period associated with the process”, although acknowledged that there had been no official pronouncement from Team Murray.
The ATP posted this on Sunday around lunchtime, “confirming” he was out of Wimbledon, but subsequently deleted it.
British Davis Cup captain Leon Smith told the BBC that the decision had not yet been made.
So let’s just leave it at this: it would be a welcome surprise if Murray somehow managed to make it back from this in a little over a week, to play best-of-five on the slippery Centre Court grass.
But it’s unlikely. Still, the door isn’t completely shut and Murray is the man with his hand on the doorhandle.
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Raonic returning to clay for Olympic prep
Snubbed by the All-England Club for a main-draw wild card despite having a far better Wimbledon resumé than most of those getting the free passes, Canadian Milos Raonic will not hit Roehampton for the qualifying.
He was on the entry list, but it still would have been a surprise had he played.
Because the 33-year-old has another goal in mind: his last Olympics.
The Canadian didn’t play in Rio in 2016 for various reasons. And he was injured for Tokyo in 2021. So despite the red clay not being his true love, this will be his last opportunity to compete for an Olympic medal.
Raonic has been an Olympian; he competed in 2012 – 12 long years ago – when it was on the grass at Wimbledon.
He lost a memorable second-round match to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – 6-3, 3-6, 25-23 in the non-tiebreak deciding set.
The last time Raonic played on red clay was nearly four years ago – during the fall edition of the Italian Open during the 2020 pandemic year. Before that, it was Monte Carlo and Madrid during the 2018 season (he missed Roland Garros that year).
So it’s been awhile.
It’s not that he was bad on clay; far from it.
He made the second week the last two times he played Roland Garros in 2016 and 2017. And in 2014, he made the quarterfinals. With the exception of his debut, he never went out before the third round when he did play. It was just too hard on his body ahead of Wimbledon, where he figured he had a better chance of putting up a big result.
Raonic will get back on the dirt and train for the Games in Croatia.
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Late withdrawals hurt Bad Homburg field
Even if the women tend to play the week before a major more than the men, the WTA Tour’s trend of making those penultimate events 500 level only puts pressure on the top players to take part.
And when they make their schedule, they have no way of knowing how the previous weeks will go, so it’s more of a safety measure than anything else. Or, occasionally, players will pass on most of the grass-court swing and only play that one last-minute leadup.
Of course, if players do well the previous week, they’ll feel like they have enough grass-court play in the books and withdraw.
That’s what happened to three notable players this week: Victoria Azarenka (a good run in Berlin, and illness), Anna Kalinskaya (Berlin final) and Ajla Tomljanovic (out of Eastbourne after making the Birmingham final).
The thing about Bad Homburg is that the qualifying field was only eight players. One win, and four were in. And now, with the withdrawals, two more lucky losers are added. Which means that if you entered the qualifying there at all, you had a 75 per cent chance of making the main draw.
(Contrast what with Eastbourne, which had a 24-player draw and six qualifiers).
The lucky losers are Taylor Townsend, who lost to Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-2 in qualifying and Tamara Korpatsch, who lost to Lucia Bronzetti in three sets.
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A 2021 US Open reunion in Eastbourne
The US Open women’s singles final between teenagers Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu was a watershed moment for both.
As it happens, they have yet to meet in a match since then. And there’s been a lot of water under the bridge.
So it was a throwback to see them practice together at Eastbourne, ahead of the final Wimbledon preparatory tournament.
We're sure these two have met before 😉@EmmaRaducanu & @leylahfernandez hit the #RothesayInternational Eastbourne grass! pic.twitter.com/ngU0AD9mwN
— LTA (@the_LTA) June 23, 2024
Fernandez will play No. 7 seed Barbora Krejcikova on Monday; Raducanu drew Sloane Stephens.
Funnily enough, the two had met before that US Open final. Three years before, when both had yet to turn 16, they met in the junior girls’ event – at Wimbledon.
It was the second round; Fernandez was the No. 11 seed on the basis of her semifinal effort at the Roland Garros juniors, and her WTA ranking; Raducanu was unseeded. The Brit won 6-2, 6-4.
She ended up making the quarterfinals, and lost to another unseeded player who eventually won the whole tournament: some girl named Iga Swiatek.
That draw had a whole lot of young players who have gone on to be meaningful players on the WTA Tour, six years on:
Clara Burel, Elina Avanesyan, Wang Xinyu, Katie Volynets, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Clara Tauson, qualifier Payton Stearns, Wang Xiyu, Diane Parry, Coco Gauff, Camila Osorio, Zheng Qinwen.
Also interesting: many of them were unseeded, while so many “hotshots” in the draw have yet to break through.
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Yes, she did
Genie Bouchard was punditing on Tennis Channel last week.
And while the crew were discussing Queen’s Club, this happened.
Honest mistake, let’s be real.
Not me calling @Taylor_Fritz97 @taylorswift13 live on air 🙈😂 @TennisChannel pic.twitter.com/fi2KEJzAWI
— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) June 22, 2024
For previous editions of the Daily Drill, click here.
About Post Author
Happy Birthday, Stephanie! Wishing you all the best on your special day even though you have to share it with the Fete National. And, thank you so much for all the info you give us especially answering all our questions. You are our only source for that, & we are all so grateful for you taking the time to answer our sometimes irrational questions. Have a marvelous day!
Thanks for the kind words!!
Yeah – everyone’s on holiday and I’m working! Always the way haha.