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We’re off, for the 2024 edition of Wimbledon.
There are a couple of big question marks at the top of each draw – actually, technically, the bottom with women’s No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Novak Djokovic.
But it was already going to be pretty wide open this year. So the suspense just adds to the drama.
We look at Canadian content on this Canada Day, matches to watch on opening day, injury updates for Sabalenka and Andy Murray, a new sponsorship exposure wrinkle, another new tennis baby – and what all of those unsuccessful qualifying aspirants are doing now!
(Hint, they’re grinding).
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Weather forecast
We’ll go with the Met Office, the British weather office that typically proves to be very accurate during Wimbledon time.
Sometimes, they start covering the courts and you look around and go, “Wait, there’s no rain!!” And right on cue a minute or two later, it starts to come down. They’re that good.
They even have a special section on their website.
For Monday, and indeed for the first few days, it’s going to be pretty cool. It might hit 20C, at best.
There’s no rain in the forecast on Monday.
And in their very discreet way, they do allow there may be some “sunny intervals”. But most of them will be in the morning, before the start of play.
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Matches to watch on Canada Day
Denis Shapovalov led things off on Court 14, bright and early at 11 a.m Wimbledon time, 6 a.m. EDT.
He had a tough one on paper against No. 19 seed Nicolas Jarry, whose best effort at the All-England Club was last year, when he made the third round. The Chilean had won just one main-draw match in his first three participations from 2017-2019.
Shapovalov made the round of 16 last year (which means he’s also defending a fair few points). He was a semifinalist in 2021, and the junior champion back in 2016.
And he got through in straight sets.
At the end of the day, Bianca Andreescu takes on Jaqueline Cristian, a “fellow” Romanian, in a way.
They’re on Court 15 so if you’re there, make sure you try to jump on the small-capacity court as soon as the Brit who’s on before her, Sonay Kartal, is done against Sorana Cirstea.
Cristian, who is 26, played WImbledon for the first time only last year, and lost in the second round.
Andreescu made the third round a year ago.
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Other matches to watch
– Carlos Alcaraz opens Centre Court promptly at 1:30 p.m., against qualifier Mark Lajal of Estonia.
– Emma Raducanu has a tough one against No. 22 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who can be unbeatable – or very beatable (2nd on CC)
– Aryna Sabalenka has a lot of question marks as she opens her tournament against Emina Bektas (2nd on No. 1)
– Karolina Muchova vs Paula Badosa in the battle of the walking wounded (4th on Court 17)
– Former No. 12 Wang Qiang, who is playing her first Grand Slam tournament since 2022 Wimbledon, takes on [19] Emma Navarro. Where has she been? She’s been out since Sept. 2022. And save for one match in Thailand in late January she has been inside China all year, going 15-4 in four events.
– Potential big-time battles: Victoria Azarenka v Sloane Stephens (4th on No. 2), teens Brenda Fruhvirtova and [24] Mirra Andreeva (4th on Court 12), feisty Daria Saville vs. feisty Peyton Stearns (2nd on Court 10), former finalist Karolina Pliskova against Bad Homburg champion Diana Shnaider (3rd on Court 14).
– Potential upsets: Taylor Townsend over [24] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has played just one grass-court match leading in (and lost it, at Eastbourne). Brandon Nakashima over [18] Sebastian Baez. Young Jakub Mensik over [23] Alexander Bublik.
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Sabalenka concerns before Wimbledon – she’s out
It’s been a rough few months both physically and mental health-wise for world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
And she wasn’t even 100 per cent sure, as she was scheduled to debut Monday on No. 1 Court against American Emina Bektas, that she’d even be able to play.
And a few hours before she was scheduled to play, she withdrew. And Bektas now will play lucky loser Erika Andreeva.
Apparently it’s quite a rare injury; Sabalenka said during her pre-tournament press conference that she might only the second or third tennis player ever to injure this specific muscle in her shoulter, the teres major.
“The past month has been really challenging for me, I’ve been fighting through a lot of different pains. It’s something I have to figure out right now. And if I can’t figure it out, I can only make things worse. And I don’t want to risk the rest of the season,” she said.
They’ve had an MRI done, lots of rehab. “We’re doing our best. As competitors we’re not going to give up that easily so the last week, we’ve been trying lots of different things,” she said. “I have another day and a half to try to some more stuff, to see where I am. And I still have my hopes.”
There is research on this injury, specifically on baseball players. Although even then, they are reportedly not common. Overhand throwing (like a baseball pltcher) and serving (like a tennis player) can cause it. Even reaching up to fetch your heavy carry-on bag in the plane’s overhead bin.
It only bothers Sabalenka in one area. But it’s a big area. “I can do anything. I can practice, I can hit my groundstrokes, but I’m struggling with serving. And that’s really annoying,” she said.
Without her serve, of course – and especially on grass – Sabalenka is not the same player.
(No one is the same player. Okay, maybe Sara Errani).
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Andy Murray update
Andy Murray, who had surgery to remove a cyst on his spine two weeks ago, hasn’t … 100% ruled out playing singles on Tuesday, when he’s due to face Czechia’s Tomas Machac.
But it doesn’t sound great. Doubles sounds more likely.
Here’s what he told the BBC.
Andy Murray still hopes he can make the singles court on Tuesday after playing a practice set today. But he has just told @BBCSport “If I can improve a little bit again tomorrow there’s a chance: but I think it’s more likely I won’t play singles if I’m being honest right now.”
— Russell Fuller (@russellcfuller) June 30, 2024
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Murray plans to make the decision Monday night.
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Van Assche, Mpetschi Perricard make it – finally
Luca Van Assche, who was next into the men’s singles draw as first alternate – only to have no one withdraw before the start of qualifying – managed to make it in the end.
James Duckworth won the coin flip as the top alternate among those those lost in the last round of qualifying, and got in when Corentin Moutet pulled out.
But Van Assche was next and he’s in, after the withdrawal of Dominik Koepfer.
He faces the veteran Fabio Fognini on Monday.
Van Asshe’s countryman Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard, who is inside the top 60, was the No. 1 seed in qualifying but couldn’t get through the final round, also is in.
The tall, big-serving Frenchman replaces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
He’ll play No. 20 seed Sebastian Korda, who probably isn’t THAT thrilled at this turn of events.
If anyone else withdraws, it appears David Goffin would be next.
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More points on offer for second-week Slammers
This is a change that occurred at the beginning of the season.
But, as with so many things, it only came on Open Court’s radar at today o’clock that the players who reach the latter stages of the big tournaments are earning more points this year than they did for the previous 14 years.
At first glance, it seems a fairly minor thing. But on another level it’s emblematic of the rich getting richer – to coin a phrase – in tennis.
There’s not much difference when you win a round or two or three. But the better you do, the more rewarded you are.
For example, if you’re coming into Wimbledon as a quarterfinalist, you’re defending 360 points. But if you match that, you get 400.
The ATP rationale is this:
“The changes are designed to optimise the points distribution following the increase in 96-draw Masters 1000 events, as well as delivering an improved balance and distribution of points following the significant increase in higher category ATP Challenger tournaments on offer to players from 2023.”
At the same time, they’ve dropped the number of points in a lot of cases at the Challenger level.
The bottom line is that it’s just one more way it’s becoming even harder to move up the rankings. Which is perhaps a feature, not a bug, from their point of view.
The other thing that doesn’t make a ton of sense is that the points distribution on the WTA side is totally different. Not hugely. But still, why not streamline this the way they have other areas?
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Mom on a MISSION!!!!
As the WTA social media tends to put it, Kiki Bertens is officially a DOUBLE “Mom on a mission!!!!” with the birth of her second child, son Bo. Son Mats turned two on April 3.
View this post on Instagram
Bertens, who is still only 32, retired nearly three years ago. She got to a career-high No. 4.
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New post-match advertising time
It’s actually surprising it took this long. But those post-match, on-court interviews have been ad-free for the most part, with the natural background of fans or the court.
That’s changed, subtly, in the last few weeks as there have been a number of tournaments with sponsor-filled backdrops, trotted out just before the on-court interview with the winners.
The one in Stuttgart was sort of transparent, with the sponsors’ names visible but the court behind that. That was the better one. Others have been right in your face.
There’s been a fairly obvious attempt by the broadcast directors to avoid showing the screens being set up. Rather, it’s mostly been random crowd shots as the commentators try to fill the time until they’re finally ready to go with the interviews.
We suspect this won’t be happening at Wimbledon, though. It didn’t at Queen’s or Halle.
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Players making a quick pivot to clay
As the 16 men and 16 women (and a few lucky losers) move from the wilds of Roehampton to the pristine perfection of the All-England Club after getting through qualifying, the rest of the rank and file continue the grind.
It’s pretty crazy, when you think about it. As glamorous as it is for those who commuted to SW19 last weekend, so it is that it’s a rapid-fire surface change and back to grinding for a few points for the rest.
They don’t have the luxury of worrying bowing out of next month’s Olympics because of all the surface changes. They just have to keep playing.
Here are the men and women who took part in the Wimbledon qualifying on grass, who quickly moved RIGHT back onto the clay to continue trying to put together wins at the Challenger and ITF levels.
By our count, there are 38 men taking part in five different tournaments (six of whom went back over to the U.S. to play on hard courts) and only 17 women.
Most of that is because there are five men’s events – four of them at the $75K level – and only … one women’s tournament at that level this week.
Three of the women even went down to the $25,000 ITF level to compete.
In the case of Varvara Lepchenko, she earned about $31,600 US for making the second round of qualifying – a lot more than the entire prize-money purse for the ITF she’s playing in Rome.
Men
Brasov (Challenger 75, clay) – Roman Andres Burruchaga, Nicolas Moreno De Alboran, Gustavo Heide, Valentin Royer, Murkel Dellien, Nerman Fatic, Juan Pablo Ficovich
Karlsruhe (Challenger 75, clay) – Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Jozef Kovalik, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Benjamin Hassan, Denis Yevseyev, Hugo Dellien, Zsombor Piros, Joris De Loore, Rudolf Molleker, Daniel Rincon, Adrian Andreev, Clement Tabur.
Modena, (Challenger 75, clay) – Thiago Agustin Tirante, Titouan Droguet, Matteo Gigante, Andrea Pellegrino, Benoit Paire, Oriol Roca Batalla, Bernabe Zapata Miralles, Dino Prizmic, Aziz Dougaz, Kyrian Jacquet
Troyes, (Challenger 50, clay) – Marco Trungelliti, Calvin Hemery, Timofey Skatov,
Bloomfield Hills (Challenger 75, hard) – Emilio Nava, Tristan Schoolkate, Yunchaokete Bu, Tristan Boyer, Marc Polmans, Philip Sekulic.
Women
ITF $75K Montpellier (clay) – Mai Hontama, Laura Pigossi, Darja Semenistaja, Astra Sharma, Nuria Parrizas Diaz, Lucija Ciric Bagaric, Noma Noha Akugue, Jil Teichmann, Carole Monnet, Raluka Serban, Louisa Chirico, Andreea Mitu, Anastasiia Sobolieva, Selena Janicijevic.
ITF $25K, Rome (clay) – Varvara Lepchenko
ITF $25K, Stuttgart (clay) – Ella Seidel, Miriam Bulgaru.
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