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With no lights on any courts except for the two main stadiums – it’s always a serious win when Wimbledon can get through an early-round schedule having played all the matches.
(Never mind that the weather usually has a word).
On Monday, there were 64. They got through 63.66666.
Only Ben Shelton, who was down two sets to one to qualifier Mattia Bellucci when darkness halted proceedings shortly before 9 p.m., will have the night to sleep on it and figure out how to come back and play a little better.
Other than that, everyone was through.
Day 2 features the top half of the women’s draw, and the bottom half of the men’s draw.
But by Tuesday morning, Andy Murray had made the final decision – one that came as a surprise to few. He wouldn’t be able to take the court in singles barely a week after having surgery to remove a cyst from his spine.
He just ran out of time. Although he will play doubles later this week with his big brother Jamie, in what he confirmed is his final Wimbledon appearance.
They have moved Jack Draper to Centre Court in the slot Murray would have occupied for his match against Tomas Machac.
There’s a certain symmetry to that.
Veteran David Goffin gets in as the lucky loser.
Here’s what’s in store.
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Canadian Content
There’s a string of Canucks on Court 17 Tuesday, with No. 30 seed Leylah Fernandez (against Lucia Bronzetti), then qualifier Marina Stakusic, who makes her Wimbledon main-draw debut against No. 27 seed Katerina Siniakova.
No. 17 seed Félix Auger-Aliassime, who has a potentially lengthy one against Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis, was to have followed them.
But with the withdrawal of Andy Murray, and the move of his match against Machac (now with David Goffin) to No. 17, and the move of Brit Jack Draper to Centre Court, Auger-Aliassime now gets the much bigger No. 2 Court and may end up playing several hours earlier. Both of which are good news.
The Cana-Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, surely full of confidence after winning the title in Mallorca, will try to avoid the letdown that occured when he arrived at Roland Garros after his great run in Rome. He’s got a tricky one against Brit Dan Evans.
It should all start about 2 p.m. local – 9 a.m. EDT
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Weather forecast
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It will be even cooler at the All-England Club Tuesday, and it wasn’t that warm on Monday – especially later in the day.
The temps will top out around 18C, but not until late afternoon. And the sun is only expected to peek in with any significance around 7 p.m.
It’ll be a little gusty to start the day, although that will die down as the day goes on.
But … although there really was no chance of rain in the forecast, they didn’t get through much more than an hour before play was interrupted.
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Tuesday upset possibilities
We picked the Baez upset (by Nakashima) and almost picked the Bublik upset (young Jakub Mensik was up two sets to none before going down in five).
So what’s up on Tuesday?
Wild card Ajla Tomljanovic, who loves the grass, gets to face No. 13 seed Jelena Ostapenko in the first round. They played in the third round of Wimbledon in 2021, which was the only one of their four meetings won by the Aussie.
And the most dramatic.
Ostapenko: “Your behaviour is terrible, you have zero respect”
— BenzodiazePino 🌈 (@brumbrumcrown) June 28, 2024
Tomljanovic: “Honestly, you’re the one to talk”
BUUUUUUUUURN
pic.twitter.com/IFg5YABmAF
They’ve gotten over it, and they’re a competitive matchup . It’s a potential upset, especially after Tomljanovic made the Birmingham final two weeks ago.
Beyond that there’s wild card Paul Jubb, who had a great week in Mallorca last week, against Thiago Seyboth wild.
And huge-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard, who was the No. 1 seed in qualifying but only the third into the main draw as a lucky loser, has a puncher’s chance against No. 20 seed Sebastian Korda.
Qualifier Alycia Parks also has a shot against wild card Caroline Wozniacki, who has never had a deep run at Wimbledon.
Bottom half of women’s draw like Swiss cheese
Out of the draw, in a short space of time Monday, were No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, No. 16 Victoria Azarenka and No. 22 Ekaterina Alexandrova. All withdrew, all from the bottom half of the draw.
Heartbroken to have to tell you all that I won’t be able to play The Championships this year. I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating. This tournament means so much to me and I promise I’ll be back stronger than ever next year. ❤️
— Sabalenka Aryna (@SabalenkaA) July 1, 2024
Ugh 😢
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) July 1, 2024
Add to that the shock loss of No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen (to qualifier Lulu Sun), and another by No. 29 seed Sorana Cirstea (to British qualifier Sonay Kartal), and No. 24 seed Mirra Andreeva, who made the second week last year, and the bottom half is a … huge opportunity.
The only other seed in No. 2 Coco Gauff’s eighth is No. 19 Emma Navarro. Already.
No. 9 Maria Sakkari is the highest seed left in the third quarter of the draw.
The tough, tough turnaround
The toughest thing about going deep in a tournament the week before a Grand Slam tournament is the quick turnaround.
Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz and finalist Leylah Fernandez play Tuesday, as does Mallorca champion Alejandro Tabilo.
Daria Kasatkina got through Monday, after winning Eastbourne on Sunday. Bad Homburg finalist Donna Vekic needed three sets.
So that left Mallorca finalist Sebastian Ofner, who had to travel from there, get to London, adjust to completely different weather – and get on court against Aleksandar Vukic. Nearly four hours later, he went down 10-8 in the fifth-set deciding tiebreak. After catching up in that tiebreak, he had the MOST routine of backhand volleys to even it up at 9-9.
Except nothing’s easy at 8-9 in the fifth-set tiebreak, after nearly four hours, after you played a ton of tennis the previous week and then had to fly and change time zones.
There’s no way to know, had Ofner not had so much tennis and then the travel, if he’d have had that little extra gas in the tank needed to win it.
As for Bad Homburg champion Diana Shnaider, she faced a former Wimbledon finalist in the opening round – Karolina Pliskova.
Added to the knee tape she sported in Germany was an extra wrap on her upper left thigh.
Without her usual kerchief (maybe the white ones were in the wrong suitcase, or the WImbledon outfit police forbade them), Shnaider needed to come from behind and spend 2 1/2 hours doing it, before prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. It was among those most impressive efforts of the day.
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The “new coach” bump
Was it just two days before that Shnaider was celebrating, wearing a rather different kit?
Lost in the mists of the grass-court season was the fact that Igor Andreev, who had been coaching Anastasia Potapova (at not-insignificant risk to his zen!) for nearly three years, is no longer Anastasia Potapova’s coach.
He’s now Shnaider’s coach. And their brief three-week association has already paid dividends with that first grass-court title.
It’s so new that Potapova’s WTA page still lists him as her coach, and Shnaider’s has no coach listed.
In winning Bad Homburg, Shnaider also leaps past Potapova in the rankings,
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Why Djoko is playing Wimbledon?
Even Novak Djokovic’s wife, Jelena, asked him this question: why rush SO hard to get back from the procedure on his meniscus to get on the slippery grass and play Wimbledon – especially with the Olympics, on clay, coming a few weeks weeks after.
He explained it beautifully. And in doing so, gave some clarification to fans who seem to think that once an athlete creates generational wealth, they don’t have the same drive.
One of the journalists asked Novak why it was so important for him to return to Wimbledon, taking into account that the Olympics are approaching and that there is a certain risk… pic.twitter.com/WqZxknc2u2
— ᖴᖇᗩᑎI (@frani2312) June 30, 2024
Because they themselves probably wouldn’t. Not that any of us are headed down that path.
But it’s just something you can’t turn off, once you get there. It’s the reason you got there.
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A better match point you won’t see
It’s been a long road back for South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, the 27-year-old who got to No. 31 in the world less than three years ago, but was outside the top 300 about a year ago as he returned from injury.
He finally got back into the top 100 last week, but still had to grind it out in the qualifying.
Harris had a good draw, but he still had to get through it.
So you can imagine how relieved he was when he got through his first round Monday after being down two sets to none – 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 [11-9].
He was two points away from going down in straight sets to young American Alex Michelsen when he turned it around.
And the match point was as good as you’ll find.
What an outrageous way to seal an epic Wimbledon victory 🤯
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 1, 2024
This incredible match point effort from Lloyd Harris is the Play of the Day, presented by @Barclays #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/FwfqOMatc6
No wonder the usually pretty stoic Harris basically went around the entire court giving the crowd high fives.
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