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As Day 4 of this year’s edition of Wimbledon came to a close, the tournament was on time.

The rain delays haven’t been too lengthy, and they’d caught up.

This first Friday is a different story.

Summarizing all of the various weather websites, the rain began shortly before the start of play on the outer courts. And while there originally was a window in the early afternoon (which might be partially eaten up by the preparation of the courts for play), that window appeared to close around midday.

In short, it’s likely going to be a slog on the outer courts.

But there are two roofs! And so there will be at least six singles matches for the lucky few who are scheduled there.

That includes Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu.

And Grigor Dimitrov vs. Gaël Monfils.

As a reminder of something we’re all aware of, it doesn’t take much rain to stop play on grass.

Courage, everyone.

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Potential upsets and marathons

We can start with Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who has looked terrific so far in her two Wimbledon wins over quality players: Jaqueline Cristian of Romania and No. 26 seed Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic.

In No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini, she faces the same opponent who beat her in the third round of Roland Garros – and who, somewhat unexpectedly, went on to make the women’s singles final.

The circumstances were rather different just a month ago. Andreescu’s Roland Garros was her first tournament back after nearly 10 months away. She’d already pushed hard to win two rounds, including a comeback over Anna Kalinskaya. The weather had delayed things, led to late-night starts on smaller, damp courts. In that match, it was almost as though she had hit her limit for the week.

And, of course, Paolini’s form and clay-court gravitas – her ability to run anything down – was a daunting prospect to try and overcome.

Fast forward, and they meet on a surface that suits Andreescu better in the sense that she has more ways of finishing points, more quickly.

Paolini had lost in the first round all three times she’d been in the WImbledon main draw before this year. To be fair, she was beaten by Andrea Petkovic the first time, and then by two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova the next two (pushing her to three sets on both occasions).

Paolini has had a good draw so far, beating Sara Sorribes Tormo in the first round (Andreescu beat Sorribes Tormo in the first round in Roland Garros, so the symmetry is everywhere), then the capable Greet Minnen, ranked No. 80. The confidence gained by her Paris run translates. But the surface still doesn’t really play to her strengths.

There are a number of possible upsets on the docket Friday. Not that they’ll happen, but so many matches are distinct opportunities for the underdog to cause a surprise: Raducanu over Sakkari; Struff over Medvedev, Shapovalov over Shelton, Kostyuk over Keys, Nakashima over Humbert, Shnaider over Navarro, Badosa over Kasatkina.

How the players handle delays and logistics will also play a part. But hopefully they’ll be able to get a lot of this in today.

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Report: Tragic news for Noskova

Linda Noskova, the 19-year-old Czech player who was the No. 26 seed at Wimbledon this year, bowed out in straight sets to Andreescu in the second round.

But according to the Czech media outlet Prerovsky Denik, she was playing at the All-England Club despite some devastating news back home.

According to the outlet, which said it confirmed the news with the manager of Noskova’s home club in Prerov, her mother Ivana lost a long-running battle with cancer last Sunday – the day before the start of the tournament.

Noskova, who is from a very small town (Bystřička – population just over 1,000 now), comes from a fairly atypical background. Her parents were much older when they had her – in their 40s, according to Blesk, from her mother’s second marriage – and are already retired. They would have had the freedom to travel the world to watch their daughter play. And in an interview last January, Ivana Noskova was looking forward to going to Wimbledon.

But cancer intervened. May her memory be a blessing.

Noskova isn’t the only player to deal with a death in the family this week. Finnish player Otto Virtanen, who qualified last Thursday for his first Wimbledon main draw, flew home to attend his grandfather’s funeral last weekend. He returned to beat quality Aussie Max Purcell in the first round, before falling – in five sets – to No. 12 seed Tommy Paul.

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Pospisil is BACK, baby

It’s been exactly a decade since Vasek Pospisil brought a Grand Slam title back home to Canada, when he won the Wimbledon doubles title with Jack Sock.

He had just turned 24, and was a few months past his career high of No. 25 in singles, too – one of the rare players who was equally as good in both events.

The future seemed bright. And then the injuries hit.

Having tried to get things going on the Challenger circuit earlier this year, with inconsistent results, Pospisil – now 34 – hasn’t played since a Challenger in Mexico nearly three months ago.

But when the Challenger tournament in Granby – about 90 minutes outside Montreal – announced its field Thursday, the good news was that Pospisil’s name was on the list as a wild card.

(There is a similar Challenger in Winnipeg, Manitoba next week, for which the wild cards have not yet been announced. But you would think if Pospisil is playing, they would have announced it. We’ll keep you posted).

It’s a good time for Pospisil to see if he has another comeback in him, with the Canadian-based Challengers followed by the National Bank Open in Montreal early next month.

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WTA returns to Singapore

Nothing much good has happened on the WTA Finals front since it left Singapore, where the crown jewel, year-ending event was held from 2014 – 2018.

After a great first year, things were never quite the same. And through tinkering with the format and the scheduling, and then trying to play an offer from the Chinese into more money, the women’s Tour departed. We know what’s happened since then.

But this week came news that the WTA Tour is returning in 2025.

It won’t be the same level of tournament. Rather, it will be a relocated WTA 250 from Hua Hin, Thailand that takes place immediately after the end of the Australian Open.

On some level, it’s sort of a stopoff along the way for players getting back to Europe from Melbourne.

The tournament will be held at the “purpose-built Kallang Tennis Hub”, and will be indoors. It doesn’t appear to have any sort of title sponsor – at least not yet.

The reigning champion (in Hua Hin) is Diana Shnaider, who has gone on from there to be a force. The year before that, it was Zhu Lin of China. The tournament wasn’t held in 2021 or 2022.

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The Americans are FEISTY this year, Part I

It’s highly unlikely an American male is going to win Wimbledon this year.

But so far, a couple of the top contenders are putting it out there.

Case in point is No. 12 seed Taylor Fritz, who won Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon and is considered to have the best chance to go deep amongst the Americans still alive.

In the second round, he met Arthur Rinderknech, whom he met for the first time at Roland Garros in 2023. On both occasions, he defeated the Frenchman in four sets.

But Fritz didn’t forget the low-key trash talking from Rinderknech before this one, when he basically accused Fritz (who is not a whiner) of being, well, a whiner about the obviously pro-Rinderknech French crowd a year ago.

Fritz got booed for a long period of time after the win in Paris, after having motioned as if to shush the crowd – which it should be said, was especially … demonstrative this year. And given he’s a fair play kind of guy who never did anything to anyone, he had to sit there, jaw firmly set, and listen to it (while his influencer girlfriend seemingly thought it was hilarious).

Taylor Fritz shushing 🤫 French open crowd after beating Arthur Rinderknech & telling them "I love you guys" after they boo him for 1min 30seconds. pic.twitter.com/6070OTgiNa

— Tennis Reaction vids (@DominicMEME) July 3, 2024

Leading up to this rematch, Rinderknech basically said that he expected Fritz wouldn’t whinge as much as he had in Paris.

“As soon as I saw it, the match was basically over. I’m a very chill person. I don’t do anything that could rub people the wrong way, so when someone kind of just goes out of their way to take a shot at me, then I’m not just going to take it. It gave me the extra fire to win. When we shook hands, I just said have a nice flight home,” Fritz said after the match.

Taylor Fritz / Arthur Rinderknech beef pic.twitter.com/WQtUqGudp3

— asud (@asud659478) July 4, 2024

Rinderknech, laying his racquet on Fritz’s behind as he did it, went over after losing again at Wimbledon to … inquire about what Fritz had said, wondering why he was being that way.

It didn’t cut any ice with Fritz. And we say good for him.

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The Americans are FEISTY this year, Part II

The other American going on the “take no prisoners” road is Frances Tiafoe, who has been having an absolutely terrible year.

But in the first round, after dropping the first two sets to the speedy and very capable Matteo Arnaldi, he had some things to say – notably that he was “losing to clowns” in recent months.

“I hate to say it but I’m just gonna be honest,” he elaborated. I took the game for granted and got a little too comfortable. You stop having fun with it and you find yourself in a weird position. Then you kind of forget what you were doing to win?”

It was in the heat of the moment; when a player talks that way, it’s usually a pretty internal dissection of what they consider to be their own sub-par play. Tiafoe came into Wimbledon 13-14 on the season; his ranking has dropped from No. 16 to No. 30.

He doesn’t ACTUALLY think that Jack Draper, Denis Shapovalov, Rindernech (okay, well, maybe that was a solidarity thing with Fritz!), Ben Shelton, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Tomas Machac, Marcos Giron, Tommy Paul and Jerry Shang are clowns.

But it got plenty of play anyway.

Tiafoe dispatched Borna Coric in straight sets to back up the comeback win.

But he’s got defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the third round Friday, which is a different level.

Alcaraz is ready.

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The Daily Drill – July 4, 2024

For previous editions of the Daily Drill, click here.

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