–

The biggest casualty of the persistent rain through the first nine days of The Championships has been the mixed doubles.

And now, the All-England Club has decided it will be the final event.

There are still first-round matches to finish, including several involving prominent British players – and the reigning champions, Mate Pavic and Lyudmyla Kichenok.

And so the scheduled Thursday final has been backed up – all the way to Sunday, after the men’s singles final.

Today, weather permitting, those final first-rounders will be completed and the winners will play their second rounds as well. It’s a 32-team draw, so five rounds are needed to win. So unless they played another doubleheader somewhere, the scheduling problem was fairly easy to determine.

Because of that, the women’s doubles final – normally played the same day as the gentlemen’s singles final, will be pushed up to Saturday to add to the regularly scheduled women’s singles final and the men’s doubles final.

That makes for a busy Saturday. But at least, with the roof, there won’t be any concerns about either rain, or darkness.

Generally speaking, the doubles and mixed finals often are played BEFORE the big singles finals, starting earlier. (Unless the same player is involved in both). It means you hope people will come earlier to watch, as opposed to hoping they will stay after what could be a four-hour-plus men’s final.

That type of schedule is trickier at Wimbledon with the grass inside the stadium taking longer to burn off the morning dew. But at Wimbledon, a lot of people stay. Because it’s Wimbledon.

Wimbledon Day 9 – Singles final results

Wimbledon Day 9 – Doubles, mixed final results

**************************************

When the Mixed final was on No. 1 …

The mixed doubles final wasn’t always this early in the week. Let’s flash back to the most incredible mixed final that every few people saw or remember.

Why is it consigned to the dusty corners of history? Because it was played concurrently with the Wimbledon men’s final many consider as one of the best finals of all time.

As Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were battling on a then-roofless Centre Court in the increasing darkness, there was another match going on on No. 1 Court: the mixed final between unseeded Bob Bryan and Samantha Stosur and No. 1 seeds Mike Bryan and Katerina Srebotnik.

(It was Open Court’s first Wimbledon working as a journalist – we thought they’d ALL be this dramatic).

At 9:25 p.m., they presented the trophies on Centre Court.

And as it was happening, we suddenly realized that … the mixed was still going on! Somehow.

So we dashed across to No. 1 Court, and caught the end of the match.

(The camera wasn’t as good then, but it wasn’t a whole lot lighter than appears in this photo. If there was television coverage of it, they would have the apertures opened all the way to make it seem lighter than it actually was, though.

In the end, it was … a Bryan, and Stosur, who won.

But it was so dark, our first thought was, “Let’s hope they gave the trophy to the … right Bryan!

**************************************

Wimbledon Babies!

Sometimes there’s serendipity in the big events in life.

And so how appropriate is it that two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova AND grass-court aficionado Alison Riske-Amritraj had their first babies during The Championships?

First came Riske-Amritraj and husband Stephen Amritraj, who welcomed baby Calen Ann on July 5.

And then, two days later – two weeks before their first wedding anniversary, came baby Petr, whose parents are Petra Kvitova (see what they did there?) and her husband and longtime coach Jiří Vaněk.

As one intrepid Tweeter pointed out, that … ALMOST completes the Mommy set from the 2012 WTA Finals in Istanbul.

What an era that was.

they are all mothers now 🥹🥹 pic.twitter.com/JPpWJImfHX
— Serena's snatched wig (@Danidilo2) July 8, 2024

(Can you come up the eighth and final player without cheating?)

Congratulations to all!

**************************************

Giving it up at the Slams

Will Alexander Zverev win a Grand Slam title some day?

He’s certainly the most accomplished current player not to yet bad one. But it’s not as though he hasn’t had his opportunities.

But in 2024, he’s let it slip away – big time.

No player has ever done the “Grand Slam” of letting two-sets-to-none leads slip away. Or even had it happen three times in a season.

But so far this year, Alexander Zverev has done it in Australia, and now at Wimbledon.

In Melbourne, he was beaten 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3 by Daniil Medvedev in the X.

And on Monday at Wimbledon, in the fourth round, he was beaten 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 by Taylor Fritz.

Add to that his match in the Roland Garros final, where he led Carlos Alcaraz two sets to one before falling in five. And it’s quite the 2024 resumé.

Per the fabulous Twitter follow Jeu, Set et Maths, Zverev is 21-3 in five-set matches against players outside the top 20.

Against top-20 players, he’s … 2-10.

Which probably explains why that first major title continues to elude him (that, and the era he has played in).

**************************************

Replacements on the Spanish Olympic squad

They’re going down the list of alternates on the Spanish men’s team for the Paris Olympics.

And, probably, those players should have been nominated in the first place.

SPAIN UPDATE! 🇪🇸

Jaume Munar replaces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who's pulled out from #Paris2024 due to a back injury. #Olympics | #tennis pic.twitter.com/k3P7m2dcix
— ITF (@ITFTennis) July 9, 2024

Pablo Carreño Busta, who had been out forever but returned at Roland Garros in the hope of using his protected ranking to play the Olympics, has already withdrawn and was replaced by Pedro Martinez.

And now Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who withdrew from Wimbledon as the tournament was starting, is also out and is replaced by Jaume Munar.

**************************************

Nadal getting in some doubles

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal has been at his academy’s branch in Greece, working out on the clay to get ready for Paris. Among the players who’ve been there to train with him are Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

First comes Bastad – the small, post-Wimbledon clay-court ATP 250 which is getting the biggest star it’s ever had.

And its two biggest are teaming up for doubles, the tournament announced.

(The other wild card goes to Vinciguerra and Borg – and by that we don’t mean Andreas and Bjorn).

Nadal said at Roland Garros that he’d love to practice with Carlos Alcaraz, with whom he’ll team up in doubles. For singles purposes, too. But Alcaraz is still busy defending his Wimbledon title at the moment.

The clay will have to wait for him.

**************************************

Perricard’s busy American summer

Now that 20-year-old Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard has had a taste of the big time, he wants more.

The lucky loser, who ran out of gas in his seventh singles match from the qualifying through to the fourth round, where he was beaten by No. 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti on Monday, has a busy summer planned.

With his current ranking, he’d have qualified for the fourth spot on the French Olympic team. But it came a little too late. (At his age, he should have other opportunities).

So he’ll head to North America and try to maximize.

At the moment, he’s entered in the grass-court tournament at Newport (the final edition of that storied event), along with Atlanta AND the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

(We don’t know if he’ll play all of them. You’d think he needs a break for the body to rest after all that grass tennis the last two weeks).

Mpetshi Perricrd’s ranking (No. 58) at the deadline for the Montreal WTA 1000 (Monday) would put him into the qualifying. But given the relationship between the French federation and Tennis Canada, given he’s a French-speaking player in a French-speaking city, and given he’s kind of a new star in the firmament, it wouldn’t be a shock that they work something out for a wild card.

(That said, a fair few Canadian players will need them this year: Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic – although both could use one of their protected ranking slots), Alexis Galarneau, perhaps even Vasek Pospisil).

By Cincinnati, for which the deadline is Monday, Perricard should squeeze straight in.

Considering that a year ago this week he was preparing to lose to Aussie Dane Sweeny in the first round of the Granby Challenger, just outside Montreal – and that he was ranked No. 241 when he was beaten by No. 462 Aidan Mayo in the second round of the US Open qualifying (above), this is entirely new territory.