Vekic as a junior at Wimbledon in 2012.
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The sun arrived at Wimbledon late Wednesday. And so it appears the tournament will be home free the rest of the way.
That’s irrelevant to the singles and doubles, which can be roofed if needed. But there’s a lot of catching up to do with the juniors and the legends.
First big ones up are the ladies’ singles semifinals Thursday – the lineup the result of a lot of upsets in this tournament and, unless Elena Rybakina wins it all, a major surprise champion.
Then again, who called for grass-averse Marketa Vondrousova to win last year?
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Ladies’ semifinal 1: Paolini v Vekic
Donna Vekic, who turned 28 just before Wimbledon, has been at this awhile and has grown up in the spotlight. She was an excellent junior who morphed into being best known as Stan Wawrinka’s much-younger girlfriend. But she eventually bloomed into her own woman with her own line of clothing and a dangerous game.
Vekic got into the top 20 five years ago, at age 23. But injuries and struggle since had her questioning her path forward even as recently as before Roland Garros.
For Jasmine Paolini, also 28 but six months older, (and six inches shorter) the first bloom of big success has come a lot later. She’s at a career high No. 7 after reaching the Roland Garros final. Nothing on her path would have indicated she could have the same success on grass. But confidence breeds belief. And here she is.
Paolini leads the head-to-head 2-1, with the two wins coming on the North American summer hard courts, by nearly identical scores.
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Ladies’ semifinal 2: Rybakina v Krejcikova
While Rybakina was expected on this final Thursday, No. 31 seed Barbora Krejcikova was not. Her year so far has been full of injuries. And indeed, the former world No. 2 barely hung onto a seeded spot.
Each of these two has a major title, which puts them far ahead of the other semifinal in summit experience.
But Rybakina’s came AT Wimbledon, two years ago.
It’s been nearly two years since they met. But Krejcikova leads the head-to-head 2-0, with both wins of the comeback variety, both on hard court (faster hard courts, too).
One element in Rybakina’s favour. She hasn’t had too tough a time getting to the semis while Krejcikova, playing doubles with Laura Siegemund, has had to wait out rain delays and scrap out victories.
Wednesday, while Rybakina had a nice easy practice and put her feet up, Krejcikova toiled for nearly three hours late in the day – only to lose her quarterfinal doubles match. One reason they did lose, in addition to quality opposition, was that the Czech looked pretty out of gas after having a tougher quarterfinal against Jelena Ostapenko earlier.
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Chip off the old Lindsay
Jagger Leach didn’t look SO much like his Hall of Fame mom Lindsay Davenport when he was younger – at least, that was our take.
But these days, the resemblance is starting to get uncanny.
Jagger, whose first tennis experience was visiting Quebec City with his mom as a baby in 2007 when she returned to the tour at the now-defunct tournament there, is now 17.
He was a slow starter on the junior circuit, but now sits at No. 25 in the rankings and has played all three junior majors this year.
Jagger Leach is looking to follow in his mom, Lindsay Davenport's, footsteps at Wimbledon 🌱 #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/0FN4FnhjXs
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) July 8, 2024
Those major results haven’t been massive. But Leach has won a TON of matches at lower-level events. He lost in the second round of the Australian Open juniors. But the next two weeks, he won back-to-back J100 level tournaments in Brisbane. He has already represented the U.S. at junior Davis Cup.
On Wednesday at Wimbledon, the unseeded teen upset the No. 6 seed in straight sets in the singles, and on Thursday, has already beaten Flynn Thomas of Switzerland to reach the quarterfinals.
Last October, he verbally committed to attending TCU (Texas Christian University) to play college tennis.
Toronto player list unveiled
There’s little that is less suspenseful than the “player reveal” for a 1000-level tournament.
Basically: all of the top 50 are in it. Unless they’re injured. Or they’re one of the veteran males taked advantage of their seniority to skip one here and there without penalty.
Tournaments do it anyway, because if the first sort of public promotion for an upcoming tournament.
So it is that the Toronto arm of the Canadian double – the women are in Toronto this year – announced on Wednesday that … everyone eligible on the WTA side had entered.
Leylah Fernandez is the only Canadian woman directly into the draw – she’ll play Wednesday night. So you’d expect that the three remaining wild cards will go to Canadians who need them.
The first one was announced: local heroine Bianca Andreeescu.
The official draw will be on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 5 p.m.
And that’s when we’ll have a much better idea of who doesn’t withdraw, because of the Olympics (and basically no rest from the clay-court season through the grass season and right back to the clay). And with Cincinnati and the US Open coming up right afterward.
At the moment, every player from No. 1 Iga Swiatek to No. 44 Magda Linette with the exception of No. 23 Mirra Andreeva is entered. Paula Badosa is on her protected ranking of No. 34.
Canada screwed again
Noteworthy is that the Canadian event again gets discombobulated because of the Olympics. Qualifying will begin on Sunday, the first round of the main draw begins only Tuesday to give players an extra day and hopefully lead to fewer late withdrawals. The singles and doubles finals will take place on Monday. Aug. 12.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it were the previous weekend, which is a long holiday weekend in Ontario and would have made it easy for people to come on the Monday – and with less Toronto traffic as well.
But not to be. If you think this is bad, wait until 2025.
Also a Montreal full house – for now
The list for the men in Montreal is set to be revealed on Thursday. But we can tell you that the last one directly in is Fabian Maroszan of Hungary at No. 43, with Pablo Carreño Busta in with a protected ranking of No. 18.
Carreño Busta, though, was a late withdrawal from the Olympics, for which he also used his protected ranking. So who knows if he’ll make the date.
Milos Raonic isn’t entered with his protected ranking; he’ll get a wild card. So will Denis Shapovalov, already scheduled for Wednesday along with fellow Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.
Auger-Aliassime the only Canadian directly in on his own ranking. Well, one of two: Tennis Canada doesn’t count Canadian Alejandro Tabilo, who now represents Chile. But at No. 19 in the world this week, we sure do.
In an interview with the Journal de Montréal, tournament director Valérie Tétreault said she was working on getting Rafael Nadal to Montreal. But of course, if he had any serious interest in taking part, he’d have entered with his protected ranking.
He did not. Nadal, who’s won the tournament five times, would need a wild card.
“We’re crossing our fingers to be able to see him one last time,” Tétreault told the Journal. “That’s our hope. I’m well aware that it’s a long shot, but we’re pulling out our best arguments to try to convince him.”
Tétreault will be watching who goes deep at the Olympics, and who’s struggling physically. It’ll probably be like the bad old days of the WTA, when then-tournament director Eugene Lapierre undoubtedly wanted to fire his cell phone somewhere into the wilds of Parc Jarry. Because every year players would bail late in the game – Serena, Venus, Davenport, Sharapova.
As for Novak Djokovic, Tétreault said they were told by the Serb’s reps to look at how things went at Wimbledon, and they’d talk after that.
Badosa also confirmed for Guadalajara
Badosa, who opted to skip the Olympics, is planning a busy summer in North America. She’s on the list as early as the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. Then Canada. Then Cincinnati. And she was just announced for the 500 in Guadalajara, which takes place the week before the US Open at altitude.
With her ranking at No. 93 – she’ll move up some 30 spots next Monday, with her fourth-round effort at Wimbledon – and time running out on her protected ranking. So the time is now to get that number back up to where it should be.
On the plus side, the heavy tournament load hopefully means that the back woes that put her in this situation in the first place are behind her.
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Hi Steph!
Just wanted to tell you again, how much I enjoy this new feature.
Brenda
Thank you!