2024-07-08 21:50:01
It was 1,200 or so years ago that a righthander from Baghdad made his way through seven adventures, navigating all manner of opponents and meteorological challenges. In the end, Sinbad the Sailor completed this cycle triumphantly and made it back home. Here we are at Wimbledon 2024, and—on grass, not sea—the goal is to complete seven standalone voyages, slaloming around all obstruction and managing distraction, prevailing with strength, tactics and survival instincts.
With three rounds of adventure left to go, here’s a recap of the first week …
Men’s favorites: For all the rain and rescheduling, there have been scant few upsets … on the men’s side anyway. The defending champ (Carlos Alcaraz), the seven-time champ (Novak Djokovic) and the top seed (Jannik Sinner) remain.
Emma Navarro: In only her second Wimbledon, the former University of Virginia star cruises to Week 2, beating both Naomi Osaka and then Coco Gauff with utterly efficient tennis.
Sir Andy Murray: After pulling out of singles, the British icon tearfully played his final Wimbledon match (fittingly, with his brother, Jamie) and was rightly celebrated. Lost in the hubbub, Murray announced he would call it a career at the Olympics. For him to exist in the shadow of three mountains and still generate this kind of impact … is as much a feat as his three majors.
Yulia Putintseva: The Moscow-born, Kazakh-funded, Boca Raton-residing battler takes out the No.1 seed … to set up a date with comparably pugnacious (and comparably surging) Jelena Ostapenko.
French comers: Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard was a lucky loser. After booming his way to Week 2, he could well be seeded come U.S. Open time. Arthur Fils, just 20 years old, also remains. Bonus: you will not find two more amiable (and less jaded) young players.
College tennis: Alumni have been everywhere. Navarro, Danielle Collins, Ben Shelton, Lulu Sun, half the doubles field and a good many coaches …
Peroxide: With the inevitable nod to this look from Roger Federer, these are heady times for frosted tips. Fabio Fognini, Jan-Lennard Struff, Flavio Cobolli and Maxime Janvier have all adopted the style.
Conor Niland: This is an excellent piece about professional tennis’s foot soldiers.
Steve Carell: This riff on Alcaraz is—dare we say it?—beautiful. And, bonus points for his off-the-celebrity menu fondness for Ostapenko.
Otto Virtanen: The Finn saves four match points and wins his first qualifying match. He then saves four match points and wins his second qualifying match. He reaches Wimbledon’s main draw but then must go home to Finland to bury his grandfather. He flies back, beats Max Purcell (a quality win) and leads Tommy Paul 2–1 sets before, understandably, running out of steam.
Naomi Osaka: Tennis is better when she is in the mix. And credit to her for a full schedule and full commitment. But another event, another defeat. This time a 6–4, 6–1 capitulation to Navarro in under an hour. She said that she wants to peak on the U.S. hard courts. And she very well may. But you wonder about the calcifying of these losses.
Frances Tiafoe: With a sub-.500 record heading into the event, the American won two matches and made news dismissing some of his vanquishers as clowns. (Here’s his 2024 recap. Emmett Kelly was never an opponent.) In Round 3, he led Alcaraz 2–1 sets, outplaying the defending champ. Then Tiafoe receded.
The grass: Speaking of receding—or reseeding … this is such an elegant and exotic surface. But, man, these courts are chewed up. And there is still a week of tennis left.
Sun: A University of Texas product from New Zealand-via-Switzerland reached the middle weekend and bounced hometown hero Emma Raducanu. She gets an A.
The average is brought down by the actual sun—allegedly, a yellow orb perched in the sky—which was seldom in evidence.
Balkanization of tennis: Players from the Balkans, starting with Djokovic, are doing quite well. They get high marks. As for the colloquial balkanization—the fragmentation, grievances and turf wars—it persists. Low marks here. There are murmurs of another Premier Tour blueprint coming, as the ATP wrestles with where to put a Saudi event.
Mother Nature: Last month, they held the French Open. This month they’re holding the Drench Open. (Seven sessions, seven days with rain.)
Women’s favorites: The top seed (Iga Swiatek) goes down meekly. The second seed (Gauff) goes out in Round 4. The third seed (Aryna Sabalenka) doesn’t post. The defending champ (Marketa Vondrouskova) goes out in Round 1. Alone among the majors, Wimbledon doesn’t have “open” in its name, but the field is precisely that …
Injury mania: Player after player—most notably Sabalenka and Murray—fail to post for their first match, much as they wanted to. Now is not the time to hold a symposium, but the physical toll this sport exacts is just brutal. Speaking of …
Indoor grass: We all like covered courts that ensure continued play during rain. But when the grass gets humid and slippery under the roof, it can lead to injured players.
Andrey Rublev: Not only does he lose in Round 1, but it comes with another act of self-flagellation (literally). As someone kindly put it, He’s nice to everyone. But himself.
