Wimbledon Week 1 Round Up

Whilst many may predominantly have the EUROs on the brain, myself included, we shouldn’t ignore just how great the return of Wimbledon has been, with this first week offering plenty of discussions, memorable moments and tennis stories for fans to enjoy. As the 2nd week begins, I wanted to take a quick moment to relive Week 1 and give my thoughts:

Surface Struggles

Grass can be a slippery surface, particularly at the start of tournaments, with hot weather and regular match play needed to harden and dry out the courts. But I was really surprised to see just how many slips and falls we saw in the early rounds. It was enough for Wimbledon to feel the need to release a statement explaining how the courts had been prepared no differently to previous years tournaments. All players seemed to struggle with this added challenge and thankfully we saw no serious career-ending injuries, but this naturally led to a number of retirements – the most notable of those being Serena Williams. As a viewer, it made these early rounds a tough watch, with many hearts in mouth moments seeing players go over. I’m sure you’ll agree we want drama brought about by the level of amazing tennis on offer, not by falls and potential injury concerns, so I’m glad as the tournament has gone on, the UK weather has improved and we’ve seen this happen less and less frequently

Dominant Debutants

With Wimbledon cancelled last year, due to COVID, a number of players were participating at the Championships this year for the very first time and some really have taken their chances. In the Men’s game Sebastian Korda and Ilya Ivashka have reached Round 4 on debut, with the young American in particular standing out having beaten two in-form seeded players – Alex De Minaur & Dan Evans – to get this far. On the women’s side, 4 of the 16 that remain are Wimbledon newbies: Emma Raducanu, Barbora Krejickova, Liudmila Samsonova & Elena Rybakina. The latter 3 have all had breakthrough seasons this year and come into Wimbledon in fine form, so it’s unsurprising to me that they’ve made it to the 2nd week. However Emma Raducanu is a pleasant shock to the system. The young Brit has been fearless so far in her performances to knock out former French Open Finalist Marketa Vondrousova and the in-form highly experienced Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the last 2 rounds, having played very little tennis herself in the past year. It will be exciting to see as the pressure rises just how far these remaining debutants can go in the tournament

Class is permanent

Whilst a number of young stars are stepping up and competing well at this year’s Championships, tennis veterans Novak Djokovic & Roger Federer continue to impress. Their dominance at Slam level, along with Nadal, is astounding and with the kind of battling performances they have showcased so far, a changing of the guard in Men’s tennis doesn’t look like it will happen just yet. Both looked vulnerable in their 1st Rounds – Djokovic starting slow to go a set down to wildcard Jack Draper, whilst Federer was pushed to 5 in a lengthy match with Mannarino – but since then they have won their matches fairly comfortably and just look locked in now, particularly Federer who hasn’t served a Double Fault since the 2nd set of his 1st Round match! It may still be too soon to call a Djokovic-Federer final but they will be formidable opposition for anyone in this 2nd week.

Murray remains the showman

Although Murray was noticeably disappointed following his loss to Shapovalov in Round 3, he can take heart from his performances in the first two rounds. With very little tennis played in the last couple of years, Murray was a big question mark coming into these Championships, with uncertainty around if his body will hold up in long best of 5 set matches. And in those early rounds it did and with some of the shotmaking on display you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching vintage Murray on Centre Court. His hunger and desire to win remains and he needed to use that and the supportive home crowd in abundance to get through 2 very physical tough matches against Basilashvili (4 sets) and Oscar Otte (5 sets). As a viewer, both matches were high drama, high intensity and a great watch – as Muray’s matches usually are. The future remains uncertain for Murray, but I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping, slightly selfishly, that he continues to play and give us many more memorable tennis moments at Wimbledon and other tournaments. Obviously he needs to do what is best for him and his health at the end of the day, but whenever he chooses to end his career he will be sorely missed on the tour. Murray is a showman and I for one don’t want the show to end just yet.