WIMBLEDON 2024

sabalenka w/drawal

Nick Kyrgios is actually commentating on centre court

See that Sabalenka is out

Osaka is the one I am looking at to have a deep run and potentially win the title. Let's see.

From the men's I know its seeding but to have Alcaraz and Sinner in the same half...

C'mon Rad let's finish this

Four wins from 0-2 down already today. Kinda hoping that doesn't continue with Sinner (Hanfmann playing great suddenly) or even Paul tbh. Bublik-Mensik excellent earlier.

Raducanu got a little lucky with withdrawal of seeded r1 opponent, and that's what happened at Flushing Meadow in '21, so y'know...

I feel bad for Murray as he seems to be looking for some sort or memorable or significant way to actually retire but it was hard to watch those Queen's games knowing he was ailing badly.

Defending champ in trouble here: Vondrousova down a set and a break. Graf in '94 last women's champ to lose first round?

(Constant "this content doesn't appear to be working" and odd framing of picture on iPlayer (it's not my connection), so sadly can't slack off quite as much as I'd like for the tennis).

I work on headphones a lot of the day and the simple joys of watching the outer court games with no commentary and leaving mics up between games for a bit of ambience is bliss.

Absolutely! Or taking the stream from a showcourt (rather than the BBC1 or BBC2 feed) and you get the changeover chatter sans commentary team, as they've cut away to something else on the main channel. Sinner rather ineffectually arguing against closing the roof yesterday... "But, I have to wait eight minutes... and then serve? Eight minutes. And then I have to serve." Give it up, mate.

Champ's gone.

Not sure I can be bothered with Paul Jubb's inevitable defeat from match point up vs Seyboth Wild. His backhand to stay in the 3rd set breaker was out the same way that Danish striker was offside. He was coasting for two sets.

Oh, and belated props to the most Estonian man ever, Mark Lajal, giving Alcaraz a real workout for two sets yesterday. Sometimes you can't believe #269 can hit like that, but of course they can, all the way down into the Futures.

Also nice to see that Goffin got in as an LL, thanks to Murray. Probably doesn't entirely make up for the 2015 Davis Cup final, but still.

Oh, and I see Mpetshi Perricard also snagged a LL slot; I followed a little of his Roehampton exit, where he hit 40 aces. He's hit the same number today - 76 67 76 66 vs Korda before the rain. Whither Gasquet? Just off the bottom of the reserve list, I guess.

It has been bugging the utter crap out of me since yesterday, who Lajal reminds me of, my first thought was the guy from Human Traffic, 'any jungle in guy?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dS5gtfsKQY

mpetshi perricard gets thru korda, 51 aces in all; gets nishioka next who has said he doesn't like playing big servers iirc

Now Jubb has arrested his slide and saved five MPs himself, and broken back!

Tough loss that. I didn't see much of it, but Seyboth Wild at 16 36 02 15/40 really looked like throwing in the towel.

Djoko being fit for Wimbledon is such a downer

draper/norrie next round ! i hadnt noticed that in the draw

Catching bits of outstanding play from Fognini (was 2-0 and a double-break up vs Ruud, has somehow contrived to lose third set) and A Muller (was a point from a 2-0 lead vs Medvedev). And nice to see Draper ease so comfortably into the late-night hour-longer-than-necessary the-news-is-now-on-BBC2 Henman/Murray role so quickly. Elias Ymer played some great stuff though.

Fognini, bleach blond, gets it done eventually.

Settling in for Osaka

Man she should have pushed the umpire on that double-bounce, Navarro is a sneakster

Raducanu looking v solid

Osaka looks to be on her way out

FAA latest player to fail to convert two-set lead and multiple MPs (around 8:45pm last night). Out to Kokkinakis. Eight recoveries from 0-2 so far.

hubie looks like he just blew out an mcl or something

Yeah, weird one. Straight dive at 7-7 in the tb, didn't seem like a twist, made the volley, Fils missed the forehand. Set point for 2-2, but now HH can't walk.

After being taped up he dived on the next point too! Goes 8-9 down, retires. Shame.

i cant believe he went back out there and dove for a ball the next shot lmao

lot of 5-set matches

Quiet at work so I'm awaiting Norrie/Draper then the stereo Murrays at teatime, been a decent day so far.

Working from home this week has been great, currently enjoying Jake Fearnley giving Djokovic a right old unexpected fright.

Helpfully finished just in time for me to turn over to Norrie/Draper.

Man, my back is hurting just watching him

Not seen much tennis but I am spotting Paolini dusting off her disappointment at the French Open and quietly making her way through the round

Q. It was a great exchange at the net at the end of the match. Are you able to share what was said between each other?
FRANCES TIAFOE: Just ultimate respect. Him just saying, It's good to see you play like that. Me just saying, I can't stand you.

— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) July 5, 2024

wow raducanu pulls out of mixed

Not surprised, amazed she agreed to it

Love these Russian born Kazakhs lol

2 20 yr old frenchmen in the 4th rd —tho mpetshi perricard turns 21 in 2 days

wimbledon again with the worst highlight vids available. like 6 per day, and they're just the set points essentially. frustrating!

2 20 yr old frenchmen in the 4th rd —tho mpetshi perricard turns 21 in 2 days

― johnny crunch, Saturday, 6 July 2024 bookmarkflaglink

A lot of Frenchmen got through to the latter part of the week.

Of all the four grand slam owning nations they seem to produce a lot of fairly good players in numbers, though none do it at the business end of slams

Big hole in the men's doubles draw thanks to Ben Shelton's singles progress and the weather. He and Mackenzie McDonald have been stuck at one set all in the 1st round since... Wednesday? Half of the last sixteen is already filled in. Shelton is second on court 1 today vs Sinner. His doubles resumption is "not before 4pm, court tbc". If he beats Sinner (and he might), he does at least get a couple of days off (off = poss playing non-stop doubles between showers). Ah, he's young.

Swiatek will figure out grass one day, but she had no answers yesterday. Zverev, sad to say, is the form player in the men's draw, marathon breaker notwithstanding.

Swiatek:

“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly empty,” she admitted. “I was kind of surprised. But I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros. I didn’t really rest properly. I’m not going to make this mistake again."

But idk if its just that, she will need to get better at the net, perhaps

She did win a US open so she can do more than well outside a clay court

really do not see shelton beating sinner

Really hoping Paoloni gets through here

she’s so spunky

Me too, she's so enjoyable to watch

unfortunate, but i’m glad paolini is moving on

v. impressive stuff from lulu sun

She was terrific. Not sure what's going on with court 1... both Keys and Dimitrov retiring?

Sun was fantastic. Loved her joy at the end

Loving Navarro Gauff

one of these lasses will be in the final

lulu sun
donna vekic
jas paolini
emma navarro

Gauff was very disappointing, and Navarro was ruthlessly efficient

Sun incredible to watch!

a week ago she was ranked 123rd; now she's at least top-55

Ranked 219 at start of year, made last 16 of Auckland 250 from qualies (which I think is when she switched nationality back to her place of birth), won a couple of hard-court ITFs (W50 Roehampton; W100 Bonita Springs, FL), wildcard into Dubai-1000 in Feb, knocked out Badosa (ret.). Can't call her match vs Vekic - she's playing great on the grass too. But what a great bottom half to the draw.

Musetti starting to get his eye in on the Mpet serve... levels.

Wasn't sure what to try to catch today but greatly enjoying Musetti/Perricard

Commentator gunning for an academy award though mind

Funny how some players just cannot read a serve like this, and others just handle it. Not going to see 50+ aces from Mpetshi Perricard today. Single-handed BHs, you love to see it.

He's really run out of steam

not a lot of love for Fritz but plz beat Zverev

Zverev is got some knee issue so..

Poor Errani getting nailed right in the kidney by a Paolini return, ouch!

Ostapenko is fucking that ball

5-0 in 15 mins

Towards the end of the set Yulia started getting hold of that serve and she's broken at the 2nd set

Broken back, now muttering to herself

Really good, Putinsteva, from 0-30. On serve

Ostapenko serving for the match

Loved it, won it on a sliced backhand winner lol

Really want to see Ostapenko on a Wimbledon final

What with Hurkacz, Zverev and now De Minaur (pulling up sharp like he'd just thrown his back out on match point), it would be some grim joke if the guy who had surgery three weeks ago and was 50/50 to even play got through this half of the draw partly thanks to injuries to his main rivals.

Fritz is about to take this into a 5th from two sets down

Fritz has broken

4-1. Really fucking happy

the stains on fritz’s bandanna are distracting me

Zverev had a lot to say at the net.

yeah what was that about

Sounds like they were talking about his knee lol.

Routine so far for Djoko.

But Rune is at least got into serving OK, so this is the set.

Djoko was feeling his tummy, Rune was getting into it etc. But at 3-3 he put in some killer returns to break.

Rune is the one millennial he can deal with, no probs.

I dunno, that’s the first real blowout he’s had vs Rune since they first met when he was a rookie. Rune has beaten him twice and almost twice more at the tail end of last year. Just a wretched serving performance from what I saw. Oh well. The old man could win this.

Sure but everytime I've seen Rune he has been very average. He's a bit cocky but no idea what about.

Watching Vekic - Sun for now..

2:30 resume of play on the outer courts seems a little optimistic

Sun played a fantastic drop shot for the set!

Vekic breaks, and now to serve to get us to the final set

Sun breaks back!

Breaks again, Vekic with a ds of her own

:-(

Sinner Med has been dramatic.

1-1, Sinner had a medical timeout. He wasn't right. Drugs started to work he got the break back and Med got it to win on a TB.

So now he is 2-1 like in Australia...

Sinner smashed the 4th but down in the 5th

Med serving for the match

Did it well. Unfortunately he has (probably) Alcaraz and Djoko to beat

Alcaraz finally in control here but Paul has been excellent from what I’ve seen.

Alcaraz made short work of Paul in the end

paolini dominant

Paolini had too much variety for Navarro. Really hoping she wins the lot, her tennis is beautiful xp

on the american broadcast chrissie evert was practically begging navarro to come to the net, but admitted that it probably wouldn’t work either with the way paolini was playing

I usually don't really care about Djoko, never enjoyed watching him play but man, what a jackass, doubling down yesterday, cutting interviews short, just admit you were mistaken, you fanny.

Italian double, pleeeeease.

Ostapenko - Paolini final would be hard, literally wouldn't know what to root for.

De Minaur out. Frickin' knew it. I tuned in for the last two points of that match vs Fils, and he hurt himself right there.

Honorary Brit

Hopefully Djoko reinjures his knee in practice and Musetti vs Fritz is for a spot in the final. Just get Henri Leconte on for a bit to plug the gaps in the schedule.

Krejcikova is playing great, has won the 1st. Ostapenko always having to dig in a bit so not looking good

A very tight match. K was serving for it and was broken

Tb

Absolutely awesome defending to bring up mps and converts

And Rybakina annihilated Svitolina.

Musetti breaks, serving to make it 1-1

Fritz broke by playing a couple of great rallies but that's disappointing. We go on

Does it in the breaker

Great 2nd serve

That was a drop shot sliced smash from Musetti

Lol had to pop out was hoping to catch the 5th set

Paolini lost the 1st, but is toe to toe with Vekic in the 2nd.

On serve

Vwkkc to serve to stay in the set

That pressure has worked. Two sps!

Awesome, we go to a final set

V breaks early. Paolini needs to stay with her, she might crack

Breaks back, a classic

Paolini had mp

Jesus Vekic is crying at 6-5. She has to get it together to serve, all to play for.

Skanked it 0-15

One mp.

What a fh DTL!

To save it

Final set tb

3-3

6-6

8-7 Vekic

9-8, P, mp

She's done it!! 10-8

The longest women's SF ever at Wimbledon

Match of the tournament.

That was absolutely fantastic

K threw three double faults but got through it! Onto the final set vs Rybakina

Excellent

Kinda fascinating to have a pair of 28yo players contesting this final, neither of whom had won a main draw GS match until 2020 (though BK was already world-class in doubles). Good to see.

They have been both contesting doubles while going at singles which is lovely. Just enjoyment of tennis.

Can't wait for Saturday

Praying for Musetti. Really looks like a wonderful player.

Med Al is great right away. They are exchanging breaks

Med is playing great in the TB we eventually got to

Alcaraz hanging with a god rally

*on

Alcaraz served well after the df for one set all

What a fkn point. Alcaraz lost but he loved playing it

2nd set and then breaks at the 3rd...Alcaraz in imperious form now

105mph FH winner on to the baseline to break. Still has a tendency to be wild, not quite 2023 form, but should be enough today. (And he sprays a few balls to lose the break).

Terrific end to women's doubles semi: Siniakova and Townsend through, good to see. Taylor's always been a great net player.

Yup the concentration isn't quite there from Alcaraz but hopefully he will see it through

Spain are on for a double this weekend

Looks like he will have to do it against Djoko again. He is coming in the net and Musetti isn't producing the passing shots, so far

Produce some good stuff there to keep the set alive

Breaks again for the set..

Ridiculous passing shot from Musetti. 3-1 up

Hell yes!

So far this is reminding me a bit of the Shapovalov semi from three years ago. Shapo did everything great except when he really needed to. Lost in three tight sets.

Yeah its looking that way

Djoko broke back, its 6-5 and now 15-15. Huge rally with Novak on top

Another god rally. Musetti this time

Sp.

Did really well to force a tb

Get in!!

Just superb returning from Djoko. 3-0 and going one way

Beautiful fh from Musetti. Needs a few more

Doesn't do it and Djoko strolls this

Another special return game from Djoko with a beautiful BH return pass.

That's the way it goes. It goes that way.

Needs to channel Jurgen Melzer 2010 right now. But I'm off to make dinner.
There was no chance I could just enjoy a second Sunday at Wimbledon, was there?

Hope Alc hands his arse to him, then we'll see whose playing the fucking violin

Yep, chances for Lorenzo all the way to the end, naturally. Ugh. Kinda wonder what today would’ve been like with an extra 2.5-3hr in his legs from a De Minaur workout Wednesday but we’ll never know. Wish he’d retired in 2018 when he lost to Daniel and Paire in the States. Whoever talked him out of that should be in jail.

Was just looking as to when Becker started coaching him

Lorenzo can improve on a couple of things, and with experience hopefully it will come. He is an excellent talent.

Rooting for Paolini...though its simply because Krejcikova has won a slam.

Great FH winner from Krejcikova and a break straight off

Ten min game but Paolini hangs on!

Another near 10 min game and Krej manages to hold

Another break for Krej. After some resistance she is strolling :-(

OK we have a match. Paolini is more aggressive. Breaking and just holding, 3-0

Krej was 15-40 down and holds. Set not over yet

That's an unreal get from Paolini. Point of the match

Broken again. We are going to a decider. 6-2

Krej has to cut down the UEs here.

Krej finding her range again..2-2, they are both playing well

Yeah this is a quality final. Streaky obviously but some great points.

0-30 here. Chance for Krej

Our first bp..

Saves it and roars to the crowd!

Sigh, df..

Excellent serving to consolidate, 5-3

Krejcikova to serve for the title. Hasn't lost a point all set on her serve, which is amazing.

Df, 30-15

An UE, 30 all

Bp!!!

Saves it, deuce. Good volley

Such a deep fh to bring up MP

Skanks it

Awesome, bp, I love this game

Passing shot and ace for another mp

We go on lol..

Does it at the 3rd time!

Another year, another Czech woman wins the title

winning wimbledon in long sleeves

Great final, I wanted them both to win

Yeah, sad for Paolini

Yes. The men's final won't quite be the same.

I was rooting for Paolini a little bit more but still, Krejcikova is a worthy winner

Same. Krejcikova is a wonderful winner.

Skanks it

haha i'm gonna start using this!

racket nerd talk: two dunlops in the gentlemen's doubles final. rare! the last dunlop to appear in a singles final (on the men's side at least) was probably kevin anderson's in 2018.

I am absolutely overjoyed for Taylor Townsend

Yes! Her win over Halep at USO in '19 is still an all-time favourite net-charging display, delighted she's having this doubles success.

Princess of Wales has been deepfaked!

Gotta love Andrew Castle who seems to be the last person in the BBC bothering to properly pronounce Carlos' name.

Djoko have to dig real deep straight away

On our 7th deuce

Busted!

Breaks, what a game!

14 mins, glad I dgaf about football

Took 2 mins to win his game, 2-0

Like Musetti he is coming in the net but this is meat and drink to Alcaraz because he has that passing shot.

If Alacaraz can stay consistent we'll get the theatre of Djok having a mini meltdown

df for the double break!

Get in

Alcaraz is serving great. Taken to deuce but dealt with it, 5-1

Yessssssss

Excellent start. Let's see if Alcaraz can keep that going. Djoko was getting a bit more into Alcaraz's serve towards the end of that.

Awesome

Djoko cannot keep it up from the back of the court with those fhs Alcaraz is laying on him

2dfs from Alcaraz but Djoko can't get his game going

Djoko with a big, big hold. Was 0-15 down and threw a df

Drop shot cross court

Commentary is bollocks. Djoko has to come in the net more because of age. He did it against Musetti and at the US open final to good effect.

Double break from 30-0!!

McEnroe describing Alcaraz’s game as “abusive” haha

He's looking pretty deflated now, damn

Beautiful. Murray beat Djoko in three sets but it came on the back of needing five hrs against Del Potro in that SF

Just a beautiful 2nd serve

rattled!

Soooo gooooood

2-0. Just beautiful, brutal serving when he needs it

Had 0-30 but Alcaraz's tennis from there was of such quality..

Fucking hell

What a fh!!

He is ready to finish this

Novak won that point but how about that for 'one more shot'

God like

Yeah his level comfort is through the roof

novaks movement looks compromised, nevertheless this feels like a true changing of the guard

grass as alcaraz’s best surface? could be, it plays now like a slow hard ct — see indian wells where he often looks his most dominant

nearly a 10-minute game there

Taken to five deuces but gets through it. But if Alcaraz keeps this up for another 15 mins he'll win the match

he's starting to look exhausted

Djoko’s entire game has been compromised. Without looking at the numbers, it seems like he is hitting more outs

One more shot. Novak is playing his best tennis though

Again at the next. Alcaraz winning by defending

Yeah, he now he is haha, three sets in

Deuce. And Novak for once using the crowd.

I assume all the English people at the match are cheering for Djokovic

They want to see a match lol

Or more like “against” Spain

1st bp from Djoko

Xp don't think that's a thing tbh. Crowds always want their money's worth

2nd deuce. Its now Novak passing

Ace to see it through..

On the edge of my damn seat all through that

Easy hold. So pressure back on Alcaraz..

Haha one of the guys from Djoko’s team literally looks like he is biting his nails

4-4...so tense.

this is a bit of a hole to dig himself out of all of a sudden

this game crazy

Alcaraz is just itching for that three-set win

That was extraordinary

Djoko already off his chair lol

he is done

Ripping out the bandaid

Hell yes

Sinner had already started that xp

Here we go

Three mps!!

Df then a return. One more

fucks sake

Damn Carlos, lets go

That was rude

Bp lol

ridiculous

Bollocks

What

Fuck

Never seen that

Whoever called that out needs to get thrown out of the stadium

Alcaraz has now to serve to stay in the set

Seriously he has three mps..fuck sake

What a dig at the net there. Tb.

Man should've won that 1st point

Fuck..3-3

a cm here or there..

Alcaraz: “Vaaamosss”

Just incredible rally

Alcaraz has the advantage again

Drop shot!! 3 mps

Come onnnnn

Sorry two

YESSSSSS

Yes!!

First round to Spain.

I really didn’t need that last 20min, good grief. Thank goodness.

Well-deserved win!

Even if I wasn't in the tank for Alcaraz I'd still be tense, what a game tho

BBC so hilariously wanted Djokovic to win

That ruled

xp Kyrgios and Djokovic are friends. Its terrible

I think this is the score by which ND beat Anderson six years ago, day of the WCf, to kick start the second dozen of his Slam haul. Hopefully this draws a line under all that.

Djokovic was made to look ordinary and hopefully between Alcaraz and Sinner Djoko won't win another of these xp

Whooee, Alcaraz is so good. That was brutal, and I actually kinda liked that he got the yips on the one game, shows he's human. Barely. Some of his shots were Federer-level geometry.

Sketchy adjective but nm

'Hot' I mean lol