Wimbledon 2023

Wild cards are announced, the qualifiers are live on the YouTube channel for the next four days, and players from Belarus/Russia are back in. It's time.

alcaraz was impressive @ queens club & got the #1 ranking back but novak is still a prohibitive fav here & would then been the us open away from the calendar slam

I'm looking forward to seeing what he does, it'll make things interesting this year.

Happy to see that Broady is in as a WC, I enjoyed watching him last year.

Also, I never realised that Roehampton had so many courts, I wonder if getting in is doable, might try next year.

I keep forgetting about Roehampton. A few years ago, when rained pushed the final round of qualies into the Friday, I decided on a whim to take my daughter straight from school pick-up out to Barnes and pay on the gate (she was free entry). We saw a couple of hours of great stuff (back then there was even doubles).

They went fully ticketed at some point (and I think 2021 was no spectators) but I think you can still chance your arm on ground capacity after 4pm, for a fiver or a tenner at the gate. Can't remember when the qualies are due to finally move on-site to AELTC but it'll be a shame.

(Rail strike last year nixed my Eastbourne plans (never got my money back!) and I just didn't get my act together this year for anything else - Surbiton would've been good!).

We are long overdue (like, decades) a really popular slightly left-field men's champ. Bublik or Tiafoe, or something totally wild like Maxime Cressy (who plays like a grass court champ of old, but hasn't won a match in months). Anyone but Novak is fine by me.

Kvitova won Berlin last week! That would be a great story too.

Murray vs Rune at Hurlingham is coming up soon live on YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_u9ggRUF4

Iplayer appears to have shat the bed for some reason, Downdetector confirms that it's not just me, I wanted to watch Court 15, but can't even seem to get Centre right now.

Kenin-Gauff is a treat right now.

That was some game, I'm sad that Gauff is gone though, it was quite painful watching her forehand kinda disintegrate.

Also enjoyed Liam Broady, a Brit WC, he was good last year and pelted a mardy French bloke yesterday, I like that you can audibly hear him go 'Ohh fuck...!' as he's racing for a drop shot.

I had a day off yesterday and, at a bit of a loose end, went for a wander around the periphery of AELTC, took some photos.
Not sure at what point the queue became this insane thing snaking all around the adjacent park, but it wasn't like that in the late '80s. In '87 I caught an early train down from Liverpool, joined the queue at junction of Bathgate and Church Rds at 11am (which now seems to be the ticket holders queue?) and got in by mid-afternoon, cash on gate. In '89 I caught the sleeper, joined the queue at 8am and was in for start of play (bought court 2 tickets on the turnstile). There were at least two other occasions in the '90s I strolled up at 5pm and got in easily. By the mid-'00s though, that kind of thing was impossible.

'enhanced bag searches' seem to have been blamed for the staggering of entrants yesterday, 500 an hour or so.

Allegedly people who got there at 6am were getting in the grounds by mid-afternoon and people were being turned away pretty early.

Seven DFs from Chardy so far. This could be over in an hour.

Andy Murray about to start his R1 match on Centre Court. He has facilitated an invite for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to watch him from the Royal Box today after she told him on Radio 4 that she had watched him win in 2016 from prison in Iran. #Wimbledon https://t.co/hPHIVmAxpe

— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) July 4, 2023

Bonus content on CC

Cameron Norrie? He sounds about as British as Greg Rusedski.

Just read that Kyrgios has pulled out this morning, I think some 12-year-olds pushed him up against a wall and stole his dinner money.

Not sure what the criteria was for Etcheverry v Zapata Miralles to be the extra match they squeezed on to Court 1, while everything was rained off outside. Perhaps they were the first pairing to answer their phones / last still be on site at 7pm. But it was well worth it - high quality battle for the few who stayed.

I'm making a possibly daft prediction that ONS JABEUR wins this year.

Man, today is jammed, idk who to watch

What’s your favourite Wimbledon moment? Captain Tom’s daughter standing up to take applause is up there for me, utterly nauseating even now. pic.twitter.com/m8thZhOxEj

— Liam Arnold (@MrLiamArnold) July 5, 2023

I don't think there would be very much applause for her today!

tsitsy edges thiem in a match tiebreak, gets murray tmorrow

Get in, Broady!

who does murray keep shouting at?? he looks mental

he also is moving like my father in law

Fantastic second set. Andy had to play so well and did, and now it feels like he’s found a new gear

About to get broken back though

Hasn’t happened - every time Tsitsipas closes in Murray has an answer

Speechless

what a warrior

McEnroe sounds like he is saying 'sissypass' in the commentary.

amazing consistency on his ground strokes from sissypass

Really feeling his age out there.

And that's that. Maybe the last time :-(

Maybe, he's awfully tenacious, maybe he'll be wild-carded until the end of time.

Jarry has taken the TB again Alcaraz. He is a really good player. 1-1.

Jarry couldn't quite keep it up and is broken. 1-3

Jarry just looks spent now. Alcaraz has the 3rd.

Alcaraz won.

Eubanks - Tsitsipas should be amazing.

Andreescu is making all the moves against Jabeur. Variety with some pounding returns.

On serve at the 2nd, but only just. Andreescu is really on top.

Jabeur hung on and on...and now she breaks!

And wins the set - a terrific contest

All I’ve seen today was Rune-Davidovich Fokina 5th set tb on my phone on a train and that brought the goods.

berrettini/alcaraz should be Good

LOL have just seen there’s a tennis player called Andrey Rublev!

wow @ that rublev diving get off a blasted bublik backhand @ 5-4, 30-15 5th set

Bencic looking to shock us all. Playing awesome stuff and Swiatek is looking down

Swiatek dug herself out of two MPs to win.

Azarenka - Svitolina. 9-9 on the deciding set TB

Svitolina does it with an ace!

Hurkacz..had set point on the TB and just skanked it. Djoko goes onto win.

That's just the aura around him. Hurkacz hit 88% 1st serves at one point.

Alcaraz giving it all!

really good stuff from both guys, bp chances in every game so far 5th set

What a point to break!!!

wow

novak broke his racquet on the post? us feed didnt show it

Yeah he did

Lol he is feeling it in his wrist I think

Great serving for 3-1

Good stuff from Novak, still v much there..

novak broke his racquet on the post? us feed didnt show it

BBC didn't show it either... unless I missed it.

They showed it twice after it happened

LOL, I must have been temporarily distracted.

Good hold Djoko. Alcaraz smashed a mad fh in the middle of that

2 more holds for carlitos

Sigh at net cord

2 more holds for carlitos

― johnny crunch, Sunday, 16 July 2023 bookmarkflaglink

So tough, don't know how this happens

Beautiful dropshot lol

Now break him

Nope, he will have to serve for the Wimbledon title

I love ds, I hate ds

hope carlos doesnt cramp

Brilliant lob, brilliant on the net

30 all

One MP

here we fuckin' go

Awesome

great match

novak can hold off every next gen contender, alcaraz is just different

Fuck yes!

Beautiful match from 2nd set on.

Think Novak will get the 24th eventually, but hopefully not much more.

He's a dick but he's amazing.

He is the best man that's ever played the game, even if he is a cunt

Exhausting as it was to watch an extra 90min or so, something very satisfying about Alcaraz getting it done vs a Djokovic who had mostly stopped missing from set 4, after the Inevitable Toilet Break.

yeah 18 winners by carlos in s5, all needed

What a shame to see CC comparatively empty for the Women's Doubles.

It has always been the case. Difficult to stay on after all that.

It's a long way up from the abyss

carlos alcaraz (born 2003) is the youngest atp player with multiple grand slam titles

novak djokovic (born 1987) is the second youngest

— the grass menagerie (@tennisywilliams) July 16, 2023

I suppose Wawrinka is the third (born 1985)

Never mind, Nadal is from 86

Point is players born in the 90s are a waste.

Magnificent final.

I was very glad that Alcaraz won. Another ND win would have increased the already very thick air of crushing inevitability. Another champion feels 'good for sport'.

Tennis, probably like all sports, is repetitive, yet Alcaraz surprises me with what he does with a ball. He makes shots I don't imagine. He plays many drop shots, but also whips the ball across the court into unlikely spaces at incredible speed. He also has an unusual tendency to balloon the ball up into the air, and not always back into play.

The athleticism after almost 5 hours was remarkable.

I don't enjoy watching ND, but must admit he was gracious in defeat - smiling, praising Alcaraz, saying he'd won finals he shouldn't have won so maybe this was due. He couldn't have been a more generous loser. Probably all genuine, though I also have a strong sense of a charm offensive from him lately in an effort to be liked more.

The 'changing of the guard' theme must be real over time due to age, but I suppose there's no great reason that ND can't come back and win this next year. If his fitness isn't much worse in 12 months than it is now then he will still be virtually the most dangerous player in the world.

Todd Woodbridge seemed to hint, jovially, that ND had taken something performance-enhancing during his break. I hadn't thought of it, but is this in fact a widespread rumour?

Not that I really think such a factor is needed to explain the match.

I haven't seen anything, but funnily enough I did think about it. I dispelled those thoughts bcz I want to see something proven.

And I don't how performance enhancing stuff in Tennis works really.

Djoko lost the 2nd set narrowly. The third hinged on that crazy 25 min game. It was the closest 6-1 game I remember seeing.

In the fourth the wind dropped a bit and so he wasn't making as many unforced errors. In the fifth the breeze was blowing again and he started making those errors. Only a few errors mind you. It's all very fine margins.

Want to rep, briefly, weakly, for Dominic Thiem, of the ‘90s kids. He’s beaten the Big Three across Slams, Tour Finals, Masters 1000. But all he will be remembered for is winning a US Open in front of zero fans with ND dq’d, RF injured and RN choosing not to travel. If he’d stayed fit the last 2-3 years I think he’d have another Slam (one of the matches ND alluded to being fortunate to win was probably 2020 AO f v DT).

Truly, briefly, weakly.

xp - fair enough. Did think about Thiem, who was unfortunate with injuries like Del Potro was.

As Johnny C mentioned: Alcaraz was 18-3 in winners in the 5th. An absolute joy to see someone rise to the occasion like that.

I’ve now forgiven Hurkacz for bottling it on the middle Sunday. As good as a second week without Novak would’ve been, we would never have got that finale. In fact, Hubert might’ve 85%-served his way to the title.

Also he is just a prick. Very Mourinho-like bunker mentality of seeing everything and everyone against him, but he feels he needs that to fire him up if things aren't going his way. And when that doesn't work he smashes a racket like a 12 year old.

Him and that homophobe being the top two winners of slams is a real shame. Can't see those records being broken during my lifetime.

I'm just spitballing here but maybe he can't win them over because he's an anti-science, anti-vaccination prick who doesn't think female tennis players should earn the same as men pic.twitter.com/MmSqJXG59u

— Kirsten Amy (@kirstofcomms) July 16, 2023

I used to feel bad for not liking him cos I based it on feeling like he was desperate to be loved which i found off-putting and his early days service routine of bouncing the ball a ridiculous amount of times. as the years have passed he's given me more and more good reasons to not like him.

but as everyone else has said he's incredible to watch even though I've never enjoyed watching him play.

Carayol is a pretty good writer and this is bang on.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jul/17/alcarazs-full-speed-evolution-as-a-proper-rival-may-galvanise-djokovic-wimbledon

He bounced the ball a lot on Sunday.

I started counting, he was averaging about 6 with the racket first, then at least 9 by hand, so fucking tedious, game would probably have been under four hours without it.