It’s ten years since since Novak Djokovic last lost a match on centre court at Wimbledon. It’s now been a decade since Novak last lost to Rafa in a match outside of clay.
Elina Svitolina has signed a contract to wear adidas after a short stint wearing a Ukrainian brand called Paka.
Nick Kyrgios on his scuppered plans to comeback at Wimbledon: “I didn’t miss the sport at all, to be fair. I was almost dreading coming back, a little bit.” Nick withdrew with wrist pain and was replaced in main draw by Fabian Marozsan, who lost in the first round today to David Goffin in four sets.
Andrew Castle on BBC commentary: “There is a new No. 1 (Carlos Alcaraz) but there is absolutely no player in tennis that doesn’t see Djokovic as the No. 1.”
Djokovic beat Pedro Cachin today 63 63 76 for his 29th consecutive match win at Wimbledon. He received a huge applause after the win with six more matches to for his fifth Wimbledon title and eighth overall.
Yuan Yue, who lost to Viktoria Azarenka today at Wimbledon: “Azarenka is always my favorite player. She was the first player I asked picture when I played in juniors. She told me I played well today, that makes me very happy.”
John Isner, the marathon Wimbledon hero for his famous epic battle with Nicolas Mahut, may have played his final match today at the AELTC. He lost in four sets to Jaume Munar. His ranking will continue to drop further outside the top 150. Isner got a WC into doubles with Jack Sock.
Casper Ruud, who won today in four sets vs Laurent Lokoli: “I don’t think there’s much more I need to prove that I am this good or that good. I’ve reached three Grand Slam finals. It gives me motivation to win one. It stings to lose in finals, but what would you rather have – losing in three second rounds or three finals? It’s an easy choice for me.”
The Felix Flop continues. He lost today 1R in four sets to Michael Mmoh. In his last five grand slams he’s lost first or second round of four of them and only made 4R at 2023 AO where he lost to Lehecka.
adidas · John Isner · Novak Djokovic · Venus Williams
catherine · July 4, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Scoop – the backlash begins 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jul/04/welcome-to-the-pickleball-backlash-noise-pollution-broken-bones-and-a-tennis-turf-war
Meanwhile….
Rain yesterday,today and probably tomorrow. I once wrote an article about the pleasure of rain delays. Good times in the bar.
Scoop Malinowski · July 4, 2023 at 4:30 pm
Catherine, I’d like to hear about the good times in the bar. Presume it was lively intellectual discussions with other tennis writers? More details please. Pickleball is exploding. Just weeks ago I drove to my tennis club parking lot, got out of car and saw two kids about 14 playing PB on the new PB courts next to our tennis club. I still remember the exact quote by the one kid, “THIS IS THE BEST GAME!” I can’t believe it has taken over 50 years for PB to become this popular. It’s far from finished growing too. And PB has no rotten biased media, constantly pushing political agendas or harassingc, smearing and attacking certain players it doesn’t like.
catherine · July 5, 2023 at 12:46 pm
Scoop- yes, W’don was an opportunity for me to hang out with various contributors to the magazine who didn’t live in London and I rarely saw. (They were of course all very grateful for the press passes they received from me.) It was fun but also useful for sharing gossip and finding out what our rivals were up to. Usual ‘media’ chat. There was a big divide between people who worked for magazines and ‘real’ journalists on newspapers – hardly ever spoke. Just snobbish. I suspect it was a Brit thing.
I think W’don was generally a more relaxed and accessible place then. Not so crowded, less regimented. I wouldn’t go to W’don, or other big tournaments now.
Scoop Malinowski · July 5, 2023 at 1:56 pm
Sounds like great times Catherine, many great times at US Open media cafeteria and Miami Open’s too. Lots of good guys and gals in media, but also a few not so likable.