1.SERENA AND VENUS MAKE A DATE
From Centre Court to “Heather Hill,” Brits were cheering on Heather Watson. But the 23-year old “Guernsey Girl,” ranked No. 59, couldn’t milk her advantage. Once again, battered but battling Serena refused to lose. Now Serena and Venus, each a five-time Wimbledon singles champion, face off at a Slam for the first time in almost seven years. (Their last Slam match, at the 2008 US Open, heralded Venus’s subsequent descent and Serena’s return to dominance—Venus had set points in both sets, yet Serena won in straights.) Venus has been more solid at this year’s Wimbledon, and she has the more classic grass court game. But let’s face it: Serena is chasing history—Serena Slam; calendar Slam; Steffi Graf’s Slam count—in the grandest sense.
2. FAB WEEK FOR THE FAB FOUR
The newly-minted top four men—Novak, Roger, Andy and Stan (“The Man”) Wawrinka—survived week one with nary a hiccough. Amongst them, only Federer and Murray have dropped a set.
3. RASTA SENDS RAFA REELING
Centre Court came alive with dreadlocked Dustin Brown‘s dynamic win over Rafa Nadal. Like others who’ve knocked out two-time Wimbly champ Nadal on the grass, Brown went down in the next round. Meanwhile, Rafa’s road back to the top is starting to look a whole lot rougher.
4. JJ PETRIFIES DEFENDING CHAMP KVITOVA
It seemed like splendor on the grass as usual for Petra Kvitova. She won her first-round match in 35 minutes, and on Saturday, she was a set and a break up against Jelena Jankovic. But just before the last minute (or should we say lastminute.com?), almost as if to say “Surprise, I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me,” JJ revealed some tricks up her sleeve—including a passing shot that curled around the net to paint a line. Soon 2014’s winner, the ever-perplexing Petra, wilted to defeat in the heat.
5. THE HEAT IS ON
Temperatures reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday—the hottest recorded day in Wimbledon history. A ball boy collapsed and numerous fans required treatment, but for the players—no strangers to sunlight—it was business as usual.
6. A TOPSY-TURVY TIME WITH ENGLAND’S OWN HEATHER
On Monday, Great Britain’s Heather Watson came within a point of losing in front of a couple hundred onlookers. On Friday, she came within two points of defeating Serena before a highly partisan Centre Court crowd that sparked a fair amount of media and Twitter commentary. A major media event in England—but all in a day’s work for Serena, who had to tune out jeers and direct passive ump Kader Nouni to keep fans from calling the lines.
7. AN INCREASINGLY TOP-HEAVY LADIES’ DRAW
It would be more than ironic if this year’s ladies’ singles champion came from the bottom half of the draw—going into week two, the remaining players in the top half have 34 Slam titles overall (with Serena contributing the lion’s share), while the bottom half can claim exactly zero.
8. KUDLA CAN, COCO IS CRISP, AND MADISON FINDS KEYS TO SUCCESS
Serena and Venus aren’t the only Americans to make it to week two in singles. Denis Kudla has scraped through some five-set battles to face Marin Cilic, who’s 22-0 against Americans since 2008 and no stranger himself to epic matches at this year’s Championships. Big-serving Coco Vandeweghe has sent two seeds packing, finishing her first week with a comprehensive rout of Sam Stosur. And powerful Aussie Open semifinalist Madison Keys is quietly gaining form in the advantageous bottom half of the ladies’ draw.
9. GENIE’S WOES CONTINUE, HALEP IN NEED OF HELP
Within an hour of each other on Tuesday, two of last year’s ladies’ semifinalists—ailing Genie Bouchard and uninspired Simona Halep—were out of the tournament. Both lost first-round matches to players ranked outside the top 100.
10. THE KING OF GRIT SAYS GOODBYE—PLUS: AN ARRAY OF MINOR KERFUFFLES
It was former champ—and former bad boy—Lleyton Hewitt‘s last Wimbledon, and appropriately, he went down fighting in a five-set thriller. Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki got cranky about Italo-centric questions regarding Camila Giorgi, Ivo Karlovic perhaps swung his racket one time too many in upsetting Jo-Willy Tsonga, Bernard Tomic—still ineffectual on the court—fired some mild verbal blasts at Tennis Australia and Patrick Rafter (calling him “a good actor”), and Nick Kyrgios was foul-mouthed on the court and surly in the press room. There’ve been a number of minor kerfuffles at this year’s Championships, but—as of yet—no big controversy.
