Bill Simons
NOVAK BOUNCES BACK: Novak Djokovic, who had knee surgery just three weeks ago, has a favorable draw and will face the Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva, who is No. 123 in the first round. The Serb would not have to face Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz until the final. Will the seven-time Wimbledon winner defy medical logic and his haters, and win the championship?
VENUS IN THE SHADOWS: Venus Williams has played only two matches since last September, and has played three Wimbledon matches since 2019. She wasn’t at Roland Garros and isn’t playing London. Is the 44-year-old legend, who won five Wimbledon trophies, en route to a quiet retirement?
A SCOTTISH FAREWELL? The beloved local hero Andy Murray has had a tough year. He’s now ranked No. 115, and, after back surgery to have a spinal cyst removed a week ago, it wasn’t even certain that he’d play Wimbledon. He has a tough opening-round matchup against Czech Tomas Machac, No. 38. One thing’s for sure: the fans at Centre Court will yell, “C’mon, Andy!” more than 38 times. So the question is whether the beloved Scot will retire at Wimbledon or go on to the Paris Olympics.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Money!” – What France’s Maxime Janvier yelled after winning his second-round qualifying match against Californian Emilio Nava.
AN ALCARAZ UPDATE: Carlos Alcaraz, who last year won Queens and Wimbledon and this year lifted the trophies at Indian Wells and Roland Garros, suffered an upset to Brit Jack Draper at Queens. The defeat allowed Novak Djokovic to claim the No. 2 ranking. Now, if Alcaraz has a deep run at Wimbledon, he’ll again face No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the semis, as he did at Roland Garros.
CAN KENIN DO IT AGAIN? Last year, Coco Gauff suffered a shock first-round loss to her fellow Floridian, the qualifier Sofia Kenin. It was a real wake-up call for Coco, who soon hired coach Brad Gilbert and then won the US Open. The French Open semifinalist had her best run at Wimbledon last year, when she got to the third round. The No. 2 seed plays fellow American Caroline Dolehide, whom she’s beaten twice.
ROMANTIC UPDATES: Aussie Alex de Minaur and his girlfriend, Brit Katie Boulter, have each won tournaments on the same weekend twice this year…Tsitsidosa (that would be Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa), have gotten back together after a month-long separation. Plus, Italian Jannik Sinner is dating the Russian tennis pro Anna Kalinskaya…There are now more ATP-WTA couples on the tour than ever before. Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils are the only prominent married couple. Agassi and Graf, Roger and Mirka Federer and Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss still remain as three of the foremost tennis couples in history.
BTW: Coco Gauff unveiled that her love interest for the past year is a non-tennis person, Atlanta’s Jalen Sera. As for the tough-as-nails Kenin, she faces a formidable first-round foe, the No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek. Certainly, Sofia can’t score another stunning upset – right?
PAUL’S POWER: American Tommy Paul downed Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti to win his first title of the year at Queens. The win took him to No. 12 in the world and he became the No. 1 American. Incredibly, there have been three No. 1 Americans in the past nine weeks. (Ben Shelton surpassed Taylor Fritz on April 15th to gain the top spot).
VOLYNET’S VICTORIES: Hats off to Walnut Creek’s Katie Volynets. For the fourth straight time, she qualified for a Grand Slam and is now at a career high of No. 71. She’ll face Argentine Maria Lourdes Carle, No. 82, in the opening round. Three other American women came through qualifying: Alycia Parks, Robin Montgomery and McCartney Kessler. BTW, with Volynets and McCartney in the lineup, has America ever given Britain’s Wimbledon tourney two better named opponents?
FIVE LUCKY CALIFORNIANS: Amazingly, five Californians have quite appealing match-ups against unseeded players. Taylor Fritz almost beat Rafa in 2022 to reach the semis. His backers would love to see the Californian powerhouse, who’s No. 13, equal that run again. He plays Aussie Chris O’Connell in the first round.
UCLA product Marcos Giron plays Brit Henry Searle. Alex Michelsen drew the South African veteran Lloyd Harris, and San Diego’s Brandon Nakashima faces Argentine Sebastian Baez. Piedmont’s Mackie McDonald will play Israeli Emil Ruusuvuori. Can all five of these Californians strike gold, so to speak, and advance?
AMERICA WATCH: In other American match-ups, fleet Tommy Paul, who in addition to winning Queens, reached the semis at Indian Wells and Rome, is a threat to go deep against Spaniard Pedro Martinez.
Houston winner Ben Shelton will battle Italian Mattia Bellucci; Seb Korda plays Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Houston finalist Frances Tiafoe, is No. 29, but has never gotten beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. He’ll try to break out of his slump when he faces Italian Matteo Arnaldi. Last year’s quarterfinalist, Chris Eubanks, plays French qualifier Quentin Halys.
GO, MADDY, GO: Some see the powerful veteran Madison Keys, No. 12, as a significant threat. She faces Italian Martina Trevisan in the first round. The fast-rising former NCAA champ Emma Navarro, No 19, has one of the toughest draws of any American. She’ll take on China’s considerable Wang Qiang. The soon-to-retire Danielle Collins, No. 11, takes on the unseeded Dane Clara Tauson. The third NCAA women’s champ in the draw, Peyton Stearns, plays unseeded Daria Saville of Australia.
PEGULA POWER: The injured Jessica Pegula has been battling a rib injury and had to skip the entire clay season. Amazingly, she’s retained her No. 5 ranking, and she beat Coco in the semis and Anna Kalinskaya in the final to win the Berlin Open on grass. Can the Buffalo native, who’s reached six Slam quarterfinals, including last year at Wimbledon, make it to her first-ever Slam semi?
FACE-OFFS OF THE GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONS: The first round at Wimbledon will feature two first-round face-offs between two Grand Slam champions. Two-time Slam champ Victoria Azarenka will face the 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens, and Swiatek will play Sofia Kenin.
A TROJAN VS. A SINNER: “Fight on!” – or so say USC tennis fans. The German Yannick Hanfmann, who played for the Trojans, has a chance to become a Trojan horse of sorts. Imagine if the USC product upsets No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the first round.
SAY IT ISN’T SO: Stefanos Tsitsipas is a beautiful player. He’s interesting and appealing. But so often when you warm up to him he disappoints. The latest is an Instagram video that indicates that women should stick to cooking and cleaning, depicting a man and a woman operating in contrasting roles, with the man as the provider.
Clocking in at 37 seconds, the video stitches different shots of family life, from cooking to cleaning, DIY work to shopping, and even parenthood. The man is positioned as the ‘provider’ and ‘head’ of the family, whereas the woman adopts a subsidiary role and is praised for ‘multiplication’.
The video opens with a woman saying: “Men and women are not the same and that is a blessing. He provides and protects, I [the woman] multiply. He is the head of the family.”
Also reporting Steve Pratt and Vinay Venkatesh
