The Championships, Wimbledon 2024

[Alan Stallion]

Monday, July 1st begins the 2024 edition of the grandest grass-court test in tennis.

Many of the top 100 men and women in the world will be participating, and off-site, the qualifying tournament is drawing near its conclusion. The draws will be announced on Friday.

Defending champions from 2023 are Carlos Alcaraz for the Gentlemen’s singles title and Marketa Vondrousova for the Ladies’ singles title.

The status of some of the legends of the game:

Novak Djokovic, who underwent surgery for a torn meniscus following his withdrawal from the French Open, is testing his braced knee to see if he can give it a go, with the Olympics coming later in the month. Rafael Nadal who has struggled with his health has already declined to play Wimbledon as he targets Olympic glory on the clay courts of Paris. Andy Murray’s health is very questionable for his Wimbledon farewell.

On the women’s side, not competing in 2024 is Petra Kvitova who is pregnant and Belinda Bencic who gave birth recently.

And last but not least, it has been 25 years since I went to Wimbledon (as a fan, certainly not as a player), so as the thread-starter, I may invoke my privilege and periodically post pictures of that event.

 

[Alan Stallion]

 

[Alan Stallion]

From 25 years ago...

Did you know there used to be a Court 13?

The new sunken stadium-level Court 2 was built where Court 13 used to be and the "Court 13" designation hasn't been used since.

Rita Kuti-Kis (above); Conchita Martinez (below)

 

[Mr. Friscus]

I would hope that SOMEBODY would have kicked the old guard out completely by now.

Listen, I'm a HUGE fan of Federer, Nadal, and the Joker... but my goodness... they hung around into their late 30's and nobody showed them the door. There's always been a new phenom to kick the older guard out.. it didn't happen with Nadal/Federer/Djokavic... they just got old.

McEnroe showed Borg the door
Sampras/Agassi showed McEnroe/Becker/Connors the door
Federer/Nadal showed Sampras/Agassi the door
.....

 

[Alan Stallion]

I would hope that SOMEBODY would have kicked the old guard out completely by now.

Listen, I'm a HUGE fan of Federer, Nadal, and the Joker... but my goodness... they hung around into their late 30's and nobody showed them the door. There's always been a new phenom to kick the older guard out.. it didn't happen with Nadal/Federer/Djokavic... they just got old.

McEnroe showed Borg the door
Sampras/Agassi showed McEnroe/Becker/Connors the door
Federer/Nadal showed Sampras/Agassi the door
.....

Bjorn Borg retired at a very young 25/26 which shocked the tennis world.

But your point is well taken. In tennis, the "lost generation" is the age group that includes players like DImitrov, Rublev, Raonic, Goffin, Zverev, Tsonga, Berdych, Ferrer, Monfils, Gasquet, to name just a few, who struggled to get through the Big 3-4.

 

[Alan Stallion]

50 Unbelievable Shots That WOWED Centre Court at Wimbledon ​

 

[crossbody]

This used to be one of my pastime sports. I played in a tennis tournament at one of our local parks. I played mixed doubles for a number of years back in 2003-2008. All those good memories. All that fun, expense of those Babolot rackets, restringing rackets, winning, losing, gatorade, injuries, taping knees and wrists, practicing late into the night, etc...

I remember we played this elderly or much older couple and they were all taped up and limping we were so glad they were our next opponents. I was all a ploy just part of their act. They had all kinds of slices to where once their balls hit the ground they would spin away from you. They had other tricky serves too. They beat us.

 

[luiza]

I would hope that SOMEBODY would have kicked the old guard out completely by now.

Listen, I'm a HUGE fan of Federer, Nadal, and the Joker... but my goodness... they hung around into their late 30's and nobody showed them the door. There's always been a new phenom to kick the older guard out.. it didn't happen with Nadal/Federer/Djokavic... they just got old.

McEnroe showed Borg the door
Sampras/Agassi showed McEnroe/Becker/Connors the door
Federer/Nadal showed Sampras/Agassi the door
.....

You are jumping the gun .
Athletes are fitter these days with even better treatments for injuries .
Major reasons why so many are able to play so long. .
Anyhow , the "Old Guard" has already effectively gone .
Federer retired an age ago and Murray and Nadal are now relatively easy for Top 10 opponents and both are making their last Wimbledon appearance this year .
Djokovic is near to that position and is not even 100% sure to play .
And the likely spearhead of the next super players is here in Sinna and Alcaraz, even though our new number one Jack Draper beat Carlos just last week.
Doubtless a comparatively new face will join those two by the end of the year and then we will have a new special elite .

It is a pity in some respects that Swiatek dominates the women's game by such a margin . Not even Sabalenka can find a way to beat her , and though we have Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu as real outside contenders there is little chance that they can beat the Pole unless she has a freak "off" day .

 

[Alan Stallion]

The draws are out.

Djokovic and Murray are still planning on playing, although they can still withdraw anytime between now and their first-round matches (both on Tuesday).

Djokovic is scheduled against a qualifier, Vit Kopriva (ranked 123).

Murray is schedule against Tomas Machac (ranked 38), the same player Murray lost to at the Miami Open in March when Murray suffered his injury (specifially, a "full rupture" of his ATFL and "near full thickness rupture" of his CFL) in their third-round match. It happened late in the match, and Machac won the final set tiebreaker in that match.

 

[Alan Stallion]

Qualifying ended Thursday.

Notables third-round losses: David Goffin, Richard Gasquet

James Duckworth lost in the third-round, but has garnered a "lucky loser" spot.

Other players may still withdraw, so other third-round losers can still garner lucky loser spots.

 

[Alan Stallion]

From my archives:

A statue of Fred Perry.

It was surprisingly small.
(reportedly 3/4-size)

 

[Mr. Friscus]

You are jumping the gun .
Athletes are fitter these days with even better treatments for injuries .
Major reasons why so many are able to play so long. .
Anyhow , the "Old Guard" has already effectively gone .
Federer retired an age ago and Murray and Nadal are now relatively easy for Top 10 opponents and both are making their last Wimbledon appearance this year .
Djokovic is near to that position and is not even 100% sure to play .
And the likely spearhead of the next super players is here in Sinna and Alcaraz, even though our new number one Jack Draper beat Carlos just last week.
Doubtless a comparatively new face will join those two by the end of the year and then we will have a new special elite .

It is a pity in some respects that Swiatek dominates the women's game by such a margin . Not even Sabalenka can find a way to beat her , and though we have Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu as real outside contenders there is little chance that they can beat the Pole unless she has a freak "off" day .

My point is, nobody kicked them out. They got too old.

That's never happened in tennis.

 

[Alan Stallion]

Some of the more intriguing first-round matches.

On the Ladies' side:
#1 Iga Swiatek seeks her first Wimbledon crown, but must battle again 2020 Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin, always a tough challenge. They faced each other in the first round at this year's Aussie Open as well. Last year Kenin knocked off Coco Gauff in the first-round.

In battle of former champions, Viktoria Azarenka faces off with Sloan Stephens.

In another interesting matchup, Emma Raducanu battles Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Will be interested to see a returning and new mom Angelique Kerber battle against the often-pouty Yulia Putintseva.

Garcia vs. Blinkova
Tomljanovic vs. the bratty Ostapenko
Krejcikova vs. Kudermetova
Linette vs. Svitolina
Badosa vs. Muchova
Osaka vs. Parry

On the Gentlemen's side:
Eyes will be on the performances and health of Djokovic and Murray in their individual matches
Other matches to check out...
Berrettini vs. Fucsovics
Auger-Aliassime vs. Kokkinakis