Wimbledon 2023

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Wimbledon draw is published today. Should Djoko and Alcaraz progress at least they won't have to meet before the final unlike RG.

There might be less pressure on Carlos next week as most will have Novak as clear favourite. Alcaraz lost to Sinner in a terrific match last year but given another year's experience and a title at Queen's, Carlos can be expected to go deep this year.

Difficult to see much beyond the top two for the title but would be interested to hear what others might think and who they reckon we should watch out for. Expectations for Murray were somewhat dissipated by his defeat at Queen's by De Minaur in the sort of match you feel he should have done better at if he wanted to do well at SW19.

Still, as Dunblane's finest said himself, no one will fancy meeting him in the first round.

Swiatek went into Wimbledon last year on a massive unbeaten swing but then played horribly. Can't see that happening this year but she'll probably have to battle past the likes of Sabalenka and Rybakina if she wants to take the title.

Oh dear. Having done well to recover from two breaks down, Svitolina tosses it all away with a horror service game.

A grateful V'sova says thank you very much and promptly serves it out to make her 2nd GS final (French in 2019).

If she plays like she did for most of the match she will have a good chance in Saturday's title match. But she will want to forget the last few minute's of today's semi when she let her opponent back in the match.

Let's hope the second semi is more of a contest. Vondrousova played well from 3-3 in the first to stand on the brink of 5-0 in the second, all the time while Svitolina was having a 'mare.

Briefly, Svitolina got back into it but then handed the initiative back. By the end both players were hardly looking like semi finalists.

Now for the Jab-Sab match. I called the first semi wrongly and we'll now have to see how my Jab-to-win prediction goes.

Sabalenka takes the first set 7-6 (7-5) after saving BPs and being 2-4 down in the tiebreak.

My big worry for Jabeur was her second serve. She just drops it in and Sab was pouncing. For much of the set Jab's first-serve percentage was good. If she wants to win she'll have to continue to get a goodly number of first serves in.

Trouble for Jab is that Sab can play better and is a set up. Mind you, we're almost at the same position we were in the quarters when Rybakina took the first set only for Jab to go on to win.

Jab looked down and out with Sab serving for 5-3 in the second set. But she managed to break and then hold for 4-5.

We might still get something of a match.

....and Jabeur, out of nowhere, levels the match at one set all.

Bit strange. Jab seemed to be the better player, holding serve far more easily, in the first set - but lost it. In the second it was Sab mainly on top, with a break - the first of the match - and seemingly on her way to the win.

Jab was hitting "Hollywood" shots which were just out or catching the top of the tape. But suddenly she had the break, held and secured another break to level things up.

Jab goes thru 6-3 in the third.

From being almost down and out towards the end of the second set, Ons got a decisive break midway thru the third, finishing strongly, forcing two MPs at 2-5 and finally getting over the line on her 5th MP in the following game.

Reflections. Sabalenka's movement is not good. Also today she made no impression on Jab's first serve. Too many UEs and DFs.
Jabeur played too many hit-and-hope shots rather than rallying. Towards the end she tightened things up. She will have to do something better with her second serve in the final, otherwise Vondrousova will eat it up.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Vondrousova stops a clown show final by putting Svitolina out of her misery 6-3 6-3.

Jeff - You don't seem all that enamoured of Svitolina. OK, she may not be an absolutely top player but she ain't all that bad, is she?

It is my understanding that Jabeur in getting to the final has beaten four grand slam champions in consecutive matches.

Women's semis all done and dusted. The Jabeur fightback at least spun the day out for the CC crowd.

On to the men. Sinner will have to play the match of his life to beat Djoko. A case can be made out for Medvedev winning, but I'm going for Alcaraz.

I think the sport needs an Alcaraz-Djoko GS final. The semi at the French was looking tasty until Carlos seized up.

No name Bertie wrote:It is my understanding that Jabeur in getting to the final has beaten four grand slam champions in consecutive matches.

Yup. Andreescu, Kvitova, Rybakina and Sabalenka. Doubt if it's happened before and probably not in succession, either.

sirfredperry wrote:

No name Bertie wrote:It is my understanding that Jabeur in getting to the final has beaten four grand slam champions in consecutive matches.

Yup. Andreescu, Kvitova, Rybakina and Sabalenka. Doubt if it's happened before and probably not in succession, either.

But given there are about 20* GS winners still active on the WTA, there's a much greater likelihood of a draw panning out that way than in the men's game where there are very few.

* Slight exageration, but we did a count a couple of years ago and I think there were then 17 - Sosur and Serena have retired since, so might have dropped one or two, but could gain another first time winner with Jabeur.

Men's semis soon - and thank heaven for the roof.

Can't see Sinner taking more than a set off Djoko so it has to be Novak in three or four.

You can certainly make a case for Medvedev to win the other semi. But I'm going with Alcaraz. Not sure the Spaniard has been quite at his best so far which could mean two things. One - he's done well to get this far. And two - he may have been saving his best tennis for when he most needs it.

You can be sure that Medvedev will be endlessly volleyed and drop shotted as long as he takes up his receiving position with his backside up against the backstop canvass.

Early break for Djoko. Sinner not really prepared to rally and consequently committing too many UEs.

First set to Djoko 6-3. Sinner aint playing badly and has forced UEs. But Novak as solid as ever.

You get the impression that Sinner doesn't want to get into long rallies and wants to pull the trigger early. He's hit some magnificent shots but Djoko has held firm.

Djoko gets an early break in the second set. He loses a point for "hindrance" after calling out after playing a shot. Novak not too pleased with that but held on to win that particular game.

Djoko goes two sets to love up. It could have been even worse for Sinner who had to ward off two BPs which would have given Novak a double break.

Quite enjoyable to watch as there are some terrific shots played. Would be nice if Sinner can get a set but when Djoko's looked in anything like trouble he's become even more solid. So it could well be over quite soon.

Sinner's chance at 4-5, 15-40 comes and goes. Poor shot selection and over-eagerness the culprits for the Italian. It's 5-5 in the third and this could be all over soon.

Awful tiebreak from Sinner hands Djoko the match in straight sets. Sinner looked a little raw at times but still showed some great touches.

Not sure why people thought Sinner had any chance in this match. Mind you, there were some who thought Berrettini had a chance against Alcaraz.

Now for Al v Med. Somehow doubt this one will be won in straight sets.

sirfredperry wrote:Awful tiebreak from Sinner hands Djoko the match in straight sets. Sinner looked a little raw at times but still showed some great touches.

Not sure why people thought Sinner had any chance in this match. Mind you, there were some who thought Berrettini had a chance against Alcaraz.

Now for Al v Med. Somehow doubt this one will be won in straight sets.

Pribaby mostly from him taking the first 2 sets off Djoko last year. Novak looks to be in better form this year though...

Some more reflections on that first semi final.

1. Djoko is as rock solid as ever.

2. Sinner is a talent and would probably have beaten most other players today.

3. Djoko's second serve could be something to attack.

4. Sinner sometimes needs to be more patient in the rallies.

5. Is Djoko as good as ever or is he not being challenged enough?

On point 5 is clearly the latter, Djokovic is winning slams easier now than he was 10 years ago.

Alcaraz takes the first set and is a break up in the second. As some forecast, Al is employing the drop shot and stop volley mainly to good effect.

Clear difference here between Alcaraz and Sinner. The Spaniard is unleashing the big shot well and at the right time. Sinner was pulling the trigger badly and too early.

Well, we have the final that many hoped for. Alcaraz came thru 3, 3 and 3.

Bit of a wobble at the end from Carlos, twice losing serve when a break up in the third set. But he broke again each time and won after a terrific rally on MP.

Think we saw something approaching Alcaraz's best today. He was able to play aggressively but not recklessly. Medvedev did well to get back into it in the third but was a bit flat overall.

This is the match that, I think, the sport needed. You have the young number one, the Young Pretender, the best of the new players taking on one of the greatest, possibly THE greatest, player of all time.

If Djoko wins it will show that he is still THE man and that even the best of the new guys still can't beat him. If Alcaraz wins it will seem like a new page has been turned.

How will it go? First, I hope Carlos plays well, as I still think he's the only one capable of stopping Novak.

I would like to see Alcaraz win. But I think we'll see Djoko taking yet another GS title on Sunday.

He's done amazingly well to reach the final at such a young age and with so little experience on grass, but I don't think Alcaraz is ready to beat Novak at Wimbledon. Think it will be Novak in 3 or 4 sets. Alcaraz will have a much better chance on the US Open hardcourt. Hoping for a good match on Sunday in any case!

Just calculated the bookies odds and it´s very close to 1 chance in 3 for Alcaraz and 2 chances in 3 for Novak.

Calendar year grand slam still in play, of course. In 2021 of course, Novak fell at the very final fence in the US Open final. But this is still the second closest for a very long time.

Historically, it´s been very unusual on the men´s side that someone won the first two slams of the year. There was a huge long streak of years, decades evens, of no-one doing it and now it´s happened three years in a row.

Interesting to me is Laver himself is on record as saying this:
“You’ve got to do it in the calendar year,” Laver emphasized. “Start at the Australian in January and finish up in New York in September. That, for me, is a Grand Slam.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/sports/tennis/us-open-novak-djokovic-grand-slam.html

Of course the difficulty of one player winning the first two slams of the year has been mainly caused by Djoko being dominant at the AO and Rafa monopolising the French.

Certainly the Calendar Slam is on this year as I think Novak will win tomorrow. Put it this way. I'm taking Djoko to win but it would not be a surprise if Alcaraz won as I think he's got the weapons to do so.

If Novak was playing anyone else in a Wimbledon final then a defeat for the Serb WOULD be a surprise.

The Calendar Slam, though, if by no means a foregone conclusion. The US is the one slam that the Big Three or Big Four have not practically taken over - at least not since 2008.

In contrast, Wimbledon has not seen a champion outside the Big Four for more than 20 years. If, say, Alcaraz or Medvedev were to oppose Djoko in a final in New York come September then it might be tough for Novak.

As for the women's final today, I'm taking Jabeur to win although she'll have to serve well. I can see Vondrousova gobbling up Ons' second serves.

Don't know what others might think, but I've enjoyed Wimbledon this year for the first time since 2019. There was no Wimbledon in 2020 and no points were awarded last year, while the standard in 2021 was fairly awful. I mean, Berrettini got to the final that year. Ye gods.

Djokovic should have won the Calendar Slam in 2021 but rather than resting after Wimbledon when he had some niggling injuries went to the Olympics and had some sort of mental (physically aggravated) breakdown (collapse / fragility) which reappeared at the US Open final.

Vondrousova takes the first set 6-4. Strange stuff from Jabeur. She was twice a break up but from 4-2 she went right off, losing four straight games and the set.

She did trail in the q-f and the s-f so all is not lost for her. But her first serve percentage is very low which exposes her weak second serve.

V'sova, though, nearly chocked away her semi when well placed so you get the impression that this one could run and run.

Vondrousova wins 6-4, 6-4.

Pretty scrappy final. Jabeur was three times a break up only to squander the advantage immediately.

Ons also played horribly at the end of the first set and at the beginning of the second only for Vondrousova to have a mini crisis to go 3-1 down.

But Jabeur collapsed again, playing a shocker of a service game at 4-4 to practically hand the trophy to Vondrousova.

Although V'sova was down the rankings at 42, it should be remembered that she had been a GS finalist at RG four years ago only to be hit by injury in the years that followed.

Jabeur must reflect that she has now lost three GS finals, but today was the one she should have got.

Poor Ons, she clearly has a big mental block for winning a slam. She really played terribly today and there's a good chance she'll never win a slam as the nerves will likely just get worse with every lost final.

You have to wonder whether Jabeur will ever win a Slam final*. She certainly won't getting 48% of first serves in or winning fewer than half the points when she DID get it in. A total of 31 UEs didn't help, either.

So we have an addition to the long list of current women's GS champs. Clearly, few would have predicted the ultimate winner. I thought the title would go to Swiatek, Sabalenka or Rybakina and when two of these fell to Jabeur I, wrongly, reckoned the Tunisian would triumph.

* Apologies to Oioi above for echoing his thoughts.

No apology necessary, great minds...

Looking forward to hopefully a much better match in the men's final tomorrow! I'm sticking with Novak in 3 or 4. Both Novak, Sinner, and others have shown that he is susceptible to being rushed. His forehand is lethal if he gets an attackable ball, but if you go to it with pace it can spray a lot of errors as he's always too desperate to be offensive. Alcaraz will want to get involved at the net as much as possible I reckon as Djokovic is absolutely rock solid from the back. At RG I was amazed at how Novak was able to turn his power back against him in the crosscourt forehand rallies!

Oioi wrote:Poor Ons, she clearly has a big mental block for winning a slam. She really played terribly today and there's a good chance she'll never win a slam as the nerves will likely just get worse with every lost final.

If she manages to get to another GS final maybe she should just concentrate on winning it for herself. Trying to win it for Tunisia and Africa is great but must be putting so much extra pressure on her. Each bad shot must feel like she is letting everyone down

With women I sometimes wonder if variation in quality of play is more menstrual than mental.   Jabeur I think was playing the best tennis leading up to the final but the statistics of the play indicate some sort of mental fragility in the final - serving is under the full control of the player.  It has been said that Vondrousova plays a game that tends to break up the rhythm of her opponent by extreme variation and ball placement that is not pretty to watch.

Djoko-Alcatraz coming up. Two weeks ago, it was almost too much to hope that this would be the final.

OK, it was likely that Djoko would emerge on CC at 2pm on Sunday July 16 but would he be facing Alcatraz, a brilliant young player but relatively new to grass and Slams? Well, without always being at his best, Carlos has come thru OK, showing glimpses of just why he's number one.

I thought Alcatraz played his best match of the tournament in the semi and he'll need to be at his very best today. Of course, Djoko does this sort of thing regularly, getting thru the early rounds before saving his special tennis for the end of the tourney.

I think Djoko will win and I'm also hoping for a good match. Playing Djoko in a GS final is the hardest thing in tennis, arguably the hardest thing in sport.

Just seen that if Djokovic wins today he'll go level with Federer's 8 Wimbledon wins.

Difficult to make a case for Alcaraz beating him on grass, but we'll see.

Djoko ran away with the first set 6-1. Not sure Alcaraz's general play was reflected in the scoreline but Novak was ultra efficient as ever.

Looking more settled, Alcaraz has at least got a break early in the second to lead 2-0.

But that lead soon disappeared with Djoko, coming out on top in some fine, long rallies, getting it back on serve.

Is it an exaggeration to say we're spending more time watching Djokovic bounce the ball than actual tennis?

JuliusHMarx wrote:Is it an exaggeration to say we're spending more time watching Djokovic bounce the ball than actual tennis?

Absolutely Julius. Means Djoko will win five Wimbledons on the bounce...

JuliusHMarx wrote:Is it an exaggeration to say we're spending more time watching Djokovic bounce the ball than actual tennis?

I have to say I was wondering the same thing, would be funny to see a breakdown of time spent in-play vs. Novak bouncing the ball. Umpire really should at the very least encourage him to speed it up.

Alcaraz's obsession with the drop shot is costing him dearly. At least he has a comparatively easy service game to lead 5-6 and guarantee himself at least a tiebreak.

The crowd, mainly, would love to see a Spanish fightback so they get at least a four-set final. Djoko's retrieval skills, his ability to get everything back against a guy 16 years his junior, is phenomenal.

Bizarre that the umpire waited until such a crucial juncture to give the warning. Really should have given it much earlier. Anyway game on! Djokovic hasn't been serving well and Alcaraz really should have capitalised and broken earlier I thought. Still think Novak wins from here, his defence has been ridiculous.

Apparently it is very windy and maybe this is one of the causes for the ball bouncing ....

sirfredperry wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:Is it an exaggeration to say we're spending more time watching Djokovic bounce the ball than actual tennis?

Absolutely Julius. Means Djoko will win five Wimbledons on the bounce...

Outrageous punning from sfp.

Glad for the crowd as much as anyone that they'll now get at least four sets.

Think Alcaraz deserved to win that second set. He had game points in the first FIVE games of the set but wasn't able to make the most of them.

Very unusual to see Novak play such a poor tiebreak, having won umpteen of them in a row.

Still think he'll go on to win but at least we've got a match.

Gosh. A 25-minute game with, what, 12 deuces? Alcaraz, playing a much more conservative and cunning game, finally breaks for the double break to go 4-1 up.

Of course, 24 minutes of the 25-minute game consisted of Novak's bouncing-ball trick.

Seems that 26-minute game has taken the wind out of Djoko's sails. He loses the third set 6-1.

You would think that Alcaraz will go on to win from here and he's on top at the moment. But I think it would be foolish to write Novak off.

Interesting the way Carlos played in that third set. He could see that Djoko was making more UEs and so he was prepared to rally and not go for Hollywood shots.

We know Novak can play a lot better than this. However, I'm finally leaning towards an Alcaraz win.

On serve in the 4th at 1-2. Lady Perry is convinced that Djoko is finished. I'm not so sure.

Terrific match, though.