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Monday, July 3, 2023

W.1- The Neverending Tennis Tale


Day 1's first women's match on Centre Court proved that, sometimes, tennis' slam organizers do, in fact, "get it."



With 43-year old Venus Williams having not only been given a wild card into her 24th Wimbledon MD, but also having looked pretty good (even while playing with an injured knee) in her lead-up matches the last few weeks, getting a win over Camila Giorgi and pushing eventual champion Alona Ostapenko to three sets in Birmingham, a decision needed to be made. Centre Court on Day 1 or no?

That Williams' opening round opponent was Elina Svitolina, herself a sentimental story during her comeback run to the Roland Garros QF last month, likely made the decision easier, but (other than at the U.S. Open) one *does* wonder whether such a match would have been given such prime real estate at the other slams on the schedule (RG no, AO only maybe).

Of course, Williams, playing in her *30th* tour season, has an abundance of history at the tournament, the likes of which only a select few -- most known by their first names, such as "Billie Jean," "Martina" and "Serena" -- could even come close to matching, let alone outpace. She made her tournament debut at age 17 in 1997, 26 years ago. In her 92nd overall (a record) slam MD, Williams arrived having played 354 career slam matches. She's won 90 matches at Wimbledon alone. A nine-time finalist in the event, she's a five-time champion, reaching the final as recently as 2017 at age 37.

Along with Serena, the sisters dominated the event for the first two decades of this century, winning 12 singles titles (and six in WD) and facing off in the final on four occasions. From 2000-19, at least one Williams was in the Wimbledon women's final 16 times in 20 years, in 10 of first 11 years in the stretch, and then five consecutive more times from 2015-19 just to be fanciful.

Svitolina, back this spring after becoming a first-time mother and in the interim becoming the most "level-headed" public voice representing the Ukrainian women on tour (of course, when the alternative is Marta Kostyuk, the bar is admittedly fairly low) since the start of Putin's Russian-led invasion of her country last year, is herself a former Wimbledon semifinalist. She made her long-awaited slam breakthrough at the event four years ago. While she followed up with another major semi to end that summer at Flushing Meadows, and hasn't replicated the result since (though she's missed 5 of 13 slams, and reached the QF in 3 of the 8 she's played), Svitolina's experience makes her one of the most dangerous unseeded players in this women's draw.

With all the inherent vagaries of a slam draw, especially on the grass, such a notion is almost *always* the case, but even with the draw in it's original form the landscape presented the winner of this particular match with a legitimate shot at reaching the second week at the All-England Club. So, while this was a match-up of wild cards ranked #76 and #558, there was clearly more than a single match win at stake.

Playing with her right knee wrapped, Williams looked ready to go early, taking a 2-0 lead. At 2-1 she followed up a ball that bounced off the net and got into volley position, but slipped just in front of the net, letting out a scream and hitting the grass on the service line down the center of the court, clutching at her injured knee.



Thankfully, she "only" seemed to hyperextend the knee, as there was no unnatural twisting and/or bending. After being quickly attended to, Venus quickly got to her feet and limped to the changeover area. After being looked at, she returned to action a short time later, but was clearly tentative on the lawn (always slick in the opening days of the event), and had difficuly getting to short balls and low bounces. Svitolina pulled into the lead. Williams held to force Svitolina to serve out the set, which she did after saving a BP, taking the 1st 6-4.

Ever game, Williams soldiered on, but her moment for victory, however short that window initially was to begin with, officially closed the instant she hit the dirt. Or maybe when she originally injured the knee in Birmingham almost two weeks ago. As well as she's hit off the ground and served this grass season, Venus' movement (or hampering of it) due to the knee has acted like a counterweight that was never really going to allow her to soar *too* high.

But at this point with Williams, as much as she wants to win, it's about the effort and the fight. And *that* hasn't gone anywhere.

With Svitolina serving for the match at 5-2, Williams got the break, but wasn't able to hold in the next game as the Ukrainian won 6-4/6-3, converting MP after a ball hit deep in the court at Williams' feet, was called out, and was sprayed off Venus' racket as she tried to get out of the way and get a hit on the ball. After Svitolina challenged the call, and replay showed the ball had caught the line, it was up to the umpire whether to replay the point. The choice was to give the point, and match, to Svitolina... who then had a frightfully apologetic look on her face when she went to greet Williams at the net.

Needless to say, Venus didn't agree with the call, first derisively laughing at the decision, and then waving off a handshake with the chair umpire with a look of disgust.



Thus, Svitolina moves on, though *not* likely after having seen off Williams from her last Wimbledon. As long as she can walk, she'll probably be back in 2024.

If you're keeping score, that'd be *27* years after her SW19 debut. In 1997, to be clear, Svitolina -- whose daughter will turn 2 in '24 -- was in the "terrible two's" stage of life *herself* when Williams lost a 1st Round Wimbledon match to Poland's Magdalena Grzybowska, who'd turned pro just two years earlier. Grzybowska has now been retired for 21 years. But Williams plays on.

By the way, the '97 Wimbledon ultimately saw a 16-year old Martina Hingis become the youngest women's champ at the event since 1887, defeating Anna Kournikova in the SF (her only at slam level) and Jana Novotna (a year before she finally won the title) in the final. Less than two months later, Hingis defeated Venus, three months her senior, in the U.S. Open final. No slam final since has featured a younger pair of finalists. Hingis has since been enshrined in the Hall of Fame and retired *three* times, the last coming six years ago.



While her sister was the greatest player of this century, Venus has been the most significant, with her role in the Greatest Tennis Story Ever Told only a part of her tale as she's gone from barrier-breaking phenom to leading the fight for equal prize money, garnering overwhelming respect both on and off tour. Now it's her longevity that is writing additional chapters to her legend.

Williams didn't get her "moment" in today's match, but she didn't *need* it. Her entire career has been the moment.





=DAY 1 NOTES=
...right out of the gates on Day 1, nearly a third (10 of 32) of the women's matches scheduled for Monday were in action, including five seeded players.

The race to be the first to reach the 2nd Round had an early leader, as Barbora Strycova, looking to have more "control" in her exit from the sport (after retiring two years ago) and playing with a protected ranking since returning to the court after having a baby, used the occasion of her first Wimbledon match since the 2019 semifinals to be the first to claim a set today, taking a 6-1 1st over Maryna Zanevska.

Meanwhile, #4 Jessie Pegula took a 4-0 lead over Lauren Davis. As both Pegula (who won the 1st) and Strycova fell behind or were tied in their 2nd sets, Alycia Parks edged into the First Victory lead with a set and a break lead over Anna-Lena Friedsam. #19 Victoria Azarenka (ever so briefly) flirted with such a lead, as well, over Yuan Yue.

Then, suddenly, Strycova turned around a 5-2 disadvantage in the set and served for the match at 6-5. She held at love, moving on and getting her first SW19 win in four years (in her first slam since the '21 AO).



Parks was the second to move on (w/ her first Wimbledon MD win), while Azarenka was forced to three sets but won in her return to SW19. Pegula, sporting one of the longest on-court ponytails I've seen in a while (it hangs down to her waist), held three MP in the 2nd but saw Davis win a 10-8 TB and then open the 3rd with a break of serve. Pegula rebounded to win 6-3, getting her 11th straight slam 1st Round win after falling in 6 of 7 1st Rounds between the 2016 U.S. Open and the '20 RG.

The first seed to fall was #15 Liudmila Samsonova, in her first Wimbledon since reaching the Round of 16 two years ago. Ana Bogdan won a two tie-break straight setter, recovering from being unable to serve out the match at 5-3 in the 2nd to win a 7-4 TB to reach the 2nd Round at the AELTC for the third time (she's yet to reach the 3r).



...meanwhile, one of the potential 1st Round upsets that many had penciled in didn't happen, as Kaia Kanepi didn't add to her slam collection of upsets of seeds vs. #12 Veronika Kudermetova. The Russian (or, as SI's Jon Wertheim called her in his tournament preview, "the Russian-est" of the Russians), who pulled out of her final tune-up match in the Berlin QF (after reaching the Rosmalen final), took the 1st set TB over the '01 Wimbledon junior champ (who has picked up 10 of her 15 career Top 10 wins at slams, and had five QF runs as an unseeded player) and then closed out a straight sets victory. Kudermetova, after reaching the Madrid/Rome semis, lost in the 1st Round at Roland Garros.

...in her match vs. #30 Petra Martic, young Czech Linda Fruhvirtova fell and injured her knee in the 2nd set TB (Martic joined her on the grass as she waited for attention), then returned to force a 3rd. But the 18-year old ultimately retired down 4-1 in the 3rd.



It didn't take long for a big comeback to occur, as Cristina Bucsa rallied from 9-5 down in the 3rd set TB vs. Kamilla Rakhimova, saving four MP and sweeping the final six points to win 6-3/4-6/7-6(9).

...rain suspended action during matches in the afternoon, including #1 Iga Swiatek's debut on Court 1 vs. Zhu Lin, with the Pole leading 6-1/4-3. With the roof closed, she returned tp finish off a 6-3 2nd set, winning her 14th straight slam 1st Round match and improving to 16-1 in her career. Her only loss was to Viktorija Golubic at Wimbledon in 2019.



Brit Jodie Burrage, whose results have lagged since she essentially secured her Wimbledon MD wild card with a run to the Nottingham final in the first week of the '23 grass season (going 2-3 after losing to Katie Boulter), brought the goods when it counted in her home slam. Her straight sets win over Caty McNally is her first career slam MD win, the first maiden win garnered by any woman at this Wimbledon.

...through she came into slam at a career hight #66 and off an impressive week in Bad Homburg in which she looked very good in posting wins over Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Bianca Andreescu, and then jumping ahead of Emma Navarro, Rebeka Masarova's Wimbledon prospects didn't look particularly good. Not after she'd injured her knee and been forced to retire from that QF vs. Navarro.

But the Spaniard added another highlight today to what has already been a career year in which she reached her maiden tour final in Auckland, defeating the likes of Stephens, Blinkova and Muchova to get there. Facing off with #31 Mayar Sherif (the Egyptian is the first from her nation to be seeded at a slam), Masarova rallied form 4-2 down in the 3rd to post just her second career slam MD victory (w/ '21 US) with a 7-5/3-6/7-6(10-6) win.

...the key late afternoon match turned out to be an all-Bannerette battle on the eve of U.S. Independence Day, as former slam champ Sofia Kenin (whose run was largely ignored in 2020 because, well, you know, and then was "brushed aside" after seeing injuries, illness and an in-flux coaching situation with her dad the last two seasons drop her ranking to #426 last July) faced off with the always highly-ranked (but still seeking *that* result four years after her headline-grabbing SW19 debut as a 15-year old) #7-seeded Coco Gauff.

Kenin's grass court lead-in, unlike her pre-results at the year's other slams (she reached the Hobart SF, but fell in the AO 1st Rd., then after upsettting Aryna Sabalenka in Madrid lost in the opening round of RG qualifying), didn't leave much to be hopeful about. The 24-year old lost in the 1st Round in Nottingham, then the 2nd Round of the Gaiba 125 challenger.

But she took a major step during Wimbledon qualifying. After winning her final Q-match last week (not dropping a set in three wins) at Roehampton, Kenin noticeably had little to no reaction. Essentially, she admitted to a lack of outward excitement because, you know, she's *been* in slam MD before... and won a major... and reached another slam final. And not that long ago, either. Kenin knows she *should* be there, and surely thinks she should be doing quite a bit more than that.

Today she did, as she reminded everyone that, as was the case a few years ago, if an opponent has a weakness to exploit she'll (eventually) find and exploit it (aka "The Kenin Way"). Today, while Gauff's defensive skills were often supreme, the 19-year old's oft-wonky forehand once again helped along her demise as she became the first Top 10 seed to fall at this Wimbledon.

After Gauff pushed the match to a 3rd set, she seemed set to turn the momentum in her favor. Kenin led by a break at 2-1, but Gauff's relentless defense carved out three BP opportunities. But Kenin would not and did not bend, held for 3-1 and ultimately secured another break for 5-2. She served out the match at 6-4/4-6/6-2, getting her first slam MD win in two years and handing Gauff her first Wimbledon loss to an unseeded opponent and just her second in the early rounds (1r/2r) of any slam since the 2020 U.S. Open.

So, four years after the 15-year old Gauff delivered a defeat to a 39-year old Venus Williams in her SW19 debut, both went out within hours of each other on Day 1.



After starting the year at #227, Kenin came into this Wimbledon at #128 (US #20). She's now in the Top 100 in the live rankings, and if she can hold her spot through this tournament she'll be there for the first time since the start of her precipitous ranking fall early last year, when she went from being #12 in January to #95 in Febuary, then #426 by mid-summer.

...the afternoon rain prevented the full Day 1 schedule from being completed, as four women's matches were postponed, including the soon-to-retire Anett Kontaveit's final 1st Round match at Wimbledon, and another (Collins/Grabher) was suspended after one set.





...STILL A UNIQUE RIVAL/FRIEND STORY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS... ON DAY 1:

FREE WASHINGTON POST LINK




It should also be noted that former Washington Post reporter Johnette Howard wrote a wonderful dual biography about Evert and Navratilova call "The Rivals" back in 2006. Seems it would be fit for a re-issue with update chapters.


...#1 RANKING UPDATE... ON DAY 1:




...T-MINUS 1... ON DAY 1:






















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*MOST CAREER GRAND SLAM MD APPEARANCES*
92 - VENUS WILLIAMS (2023)
81 - Serena Williams
71 - Svetlana Kuznetsova
71 - Francesca Schiavone
71 - Amy Frazier
69 - Alize Cornet (2023)
67 - Martina Navratilova
64 - Conchita Martinez

*SLAM MATCH WINS - OPEN ERA*
367...Serena Williams
306...Martina Navratilova
299...Chris Evert
278...Steffi Graf
271...VENUS WILLIAMS
210...Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
198...Lindsay Davenport
197...Maria Sharapova
180...Monica Seles
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NEXT ACTIVE HIGH: Azarenka (154)
[Wimbledon]
120 - Martina Navratilova
98 - Serena Williams
96 - Chris Evert
90 - VENUS WILLIAMS
74 - Steffi Graf
65 - Billie Jean King

*RECENT WIMBLEDON "FIRST SEED OUT"*
2015 #24 Flavia Pennetta, ITA (Diyas/KAZ)
2016 #25 Irina-Camelia Begu, ROU (Witthoeft/GER)
2017 #31 Roberta Vinci, ITA (Kr.Pliskova/CZE)
2018 #19 Magdalena Rybarikova, SVK (Cirstea/ROU)
2019 #10 Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (Rybarikova/SVK)
2021 #10 Petra Kvitova, CZE (Stephens/USA)
2022 #31 Kaia Kanepi, EST (Parry/FRA)
2023 #15 Liudmila Samsonova, RUS (Bogdan/ROU)

*RECENT WIMBLEDON "FIRST VICTORY OF THE FORTNIGHT"*
2015 Victoria Azarenka/BLR (L: Kontaveit/EST)
2016 Dasha Kasatkina/RUS (L: Duval/USA)
2017 Wang Qiang/CHN (L: Chang/TPE)
2018 Yanina Wickmayer/BEL (L: Barthel/GER)
2019 Madison Keys/USA (L: Kumkhum/THA)
2021 Aryna Sabalenka/BLR (L: Niculescu/ROU)
2022 Alison Riske/USA (L: In-Albon/SUI)
2023 Barbora Stycova/CZE (L: Zanevska/BEL)






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TOP QUALIFIER: Jessica Bouzas Maneiro/ESP
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q3 - #18 Lucrezia Stefanini def. (PR) Hsieh Su-wei 6-2/6-7(3)/7-6(11-9)
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): xx
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: (PR) Barbora Strycova/CZE (def. Zanevska/BEL; first Wimb. match since 2019 SF)
FIRST SEED OUT: #15 Liudmila Samsonova/RUS (1st Rd.-Bogdan/ROU)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Day 1 wins: Jodie Burrage/GBR
UPSET QUEENS: xx
REVELATION LADIES: xx
NATION OF POOR SOULS: xx
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: 1r wins: Kenin
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: 1r wins: Burrage, Svitolina
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: 1r wins: Sorribes Tormo/ESP, Strycova/CZE
LAST BRIT STANDING: 1r wins: Burrage
Ms. OPPORTUNITY: xx
IT "??": xx
COMEBACK PLAYER: Nominee: Kenin
CRASH & BURN: Nominee: #7 Gauff (1r-Kenin)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF LONDON: Nominee: Bucsca (1r: saved 4 MP vs. Rakhimova)
DOUBLES STAR: xx
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): xx
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: xx
SPIRIT OF JANA (NOVOTNA) HONOREES: xx






All for Day 1. More tomorrow.
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