Bill Simons
BREAK FEAST AT WIMBLEDON: Seb Korda has had a charmed life. He’s a tall, 6’ 5” hunk from one of the world’s better sports families – and he’s a winner. Many hope he’ll be the savior of America’s men’s tennis. The No. 50 in the world was having the time of his life at Wimbledon as he beat the No. 1 Brit Dan Evans to get to the fourth round. Most kids want to have a beer on their 21st birthday. On his 21st, Korda was deep in his match against No. 25 seed Karen Khachanov.
Then quirky Court 18 struck. Years ago, a fire broke out just up the hill. And, famously, Court 18 hosted the John Isner-Nicolas Mahut marathon, in which the American won 70-68 in the fifth. In that fabled set there was just one break of serve. Incredibly, in the fifth set of the Korda match there were (this is not a typo) 13 breaks of serve. A stunned Rennae Stubbs said, “I just can’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like this.” Khachanov served three times for the match before he finally prevailed, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8. Karen said, “I would say it’s not common, but it is what it is with the nerves.” Korda noted that he was playing his first ever five-set match: “It was a whole new experience for me.”
And, in the end, there were some who suggested that maybe we should change Bud Collins’ old saying, “Breakfast at Wimbledon” to Break Feast at Wimbledon.
GO FIGURE: For the first time in 15 tries, Aryna Sabalenka reached the quarters of a major. Before today, she was the only player in the top 30 to have not reached a major quarterfinal…Ash Barty put an end to the 15-match win streak of French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova…After losing five straight times to No. 7 Andrey Rublev, Marton Fucsovics told the Russian he hoped he never had to play him again. Yet again things were looking grim for the unseeded Hungarian. He dropped was down two sets to one but came back to win in five sets…Matteo Berrettini has won 105 of the last 107 of his service games on grass…Four women who got to the second week had never played Wimbledon before. Six who are into the second week had never won a Wimbledon match before…There are five men who are through to the quarters for the first time…Bjorn Borg’s son Leo, 18, won his opening match in the juniors.
WEARY OF WITHDRAWALS: Have withdrawals ever been more impactful at a Slam than at this year’s Wimbledon? In the first round, Federer was fortunate when Adrian Mannarino withdrew. Serena and Nick Kyrgios also pulled out. And, in the last singles match of the last Manic Monday, British teen phenom Emma Raducanu pulled out, amidst controversy, due to a breathing problem.
QUOTEBOOK:
“Djokovic has wiped out a couple of generations already.” – Brad Gilbert
“We all know Coco Gauff’s path is heading up, to winning Grand Slams and being No. 1. She’s just not ready yet.” – Chris Evert
ONS JABEUR – FROM ARABIAN SANDS TO BRITISH LAWNS
By Michael Mewshaw
With her convincing victory over last year’s French Open champion Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur advances into the Wimbledon quarterfinals. The win will surprise only those who have managed to remain unaware of the Tunisian woman’s bewitching style – her guileful combination of placement and power, her mixture of drop shots and lobs that undid Garbiñe Muguruza, a Grand Slam champ, in the previous round. But Jabeur’s back story is even more astonishing than her lethal slice backhand or kick serve. She comes from a most unlikely place to produce a world-class tennis player, and moreover to develop a top-notch female competitor. As she becomes the first Arab to reach the Final Eight Club at Wimbledon, just as she did in Australia in 2020, it’s worth taking a closer look at the hurdles she has already cleared.
Although relatively liberal compared to its seething neighbors Libya and Algeria, Jabeur’s home country was where the Arab Spring first erupted and quickly spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Jabeur grew up and developed her game during a period of frightening turbulence and street violence. Many died as the ruling party was overturned and the dictator fled. It was precisely during the tumult of the Arab Spring that she showed up at 2011 Roland Garros and won the girls’ junior singles title.
This promised future success, but by no means guaranteed it. Jabeur needed a $50,000 grant from the Grand Slam Development Fund to cover travel and training expenses on the tour. In 2017 she won a title in Taiwan but the current of world events continued to run against her. Shortly before Roland Garros that year, Islamic terrorists struck Paris several times, killing hundreds. The tournament site resembled an armed camp and anti-Arab sentiment ran high. Yet Ons Jabeur managed to hold her nerve and reach the third round.
At this year’s Wimbledon, after the long stretch of COVID protocols, Jabeur continues to amaze the tennis world with her coolness on court and her affability off court. Having survived several three-set matches, she’s a genuine Wimbledon contender. But coming from a country where women are second-class citizens and from a culture that discourages feminine self-assertion and success, Jabeur has already triumphed. She claims to feel no special pressure but, “I have worked hard for this. I’ve worked hard to earn my place here. I just want to give the example for many generations coming from North Africa, from my country, from the African continent, that it’s not impossible, that we can do it.”
A QUIET END TO A QUIET TRADITION: Wimbledon is a celebration of tradition, and Middle Sunday was one of its finest and most under appreciated customs. It was a celebration of quiet and stillness. It showed us the value of the pause button and, if you will, work-life balance – less noise, please. After all, God did rest on the seventh day.
But it seems that many of our most treasured traditions ultimately bow to the power of money. The change will, as Roger Federer noted, mean lots more revenue. And there’s a powerful populist argument for adding one more day of weekend play. More will get to see tennis in person and millions around the world will now be able to see Wimbledon from their homes on its first Sunday. Plus, Wimbledon’s schedule will be far more balanced and fair.
Still, it was sad to see that there was virtually no blowback to the change. No hue and cry was raised. No petitions were circulated and, goodness, no player stood up and said, “I ain’t playin’ next year on Sunday.” And, full disclosure, in 2022 Inside Tennis definitely plans to cover Middle Sunday.
A BREATH OF SEASIDE AIR IN SW19: One year there was so much rain at Wimbledon that authorities arranged for play on Middle Sunday. Basically anyone could come. The rowdy crowd who turned up actually did the wave. Writer Laure Pignon noted, “For more than half a century on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, I have had my emotions turned left, right and inside out, but there was never a day like this, a day when joyful youth sat in the seats normally filled by blue rinses and blue chips. Some had slept on the pavements outside, others came on dawn patrol by bus and train, and together they brought a new sort of sunshine to the oldest lawn tennis tournament in the world. Their unfettered enthusiasm was like a breath of seaside air in SW19.”
OH CANADA: Denis Shapovalov had just a 1-3 lifetime match record at Wimbledon. But this year he beat his hero Andy Murray in the third round, and in the fourth he beat Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the quarters. Similarly, Denis’s friend and countryman, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Nick Kyrgios in the third round, is also into the quarters. After five epic sets he scored his first ever win over the No. 4 seed, Alexander Zverev. Canada, Russia and Australia all have two men or women left in the draw.
ANGIE’S LIST: German Angie Kerber has now scored convincing back-to-back Centre Court wins over charismatic and powerful Americans. In the 2018 Wimbledon final three-time Slam winner beat Serena and today she downed Coco Gauff. Still Coco left Centre Court as the last American to lose. Madison Keys had lost just before that.
‘HE’S ROGER, I’M COCO:’ Coco Gauff is just 17. Yet, more than most teen phenoms, she displays a depth of character far beyond her years. So often she handles incoming questions with tone-perfect wisdom. Where did that come from? And decades from now, will she be appreciated more for her tennis accomplishments or her role off-court?
Of course, this kid loves to compete. She’s playing the Olympics because she’s hyper-competitive with her athletic mom, who long regretted that she wasn’t fast enough to make it to the Olympics.
That’s not to say Coco doesn’t appreciate her elders. When asked what the best pieces of advice she got when she catapulted onto the world stage in 2019, Gauff said that a player she declined to identify told her, “Give yourself a pat on the back sometimes when you do something good.” As for off-court advice, she said, “That was actually from Mrs. Obama. It was, ‘It’s okay to say no to some things.’ Afterwards I got requests from everyone, every which way. I found myself not being able to keep up. I really went from not being known to everybody wanting something. She told me it was okay to say no. That’s one thing…[that] helped my mentality and me emotionally off the court.”
Speaking of courts, Coco was asked what it was like to play on Centre Court just before Roger went on. She replied, “Part of the reason I was so nervous in my second-round match on Centre is because I saw he was following me…It’s pretty cool…You know how concerts…have a big artist, [and] a smaller artist comes out before them.”
As for Federer, Coco said, “He definitely has a big influence on my mentality on and off the court. He’s always someone that I can go and talk to if I need advice. He’s such a class act and someone that I look up to…Me and Roger have completely different personalities. He’s older than me. I’m part of a different generation. I definitely look up to him and want to be like him, but I also want to be myself. I don’t think I’m ever going to be the person that he is because he’s Roger, I’m Coco. But definitely I try to model my behavior after him…on and off the court.”
