DAY 6
What often happens at these Slams when the first few days are filled with upsets is that the middle four days risk being pretty bland. And that’s a bit of what we have here.
Jannik Sinner rolled against Martinez of Spain. Mirra won over Hailey Baptiste. Iga didn’t have much trouble disbanding Danielle Collins. Novak Djokovic handled a fellow countryman without much fuss. Ben Shelton won his ninth set in a row at Wimbledon—he is seeming like he’s in winning form but he might drop his first set of the tournament when he plays Lorenzo Sonego. Sonego barely eked out the win against Nakashima. They were on court for five hours, four minutes and it ended with a fifth set tiebreak. One can only imagine the soreness that follows a five-setter.
In another close contests, Emma Navarro took out 2024 champ Barbora Krejčíková in three sets. The propulsion of her hair from that Tatler shoot keeping her going. One surprise of the day came from the Dane Clara Tauson, who even after a rain delay came back to knock out former champion Rybakina 7-6, 6-3.
DAY 5
Day 5 action kept up the trend, mostly. Madison Keys is out, losing to Laura Siegemund. Find us someone who called that. Keys did cancel her press due to illness, fwiw.
Carlos cruised to the fourth round, as did Taylor Fritz and Amanda Anisimova in three sets. Ben Shelton had a fun match, serving out the one game left in his three-set match against Rinky Hijikata—which had been postponed due to darkness the night before—in 69 or 70 seconds, depending on who you ask. Team Wimbledon really had a fun time crafting captions for some posts around that ending. Good finish, Ben.
Last match on was top seed Sabalenka taking on Raducanu, who was SO in this match. She was up in both sets, had a chance to go up 5-1 in the first and Aryna came fighting back and Emma couldn’t counter.She did fight off a boatload of set points in the first set. I watched the match live and kept an eye on the IBM tracker assessing likelihood to win. Even when Emma was about to go up 5-1 in the first, that meter never really put Aryna’s certainty to win below 70 percent.Don’t doubt her, she’s coming for that dish.
Monfils lost the end of his continued match from yesterday. They only played a set, a fifth, an dhe just couldn’t get the energy up. Same could be said of Svitolina, who also lost today. What was really fun today was watching Ostapenko-Hsieh play doubles on a court next door to Errani’s mixed doubles match with partner Vavassori. Errani and Hsieh being true masters of the game of doubles, captains of their teams, we can only hope we get to see them play each other. Everyone should go watch more doubles. It’s the most fun.
DAY 4
Keep it on Court 18. That’s the Isner longest match court, if you recall. Day 4 had Cobolli win his second round match in 4. Then, Monfils. He loves a five-setter, it seems. He lost to Fucsovics with Svitolina in the crowd as well as some other past players like Alize Cornet, who has been walking around the press room often this week.
Rybakina rolled through. Some might say she’s the second favorite to win now that so many seeds have gone. Don’t count out a former champion on the grass. Another defending champ, Krejcikova also packed in a win over Caroline Dolehide. We’ll just add that Court 2 was quite quiet during and after that match. Not a lot of fervor for the past winner.
Much louder were the Aussies cheering for de Minaur as he won in four sets and sealed the last set 6-0. Emma Navarro was featured in a Tatler spread this week that has been making the rounds andshe rolled over Kudermetova (Veronika) 6-1, 6-1. Dark horse pick.
Another American Hailey Baptiste beat out Mboko. It looked like Mboko would run away with the match in the first set but that quickly turned when she couldn’t close out the set.It wouldn’t be Wimbledon 2025 if a seed didn’t crash and that was Tommy Paul losing to Ofner. Doubles is ramping up. Those who love the craft are flocking to Errani Paolini, of course.
DAY 3
Don’t come to Wimbledon as a seed. You won’t last long.
It’s been a year since Paolini powered through to the Wimbledon final and today she exited like so many of her top 10 friends. Kamilla Rakhimova came back from losing the first set and waved goodbye to the fourth. So!
Four of the top five women’s seeds have gone home—maybe on a private jet for at least one of them. Only world number one Aryna remains in the draw. In her press today, she didn’t seem that phased about being the only top seed left so early in the tournament. Note: Aryna is the most fun press conferences at tournaments. Her and Emma Navarro, who plays tomorrow.
In a powerful performance, Brit Emma Raducanu beat former AELTC Champion Marketa Vondrousova in short order as Centre Court pushed her onward. Can she take down Aryna? It seemed like Vondrousova never really got into the match as Emma asserted herself and her voice consistently through the match. We haven’t seen Emma be this consistently pumped up, so maybe there’s a new tone being struck pre-match.
Over to the fall of men. Frances Tiafoe lost to Cam Norrie in four sets. Carlos did not fall, but made it through in usual high-flying fashion. In the late match of the day, Fritz held on. Barely. A lot of time-on-court across all days of the tournament so far for Taylor. Let’s see if Monfils goes five sets per usual tomorrow. He’s last on so curfew beware!
DAY 2
Goodbye, seeds. Almost all of you. Women's second seed Coco Gauff? Gone. She’s never had the best results on grass, and Dayana Yastremska is no slouch. A surprise nonetheless. Yastremska pushed the pace, jumped on Coco's serves, and Coco hit double faults. And a straight set win it was.
A note on the seeds: 13 men’s seeds and 10 women’s seeds are out in the first round, a Grand Slam record on the men’s side. Third seed Alexander Zverev? Out. Lost in five to Arthur Rinderknech of France. Lorenzo Musetti (the seventh seed), lost to Basilashvili. Bublik, with such high hopes coming into Wimbledon, served for the match but crashed out to Munar. Humbert lost in five to Gaël Monfils, who at 38 is a lightning rod for the masses. Zheng Qinwen, fifth seed, out to Siniaková.
Two-time champ Petra Kvitová said goodbye today. She announced her final press conference herself after she lost to Emma Navarro.
“I will miss Wimbledon, I will miss tennis, I will miss you fans–butI am ready for the next chapter.”Say farewell, seeds. Who will be Wimbledon champion this year?
Is there another Czech woman lurking? Maybe one who has won this tournament before?
DAY 1
It was hot, and the heat took names as spectators collapsed and stars fell in the first round. Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz went the five-set distance with Fabio Fognini. One spectator fell ill in the crowd. Alcaraz noticed, of course, and gave a water bottle to help. Alcaraz took the fifth set handily.
Elena-Gabriela Ruse fell ill, too. Everyone is ill! She fell in a tight match to Madison Keys. Can we get more ice towels for the players and the fans? The big jumbotrons at the tournament were all encouraging spectators to speak up if they feel ill. And many of these pink-in-the-face Brits were fall down for the count.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka won in straight sets. Jasmine Paolini snuck through in three.And 2023 champion and serious contender, if she can survive her first three rounds, Markéta Vondroušová, hit some of the cleanest groundstrokes you’ll find this Championships.
Holger Rune, the eight seed, lost a two-set lead to Nicolás Jarry of Chile. House of Rune will persevere. Matteo Berrettini went out. Stefanos Tsitsipas retired with a back issue.Match of the day was Taylor Fritz coming back from two sets down against Frenchman Mpetshi-Perricard. But play was suspended for the beloved curfew.No one was happy about this.But these are the rules in SW19. Also around curfew time... Paula Badosa fell to Brit Katie Boulter and the union jacks came outof thin air to support. At least for this week.
