Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️🍓
Today’s tennis mood: Impressed but also demanding to see the Queen.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
presented by
🎾 ICYMI: For the most part, in terms of results, opening day was business as usual. Jannik Sinner had a five-set scare (which included a bloody foot issue that seeped through his shoe), and Novak Djokovic was challenged by Yibing Wu in four tight sets. One big takeaway: Coco Gauff looked confident and grass-court competent. There were, however, some upsets.
Women’s singles: Maja Chwalinska lost to Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew after leading 6-2, 5-2 (and a match point). Ann Li lost to Zeynep Sonmez. Janice Tjen took out Leylah Fernandez.
Men’s singles: Roman Safiullin pulled off the biggest upset of the day over compatriot Andrey Rublev. Hubert Hurkacz took down Casper Ruud in straight sets (but is that even an upset, given Ruud has never advanced past the second round of Wimbledon?). And two American men knocked out a pair of seeds: Ethan Quinn over 14th seed Luciano Darderi and Michael Zheng over 26th seed Cameron Norrie.
*Note: Ordinarily, there would be more links to highlights here. However, Wimbledon is woefully inadequate in providing them. 🫤
🎾 Oh-fer: For how exciting yesterday’s action was, Brits didn’t have much to celebrate on the results front. Among big names, seeds, wild cards, and qualifiers, British players didn’t manage to win a single match on Monday, going 0-10 on day one. The extra dagger of Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper withdrawing certainly didn’t help matters. However, today is a new opportunity. Almost the same number of players will have opportunities to get Team Great Britain on the board. Certainly it can’t go as badly as yesterday, right?
🎾 WIMBLEDON GIVEAWAY: Have you entered our Babolat x Court Theory giveaway yet? It’s on Instagram, and it’s easy to enter! We’re talking Pure Drives, backpacks, bags, and other Babolat fan favorites!
🎾 One to watch: Serena Williams vs Maya Joint (1st round - Wimbledon): This one doesn’t need an explanation. This is the most anticipated match of the tournament — and that’s saying something given a ton of first-round matches (especially today) deserving of our attention. Even the Serena naysayers want to know if her signature serve, her lethal forehand, and her attacking game hold up or not to be proven right. More than all of that, the fans (and Serena) want to be proven right.
Honorable mentions: If Serena wasn’t playing today, it would still be a tough choice for the match of the day: Iga Swiatek vs. Taylor Townsend, Emma Navarro vs. Paula Badosa, Stan Wawrinka vs. Matteo Berrettini, Yannick Hanfmann vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Dane Sweeny vs. Grigor Dimitrov.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
(Yesterday’s poll results: 56% of you called for Casper Ruud to defeat Hubert Hurkacz. Hurkacz won 6-4, 6-2, 7-6.)
And that’s game.
