Our friends at the Met Office suggest it will start to get properly hot at SW19 today. Oddly, we can actually guarantee that by reintroducing something very cool on Centre Court. Come on down, Dustin Brown…
Even Andy Murray admits that if he wasn’t playing the marvellous ‘Dreddy’ today, he’d enjoy being part of the Centre Court crowd ‘oohing' and ‘aahing' at the great entertainer’s lawn show. Is it a man, is it a plane?
If he was playing anyone else, we could pretty much guarantee that the ever-popular German-Jamaican acrobat would be the crowd’s favourite. Indeed, even up against the home idol, Brown can smile: “Who said I still won't be?”
Murray calls his Rastafarian friend “a fun, fun guy to watch” but he can, on his day, be a tough, tough guy to play. Remember Rafael Nadal two years ago? Blown away by big serves, unpredictable shot making, boundless athleticism and in a blur of ‘cor blimey’ pictures. A Wimbledon folk hero was born.
If that is not your match of the day, then how about the treat that precedes it on Centre Court, Johanna Konta’s rematch with Donna Vekic, which looks a formidable hurdle for Britain’s No.1 as she seeks to get past the second round for the first time?
This is no curtain raiser. On another scorching day a couple of weeks ago, the pair played a vibrant two-and-a-half hour final in Nottingham before the Croatian earned a highly significant breakthrough win. Here was a reminder of why, as a teenager, Vekic was renowned for being one of the game’s starriest prospects, a tour winner at 17 no less.
Heather Watson faces just as tricky an examination from another resurgent figure on No.2 Court. Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova gave up the game in 2013 after persistent injury woes but has made such a success of her comeback that she won her first title for seven years in Mallorca last month. On grass too, Watson will note with concern.
On the comeback front, we continue to follow the rousing returns of Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka with admiration. Kvitova seems to think it’s really rather a hoot to have been installed as the tournament favourite in just her third tournament back after the attack on her playing hand. “I'm still underground. Just play what I can,” she shrugs, knowing that in American Madison Brengle on a court still to be decided, she faces an opponent who leads her 2-1 in their meetings.
Azarenka, too, cannot yet take questions too seriously about whether she could become the first mother to win the singles since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. Not when she cannot predict what sort of eve-of-match preparation baby Leo may offer and not when her latest opponent on No.3 Court happens to be last year’s semi-finalist, Elena Vesnina.
Simona Halep, too, is perfectly happy to play down expectations as she prepares for the challenge of Brazilian prospect Beatriz Haddad Maia, who has the serious power to unsettle her on No.1 Court. “Here, no-one’s talking about me being favourite,” says the No.2 seed, before in the next breath conceding: “But I still feel that I have a chance.”
Of course, she does. It was fairly shattering for the Romanian to lose the French Open final to a young bolter like Jelena Ostapenko but after two Grand Slam finals and having reached the semi-final here in 2014, Halep is well positioned again to kybosh the idea of being some sort of perennial bridesmaid.
Wimbledon really took Aljaz Bedene, Britain’s No.4, to its heart thanks to the way he received Ivo Karlovic’s 44 aces and not only lived to tell the tale but also set up a second round meeting with his Bosnian pal Damir Dzumhur.
They are such buddies that the Slovenian-born Bedene lent Dzumhur a couple of match shirts and two pairs of shorts that he could wear in his first round. He’s been promised they’ll be back, presumably neatly ironed and pressed, before their date on No.3 Court.
Finally, back to Centre Court, where Nadal, who looked in fine nick as he surrendered just six games in his opening match with John Millman, faces American Donald Young, a fellow southpaw who’s not taken a set from him in two meetings but to whom Nadal offers the utmost respect of a raised eyebrow and a quizzical: “Is a dangerous opponent, no?” Er, only not quite as dangerous as ‘Dreddy’, he doubtless trusts.
