Intriguing plotlines are blossoming all over the Grounds as we reach the end of a fascinating, sunshine-blessed first week at The Championships on Saturday.
The mystery of who will succeed Serena Williams as ladies’ champion, for instance, deepens by the day with a host of big-hearted players on the comeback trail being increasingly emboldened to think that, actually, why couldn’t this be their year?
We also remain enchanted by the Boys’ Own notion that we still have two brothers, Alexander and Mischa Zverev, who can daydream over breakfast about the prospect of meeting each other in the quarter-finals next week.
They will each move one match away from the family day out on a nice lawn should the younger Alexander, aka Sascha, defeat unseeded Austrian Sebastian Ofner on No.2 Court and his older brother beats Roger Federer on Centre Court. Yes, you can make that a big ‘if’.
Yet while it’s entirely predictable that Federer is seeking to leap into the second week at Wimbledon for the 14th time in his last 15 visits, the unpredictable bit is that he has absolutely no idea what the delightfully different Mischa, a serve-and-volleyer good enough to have knocked Andy Murray out of the Australian Open this year, will conjure.
Sometimes, says Federer, Zverev has rushed, chipped, charged and attacked him; on other occasions, he’s returned from miles behind the baseline. The only thing that ever seems to remain the same is Fed’s name in the W column.
“So how do you approach matches against Federer at Wimbledon?” Mischa muses aloud, promising an “all-or-nothing” approach and adding with a Eureka! grin that he’s unearthed the perfect tactic to unnerve the master. “I'll maybe give him a mean, angry look before the match….”
On this first Saturday, we could hardly have expected that nine of the 16 women in action today would be unseeded, with no less than five having wrestled with such injury problems that they could realistically never have imagined being here.
I'll maybe give him a mean, angry look before the match...
They are headed by world No.87 Magdalena Rybarikova, who’s still a mite incredulous about knocking out tournament favourite Karolina Pliskova after being sidelined for much of last season by wrist and knee surgery and rebuilding her career of late in tennis hotspots like Ilkley and Surbiton. Now, the Slovakian looks to win the 16th of her last 17 grass court matches against the unseeded Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko on Court 18.
The sight of Sorana Cirstea trying to comfort her stricken, injured opponent Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round was a truly affecting one. Admitting to be heartbroken herself, it was the last way the unseeded Romanian would have wanted to have been presented with the huge opportunity of a No.2 Court meeting with the 2015 finalist Garbiñe Muguruza.
A non-seed not averse to the odd spot of giant-felling is the sweet-striking American Shelby Rogers, who beat Petra Kvitova in last year’s French Open, Simona Halep at January’s Australian Open and has already accounted for No.32 seed Lucie Safarova here. Now on her target list on No.2 Court is the No.1 seed Angelique Kerber, who’s not looked entirely convincing but is improving with each outing.
Hark! If you can hear the strains of some terrible 1980s rock bands emanating from down Aorangi Park way, it may just be Pat Cash’s way of trying to get his coaching charge, the ebullient No.24 seed CoCo Vandeweghe, in the requisite tub-thumping mood for her match against her unseeded US Fed Cup teammate Alison Riske on No.3 Court.
CoCo reckons she can put up with “dorky” Cash because he’s a pretty fine mentor who might just be able to guide her all the way up the stands to the players’ box, 30 years since he taught the world how to do it.
Match of the day? Novak Djokovic’s latest challenge on Centre Court from the splendid Ernests Gulbis, who in the past we have also been contractually obliged to describe as “outspoken, gifted but erratic Latvian”.
More recently, the 28-year-old has been an injured, outspoken, gifted but erratic Latvian, having won his first main draw matches for 13 months here.
Yet, my, didn’t he look good, blowing away Juan Martin del Potro in the second round? Three years ago, philosopher king Gulbis mused that he was on the last-chance train but now he says: “I was wrong. Maybe now is the last chance train!” All aboard then, this could be fun!
