Carlos Alcaraz, fresh from his Roland Garros triumph, battles to secure his advancement, while Emma Raducanu lit up center court and Jannick Sinner, now the top seed at a major for the first time, displayed remarkable resilience in a four-set showdown, .
Carlos Alcaraz, fresh from his Roland Garros triumph, battles to secure his advancement, while Emma Raducanu lit up center court and Jannick Sinner, now the top seed at a major for the first time, displayed remarkable resilience in a four-set showdown, .
Hey everyone, john Wertheim here with a quick serve podcast from day one at Wimbledon 2024, presented by Oslo Sleep Buds. I'm John Wertheim, behind court 14, where we will be here for the duration of the tournament. We'll be checking in with quick hits highlighting some top moments of the tournament, upset storylines. Andy gets back and he will take us for some previews later in week two. But day one, busy day one. Fresh grass, fresh truck, fresh strawberries, the air thick with possibility. It's day one at a major. It's a little like opening day in baseball We've got fresh green grass, we have excitement. The difference, of course, is that half the people that played today will no longer be advancing, but a lot of big names in the draw and a lot of big names advance. So first we'll go through some of the high points of today.
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Carlos Alcaraz, fresh off winning the Roland Garros final A mere three weeks and a day ago, the defending champion. He looked quite good. He played Mark Lyall, an Estonian kid with an absolutely spectacular head of hair YouTube and Google Image are your friends and Carlos looked good. He was a little nervous at first 7-6 in the first set, then 7-5, 6-2. Got easier as the day went on, of course, as the defending champ he was able to christen center court and was worthy of the challenge, looked good all around, not an A+, but certainly a survive in advance. Better than that he is into round two. He was followed by Emma Raducanu, who got a surprise opponent. When her scheduled opponent pulled out, emma Raducanu advanced to the delight of the center court crowd.
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And then it was Yannick Sinner's turn. For the first time in his career he is the top seed in a major, very first line on the draw sheet for Yannick Sinner, the new men's number one, and he was up to the task for the most part. In the inter-Yannick match he played Yannick Hanfmann of Germany. Sinner won the first two sets pretty handily, dropped the third set 6-3, but then responded quite nicely and won in four sets. So he will advance. This is a bit recalling what happened at Roland Garros last month, where Alcaraz and Sinner were projected to meet in the semifinal, which they did, and every time they played it was sort of this barometer on who was playing the better tennis. I have to say Alcaraz's advantage today is he won in straight sets to Sinner's four. But Sinner up two sets to one, drops a third, wins in four. No problems there.
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Other winners today Coco Gauff looked very good. Some people picked her to win the tournament and she looked worthy of that today 6-1, 6-2, over fellow American, caroline Dolehide. Naomi Osaka, who, at Roland Garros, was a point away from beating Iga Svantec the eventual winner comes to grass. Not her best surface, by her own admission. She had a tight match today, got to 4-all in the third set against Diane Perry, a French woman with a one-handed backhand Remember one-handed backhands, especially on the women's side. Well, naomi Osaka was able to withstand one today. Not the cleanest match, but she prevails 6-4 in the third. Other scattered winners Jasmine Paolini, fresh off reaching the Roland Garros final. She won her very first match of her career at Wimbledon, but looked very good and very slick, smooth, good mover and she advances.
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Daniil Medvedev, sporting something resembling a mustache. He looked good as well. He won his 230th match since 2020. Thank you for Opta Ace for that stat, but that is more wins than anyone else in men's tennis in that period. I think sometimes we forget Daniil Medvedev one major title in that interim but a lot of late final showings. And today, on a surface that is not his favorite, he looked very good. I think sometimes we lose track of just how spectacular a career Daniil Medvedev is putting together.
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Again, this is your quick serve podcast from Oslo Sleep Buds. I was fortunate enough to carry my Oslo Sleep Buds on the flight over here and they paid great dividends. I actually did some sleeping, unlike Andy Roddick. Visit oslosleepcom for your orders today. Link in the show description Like subscribe. Turn on your notifications. Get all the upsets, all the updates. Oslo Sleep Buds to the rescue.
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There was some less good news. We sort of led with the positive, and most of the bad news had to do with injuries and withdrawals. None of them were more seismic than the word that came around noon that Irina Savalenka, who was the number three seed notice, I use the past tense who won a major already this year in Australia. A real contender, some people Andy Roddick even picked her to win the entire event. She announced that sadly, she would be withdrawn. She had a shoulder injury that caused her to withdraw last week for the first time in her career, a mid-match retirement.
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She came here, she practiced gingerly. There were sort of reports that this was coming. She was very open in her pre-tournament press conference and basically said look, I don't know if I'm going to be able to compete. We tend to hear that a lot. And then athletes are, you know, the competitive juices start flowing and they essentially said look, as long as there's something more than a non-zero chance that I can win this event, it would be foolhardy to pull out. We see the scenario a lot, but that didn't happen. Marina Sabalenka practiced a little bit, had a hit today and basically said no mas. And it's very serious if a player, not just with her ranking and status, but with her sort of constitution, her competitive instincts, for her to pull out that shoulder injury has to be quite serious. So she did, and the number three seed is now not in the draw, ironically enough, another player from Belarus, victoria Azarenka, another two-time major winner. She also pulled out the shoulder injury just about an hour before she was supposed to face Sloane Stephens. So no seismic upsets right now, but the big story, at least from the unfortunate, regrettable, negative department, does seem to be players and these injuries.
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It's a long season physically taxing sport. Injuries are part of sports, but it's a little bit disconcerting when, uh, so many players, uh, both men and women, different body parts, uh, different circumstances, a lot of players are complaining that they are less than 100 physically. And today, uh, we had three different players pull out shortly before their matches. Um Sidebar, I noticed that in the Royal Box today David Attenborough was here, 98 years old. He, of course, is the famous television personality and scientist and just sort of general cultural treasure. He was in the Royal Box and I was thinking about David Attenborough and what he would have made walking around the ground and what he saw on center court today, and I think he would have been. As someone who studies behaviors and environments and anthropology, I suspect he would have been rather charmed by the sport and it was a nice reminder, I thought, of the life's rich pageant that tennis provides us with.
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We had stars. We also had players who it meant a whole lot to win $75,000 just for being in the main draw. We had players like Lulu Sun who took out Queen Wynne who, again somewhat anti-rotic, predicted would do quite well. Lulu Sun, who used to go by Radovich. She was born in New Zealand, she played for Switzerland, she played for the University of Texas. Ironically enough, she won the decisive point when the Longhorns won the NCAA title. That was the Peyton Stearns team, and here she is playing back for New Zealand and takes out the number seven seed.
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It's just sort of stories like that that fall between the cracks. Marta Kostiuk, the Ukrainian player who came out today in a dress she designed to resemble her wedding dress Again all of these sort of stories. We see players of all shapes and sizes and backgrounds and genders and ages. Again, I kept thinking of David Attenborough taking in this environment and being rather impressed by all the diversity. And then, finally, I was struck by Stan Bobrenka who, at age 39 years old 39, that's older than Nadal and Murray and Djokovic, who we were all speculating about how much longer they're out here Stan Bobrenka age 39, got through today and I had a chance to interview him after the match and I sort of said look, you know, you're 39 years old, you've got a hell of a career. You are one Wimbledon away from a career slam. And he sort of said, yeah, but I'm not going to get it. And that gave me pause.
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Not often you hear an athlete say I'm entering an event that I have no expectation of winning, and he was being dead serious and sort of essentially said look, my best days are behind me. I'm going to be sitting there watching when Sinner or Alcaraz, whoever plays in the final. The same way I was a few weeks ago at Roland Garros, and Sandbar Brinker, though at age 39, seems resigned to the fact his days of winning majors are over. This is not sandbagging. He was being very serious and said look, I genuinely don't think I'm going to win this event. However, I still have such passion for this sport. I still have such passion for competing. There's no reason for me to quit. I'm taking a measure of pride in the fact that, at age 39, I'm still durable. My body's still up for it. I love coming here. It still feels fresh. Why would I walk away from that?
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Stan Barberica, in his next match, plays someone else north of age 35, guayalman Fis, who you know. They've had a lot of history together. They came up through the ranks together. Stan Barberica said look now we used to start off and we'd play PlayStation against each other. We'd be knucklehead teenage buddies, and now we talk about our lives and our kids and our physical compromises.
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But those two guys age 39 and 37, are about to play in the second round of Wimbledon, and I think it's a good reminder that this is A really a special sport. B for all the trouble, for all the physical ailments, for all the shoulder injuries that cause you to sadly and tearfully pull out of events an hour before you're supposed to take the court. There are still a lot of rewards, and that the rewards extend beyond just lifting trophies. And here Stan Wawrinka is a three-time major champion. He is a few months from turning age 40, and he is still out here. Different expectations that he had 10 years ago when he was winning majors. But it's still worthwhile for him to compete. He still has the passion, and I found that to be really quite poignant. So that match is going to take place on Wednesday.
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On Tuesday, novak Djokovic may we think we hope, be playing his first round match. Andy Murray, at this moment, may we think we hope, be playing his first round match. Iga Svantec will try to win Wimbledon for the first time. She'll try to get beyond the quarterfinals for the first time. She kicks off her campaign against Sonya Kennan. Dozens of other matches. Taylor Fritz is in action as well. There will likely be some matches from tonight, from Monday that may well carry over.
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It's already after 8 o'clock pm here, local time. Ben Shelton is just starting the third set, having split the first two, so there'll probably be some carryover, but Wimbledon 2024 is off. We're off to the races. We had some nice matches today. We had a bit of deflating news with some retirements, so it goes in this sport and we will be back soon for another quick serve sponsored by Oslo Sleep Buds. As this wonderful tournament progresses, enjoy watching everyone. The Shameless Tennis Channel plug. We will be on After the Matches for six hours on Tennis Channel with interviews, with raps. You can see that Stan Povrinka interview I referenced. Andy and I will be doing our thing periodically throughout this event and thanks for listening, thanks for your tennis fandom, and enjoy the next 13 days of Wimbledon 2023.
