QUICK SERVED: WIMBLEDON DAY 7 RECAP - COCO & RADUCANU GO DOWN AND PAOLINI & SINNER ADVANCE
Jul 07, 2024Season 1
Served with Andy Roddick
Week 2 of Wimbledon ’24 continues with Jannik Sinner defeating Ben Shelton, Emma Navarro beating Coco Gauff, Madison Keys retiring at 5-all seemingly due to injury, and Emma Raducanu loses to Lulu Sun. Jon Wertheim covers all and a few other stories on today’s Quick Served coverage.
Week 2 of Wimbledon ’24 continues with Jannik Sinner defeating Ben Shelton, Emma Navarro beating Coco Gauff, Madison Keys retiring at 5-all seemingly due to injury, and Emma Raducanu loses to Lulu Sun. Jon Wertheim covers all and a few other stories on today’s Quick Served coverage.
Hey everyone, welcome to Quick Server presented by Oslo Sleep Buds. I'm John Wertheim, behind Court 14. Good news, andy is coming back soon. We will have longer, more in-depth analysis, starting next week, but wrapping up week one with our short monologue here. This is quick hits, highlights, storylines, upsets, tracking the tournament day by day. And let's start with the top story from today, which just concluded about five minutes ago behind me, and that was Emma Navarro taking out the favorite, coco Gauff.
Speaker 1:
It was just such a professional showing by Emma Navarro playing Wimbledon for only the second time. She handled the moment, she handled the opponent. It was efficient, it was clean. It strikes me about watching Emma there is just nothing wasted. No wasted motion, no wasted emotion, no wasted time. She moves well, she strikes the ball well. This is really just efficient, sort of Occam's razor tennis.
Speaker 1:
On the other side of the net, coco's forehand frankly and flatly broke down. Emanu Navarro saw this and clearly picked on it and that was the difference. Again, very smooth, professional match, for Emanu Navarro played like a veteran, went to the net nine times and won all nine points. Served well, moved well. Such a fluid player. But the other side of the net, coco's game was in a bit of disarray. This was a real disappointment for her, with Iga Sviatak going out. Yesterday, coco was the highest remaining seed. In the eyes of many, self-included oddsmakers included, she was the favorite to win and she's going to be disappointed by this result today, going down in straight sets to another American.
Speaker 1:
As for other action on this seventh day, on the seventh day few rested and there was rain, as it was written. Once again we're seven for seven in terms of rainy days. I think one thing that does is it lays bare the advantage the top players have playing under the roof, which means you know when your match is going to be, you know the court, the idiosyncrasies of the court, and you don't have to worry about on again, off again. But one thing that comes with playing on these covered courts on grass they get slippery, and that was a storyline today. Kicking off the day, carlos Alcaraz took on Hugo Umbera of France, the French lefty, whose game is very grass friendly, for two sets.
Speaker 1:
This was the Carlos show, the usual mix of spectacular and steady, and bailed himself out when necessary and then sort of the match took on mechanical bull characteristics. Carlos was broken three times in the third set, three times in one set, for the defending champion lost that 6-1. It was sort of whoa broken again in the fourth, struggled. But this is a man of many gears and we got to see him bail himself out of trouble. We saw survival instincts. We saw drop shots. He was pretty much smiling throughout. It reminds us that you know, this is still a young player but there's still a lot that is polished here. And he dropped two sets in his previous match against Francis Tiafoe, came back and won, dropped a set today, hardly at his best, but came out to win in four and came out all smiles.
Speaker 1:
As he was playing on center court, madison Keyes was on court one taking on Jasmine Paolini. This was a nice contrast of a power player versus slick movement. That occurred to be sometimes a alternated role. Sometimes Madison Keyes moved way better than perhaps she's given credit for and sometimes Jasmine Paolini, at five foot four, executed her shots with a lot more power than she's given credit for. This was a fun match for the first two hours or so. Paolini won the first. Madison Keyes had a nice fight back. She was up five, two in the third and then bad things happened. She did not serve out the match and then age 29,. She suffered what looked to be a hamstring injury, did not come to press so we did not have confirmation on that, but she was immobilized and, uh, she was unable to complete the match. Tearfully at five, all barely able to move, she uh went to the net to shake hands. It was really pretty excruciating to see. Um don't want to editorialize too much. This is one of the good eggs. Madison keys, well liked and well regarded. She had a real chance to win this tournament. And just On the other side of the net, credit Paulini, who she turned 28 years old. This is not a young player. She had not won a match at Wimbledon before this year. Now she is in the quarterfinals after winning six matches and getting to the finals at the previous major A bit of a breakthrough for her.
Speaker 1:
Yannick Sinner played the same day as Carlos Alcaraz. We had the same barometer, the same scenario at the French Open and Roland Garros, same side of the draw, and it was sort of these two guys destined to be at the semis. You could see how they fared against the other Today. Sinner played Ben Shelton and played Ben Shelton quite well. This is the fourth time these guys have played in the last year, ben Shelton actually beat Sinner in Shanghai, which, whether this is correlation or causation, was sort of the beginning of Yannick Sinner as we know him. After that match he's barely been touchable, and that was again the case today. A solid, veteran performance. Ben Shelton had his opportunities but wasn't able to capitalize, and Yannick Sinner wins in tight sets. Side note on, ben Shelton Played a five-setter yesterday. On Saturday Played two sets of doubles, so seven sets of doubles, so seven sets of tennis a day before he was supposed to play the number one seed on a show court. I don't think fatigue or injury played a role in this defeat. Today. He's not there yet, but no rush. 21 years old, he ought to leave with his head high, ben Shelton. And meanwhile Yannick Sinner moves on to what is looking like this inexorable semifinal against his rival, carlos Alcaraz.
Speaker 1:
Emma Raducanu played as well today, and there were obviously questions about her, given the wrist injury that caused her to withdraw from the mixed doubles with Andy Murray. I'm not sure the wrist was a factor. Like so many players, she slept. She slept on the wet grass and needed treatment to her back, and she faced Lulu Sun. I'm doing this without notes. Let me see if I can get this right.
Speaker 1:
She is a Chinese mother, a Croatian father, born in New Zealand, grew up in Switzerland, played at the University of Texas. A woman of the world, she's also a really good tennis player, this lefty baller, who takes big cuts on both sides and moves really well on the grass. She had to qualify just to get in the main draw. As Emma Ratakanu said presciently, and perhaps reflecting on her own Grand Slam title run at the US Open three years ago, qualifiers are dangerous. They're in form, and that was Lulu Sun. She looked very comfortable both on the big stage on grass, playing a touted opponent in her home country. And Lulu Sun did not flinch 52 winners on the day. This is not necessarily a physically imposing player, but again, big risks, big cuts, a lot to like. Very flashy lefty game, fun to watch. And she wins 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, closed it out. So she is into the quarterfinals as a qualifier.
Speaker 1:
Other matches Medvedev got past Grigor Dimitrov. Yet another slip and a fall. Grigor broke to start the match and took an early lead. Medvedev clawed his way back and then, eight games in, it looked like Grigor slipped and hurt his groin and retired down 5-3. They didn't even get in a set. So Medvedev advances much like Jasmine Paulini, not necessarily the way he wanted to. He next plays Yannick Sinner. They've had their battles but if nothing else, daniel Medvedev ought to come in fresh on Tuesday for that match.
Speaker 1:
Let's do a random factoid. I don't have anything prepared or written down, so I will tell you that Wimbledon has prioritized spreading the gospel of grass court tennis. This is a tentpole event of tennis and why not try to get as many people playing as possible? So they have stitched in artificial grass on the practice courts to see if players notice. So far they haven't. So, these practice courts and they're not telling the players always which courts they are About 5% artificial grass, 95% of the regular rye grass. Got five percent artificial grass, 95 of the the regular rye grass. The hope here is that, uh, we can replicate wimbledon quality grass and maybe have more grass courts throughout the world. It doesn't seem as though players are noticing the difference.
Speaker 1:
Uh, let's look ahead to tomorrow, shall we? Um, I'll call up the schedule here and say that on center court, elena Robachina, who is now definitely the favorite on the women's side of the champion here two years ago, she plays Callum Skaia, taylor Fritz against Vera. They play fairly similar styles. They've split their last six matches. That's thought to be a good one. And Holger Runina against Djokovic, another potential mousetrap match. Holger Runina has had some success against Novak Djokovic. We will see which Novak Djokovic shows up, the one who looks spry in anything other than 37 in knee injury, or the player who at some points has looked a little bit ginger on the court. But I know Novak will be the favorite against Holger Rune.
Speaker 1:
On court one, Arthur Feast, the young Frenchman, against Alex Dimonor. Yulia Putinsaeva, a fresh off beating. Iga Shvantech plays a fellow pugnacious player, yelena Ostapenko. That ought to be fun, just from the sense of combativeness to players who enjoy the very much. Enjoy the battle. Speaking of enjoying the battle, daniel Collins rounds up court one against Barbara Red Chico. That will do it again. Andy will be here. We will have longer, more in-depth discussions. These are just filibusters, these are just monologues. We will have longer discussions when there are two of us working the booth. That will happen soon. Meanwhile, enjoy Second Monday from Wimbledon 2024. I'm John Wertheim. This was a Quick Serve podcast presented by Oslo Sleep Buds. See you tomorrow.
