Wimbledon tennis tournament: Novak Djokovic’s turn
WIMBLEDON, England –
The courts are finally dry at Wimbledon and the sun is even shining through the clouds at times, giving organizers hope to play a full day of tennis on Thursday for the first time in this year’s tournament.
The first three days of action at the All England Club were affected by rain. Only eight games were played on Tuesday. Those matches were played on Center Court or No. 1 Court, the only stadiums on the ground with roofs.
Due to all the upsets, a handful of first-round matches were played on Day 4. Normally, the first Thursday of the tournament would wrap up the second round.
Among the winners was Stan Wawrinka, three-time Grand Slam champion from Switzerland. Wawrinka defeated No. 29 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the third round.
The 38-year-old Wawrinka, who won his major titles at the other three Grand Slam tournaments, will next face Novak Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam champion who is going for his eighth title at Wimbledon. That game is scheduled for Friday at Center Court.
“I think there is no chance for me to win Wimbledon,” said Wawrinka, who reached the quarter-finals at the All England Club in 2014 and 2015. “I’m playing better every game and like I said, I’m honored to play here against Novak. I missed that in my career to play against him in the Grand Slam at Wimbledon. That’s the last time I never played against him, and it will be a tough challenge.
“Hopefully I can make a competitive match, but if you look at the recent results, I don’t really stand a chance.”
Later on Thursday, two-time champion Andy Murray would play fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas on Center Court in the second round, while fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula would face Cristina Bucsa on first-court.
Alexander Zverev, who reached the 2020 US Open final but missed most of last season after an ankle injury in the French Open semifinal, finally took to court to beat Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer 6-4, 7 -6(4), 7-6(5) in the first round.
The 19th-seeded German reached the fourth round at Wimbledon twice, including in 2021. This year he reached the semifinals of the French Open again.
In the women’s draw, Sofia Kenin and Elina Svitolina both advanced to the third round. Kenin knocked out seventh-seeded Coco Gauff in the first round, while Svitolina defeated five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, will next take on Svitolina, who is back on tour with husband Gael Monfils after the birth of her first child in October.
“I have to come up with a good strategy against her,” says Kenin, a 24-year-old American. “She gets a lot of balls back, as far as I remember. I mean, she’s got a big serve, a big backhand. There’s nothing wrong with her game.”
Mirra Andreeva, a 16-year-old qualifier from Russia who is ranked 102nd, reached the third round in her Wimbledon debut. She advanced as No. 10 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic pulled out of the match with a lower leg injury to lead Andreeva 6–3, 4–0.
“It’s definitely not the way I wanted to win the game. But still I’m going through to the next round, so I’m happy with that,” said Andreeva.
Krejcikova won the French Open in 2021. Her best performance with the All England Club was reaching the fourth round in the same year.
