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feather_ghyllWomen’s Finals:
On the wind front, I believe it was ‘blowy’ rather than ‘gusty’. These two had not played each other before. Joint served first, held, and broke Eala, who looked less settled. She won her next service game, though, which was good, because when Joint was serving at 5-3, that question about her closing that had arisen in the Raducanu match returned. Eala broke, but at 4-5 could not get ahead, and Joint won the first set.
But perhaps Joint had got far too ahead of herself or…it’s women’s tennis, because the wheels came off Joint’s game, with some unhelpful double faults that led to other errors, while Eala profited, winning 6-1. Joint went from frustrated to despondent, even though the scoreboard said it was a final set shoot out. Admittedly, it’s hard to believe that when you can’t trust your game.
Eala was up early, but Joint broke back, and was gifted one game, almost, Eala’s most error-strewn. The third set was so topsy turvy. Eala has the more aggressive game, and when it was on, her forehand was a force, Joint is a stronger defensive player and retriever. Eala had a scoreboard lead, meaning she was the first to get to five, but of course it wasn’t that simple, and you couldn’t tell what would happen in the next game.
Fitting, perhaps, that it went to a tiebreak, and by this point, both were playing well, with several strong rallies. Joint had a double fault, and Eala had two minibreaks, but was pegged back. It then got to the point where the match was winnable, and Eala had more championship points. There were a couple of crazy ones, but on her second championship point, Joint got a big serve, had to adjust before hitting a winner, which she did to win.
Joint fell to the ground, Eala burst into tears – and we were reminded it was a young final – while Joint probably couldn’t believe what had happened. Eala referenced her awareness that she was playing for her country, it wasn’t just her first final, but she was the first Filipina in one. And it was very, very close. The commentator claimed it was a good match – er, no, it was intense, but objectively only the tiebreak was good.
Both players will have learnt a lot about themselves from this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both are in other finals this year and for years to come. (Also, Joint was through to the finals in the doubles.)
Men’s final:
Defending champion Fritz vs. lucky loser Brooksby. It was close at the start, with Brooksby nearly breaking and serving better than in his previous match. But when he did break, Fritz broke back. Fritz started more slowly, he wasn’t winning as many easy points on his serve, but by the end of the set, he had the scoreboard advantage and got into controlled aggression mode and broke decisively to win the first set.
Brooksby wasn’t too despondent and the first few games went to serve. Brooksby was anticipating well and the better player at the net, and played some fantastic points to push Fritz to break point twice, forcing Fritz to a dive volley that gave him a graze on the way to winning it. That hold was the decisive switch, with Fritz breaking and looking strong on his serve, and making more forehand winners. He broke again to serve out, emphasising he’s a top 5 player, winning here for the fourth time, and it was his second grass court tournament this year. Brooksby – the commentators didn’t mention his autism – took his opportunity as a lucky loser to get through to his second final this year, and showed some grass-court nous that should serve him well.
Wimbledon predictions:
For what they're worth, for the women, it’s still Sabalenka first. The first caveat is that the last female fave to win Wimbledon was Ash Barty, so it could be someone completely unexpected (as I post this, Swiatek lost her first final on grass to Pegula, who was the higher seed!?) The second is that although she’s the out and out No. 1, who has been in the last three grand slam finals (and was injured for last year’s Wimbledon), Sabalenka lost the last two, and that puts her into an interesting place mentally. I could go name by name through the top seeds and the women who have done well here, but I’ll just note they’re not all the same people. Also, no-one saw the last two winners coming (arguably three)…
Kvitova is planning on retiring after the US Open, so of course they had to give her a wildcard.
On the men’s side, Alcaraz is the hottest favourite after winning his last three finals, one of which was THAT French Open final, followed by his second win at Queen’s. He’s followed by Djokovic and Sinner, in that order because of Djokovic’s history at Wimbledon and because Sinner lost to Bublik (and to Alcaraz in THAT French Open final). Draper leads the rest of the pack, which includes Bublik, and the men’s draw is interesting in that Draper and Bublik could meet in the third round, and to get to the final Draper, Sinner and Djokovic may have to play in some combination, which favours Alcaraz in the other half. (I can see Fritz getting to the second week, even if he has to face a massive serve in his first match, but I’d still cite his netplay as a weakness.)
On the wind front, I believe it was ‘blowy’ rather than ‘gusty’. These two had not played each other before. Joint served first, held, and broke Eala, who looked less settled. She won her next service game, though, which was good, because when Joint was serving at 5-3, that question about her closing that had arisen in the Raducanu match returned. Eala broke, but at 4-5 could not get ahead, and Joint won the first set.
But perhaps Joint had got far too ahead of herself or…it’s women’s tennis, because the wheels came off Joint’s game, with some unhelpful double faults that led to other errors, while Eala profited, winning 6-1. Joint went from frustrated to despondent, even though the scoreboard said it was a final set shoot out. Admittedly, it’s hard to believe that when you can’t trust your game.
Eala was up early, but Joint broke back, and was gifted one game, almost, Eala’s most error-strewn. The third set was so topsy turvy. Eala has the more aggressive game, and when it was on, her forehand was a force, Joint is a stronger defensive player and retriever. Eala had a scoreboard lead, meaning she was the first to get to five, but of course it wasn’t that simple, and you couldn’t tell what would happen in the next game.
Fitting, perhaps, that it went to a tiebreak, and by this point, both were playing well, with several strong rallies. Joint had a double fault, and Eala had two minibreaks, but was pegged back. It then got to the point where the match was winnable, and Eala had more championship points. There were a couple of crazy ones, but on her second championship point, Joint got a big serve, had to adjust before hitting a winner, which she did to win.
Joint fell to the ground, Eala burst into tears – and we were reminded it was a young final – while Joint probably couldn’t believe what had happened. Eala referenced her awareness that she was playing for her country, it wasn’t just her first final, but she was the first Filipina in one. And it was very, very close. The commentator claimed it was a good match – er, no, it was intense, but objectively only the tiebreak was good.
Both players will have learnt a lot about themselves from this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both are in other finals this year and for years to come. (Also, Joint was through to the finals in the doubles.)
Men’s final:
Defending champion Fritz vs. lucky loser Brooksby. It was close at the start, with Brooksby nearly breaking and serving better than in his previous match. But when he did break, Fritz broke back. Fritz started more slowly, he wasn’t winning as many easy points on his serve, but by the end of the set, he had the scoreboard advantage and got into controlled aggression mode and broke decisively to win the first set.
Brooksby wasn’t too despondent and the first few games went to serve. Brooksby was anticipating well and the better player at the net, and played some fantastic points to push Fritz to break point twice, forcing Fritz to a dive volley that gave him a graze on the way to winning it. That hold was the decisive switch, with Fritz breaking and looking strong on his serve, and making more forehand winners. He broke again to serve out, emphasising he’s a top 5 player, winning here for the fourth time, and it was his second grass court tournament this year. Brooksby – the commentators didn’t mention his autism – took his opportunity as a lucky loser to get through to his second final this year, and showed some grass-court nous that should serve him well.
Wimbledon predictions:
For what they're worth, for the women, it’s still Sabalenka first. The first caveat is that the last female fave to win Wimbledon was Ash Barty, so it could be someone completely unexpected (as I post this, Swiatek lost her first final on grass to Pegula, who was the higher seed!?) The second is that although she’s the out and out No. 1, who has been in the last three grand slam finals (and was injured for last year’s Wimbledon), Sabalenka lost the last two, and that puts her into an interesting place mentally. I could go name by name through the top seeds and the women who have done well here, but I’ll just note they’re not all the same people. Also, no-one saw the last two winners coming (arguably three)…
Kvitova is planning on retiring after the US Open, so of course they had to give her a wildcard.
On the men’s side, Alcaraz is the hottest favourite after winning his last three finals, one of which was THAT French Open final, followed by his second win at Queen’s. He’s followed by Djokovic and Sinner, in that order because of Djokovic’s history at Wimbledon and because Sinner lost to Bublik (and to Alcaraz in THAT French Open final). Draper leads the rest of the pack, which includes Bublik, and the men’s draw is interesting in that Draper and Bublik could meet in the third round, and to get to the final Draper, Sinner and Djokovic may have to play in some combination, which favours Alcaraz in the other half. (I can see Fritz getting to the second week, even if he has to face a massive serve in his first match, but I’d still cite his netplay as a weakness.)
