Alongside the strawberries and cream, the all-white attire, and the royal box which provides sanctuary to celebrities and encrustations of the British upper class, one of the facets which makes Wimbledon special is the bearing of the venue as a private members’ club. The day-to-day running of the championships falls on the shoulders of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, with membership the preserve of several hundred lucky locals plus former tournament winners, who are invited to sign up.
Membership comes with special privileges: two tickets for each day of the championships, and the chance to rub shoulders with Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, or former champions like Martina Navratilova, Pete Sampras, and Steffi Graf, or perhaps a Tim Henman or an Andy Roddick, who was made an honorary member back in 2014. Don’t count on bumping into John McEnroe however: the Wimbledon champion turned regular commentator might still hold a grudge, after he was denied membership despite winning the tournament in 1981 on the grounds of bad behaviour.
From May through September, members of the All England Club are given free reign on the outside grass courts, no doubt serving to wear in the playing surfaces. Perhaps the offer should have been extended to cover the main show courts, which had scarcely been touched for two years owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
As Wimbledon made a welcome return in 2021, everyone was falling head over heels sometimes from more than excitement. On the second day of competition, the French veteran Adrian Mannarino was forced to retire as he threatened to score a major upset and the biggest win of his career, after slipping behind the baseline and injuring his right knee in the fourth set versus Roger Federer. Then in the very next match on Centre Court, already with heavy strapping around her right thigh, Serena Williams fell twice and retired midway through the first set, postponing once more her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam title.
Rain was at least partly to blame, as the first day of Wimbledon had ended with a washout. The wet weather caused play to be delayed on the outside courts, while roofs were drawn over Centre Court and No. 1 Court. In inimitable fashion, the world number one Novak Djokovic began his campaign slipping and sliding about Centre Court, suffering an early scare versus the British prospect Jack Draper before prevailing comfortably in four sets.
While organisers defended the surface, citing the bad weather and the natural progression of any tournament on grass, Djokovic admitted that could not remember ‘falling this many times on court’. Following her first round defeat to Alizé Cornet, the fifth seed Bianca Andreescu complained ‘The courts are super slippery. I didn’t slip just once, I slipped like six times during the match’, while second seed Aryna Sabalenka suggested that players ‘stay lower’ to avoid losing their footing.
Andy Murray added to the chorus, even as the dauntless Scot made a winning return to Centre Court. Four years and two hip surgeries since his last appearance at Wimbledon, the former champion spurned two match points at 5-0 in the third set, losing seven games in a row before an enforced break as Centre Court turned on the floodlights. Murray then managed to regain his composure, finally brushing past Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Wimbledon was already without Rafa Nadal and Naomi Osaka, both suffering the exertions of a tough clay court season. Petra Kvitová joined Williams and Andreescu on the sidelines come the end of the first round, as the two-time champion succumbed to the variable talents of Sloane Stephens. But the shock of the first round came in the men’s draw, as the French Open finalist and third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas fell hard in three sets up against the big serve and powerful forehand of Frances Tiafoe.
If fate was doling out some cruel hands, the first round of Wimbledon also showed the value of perseverance and wilfulness. Overcoming obstacles most of us would find difficult to mount, Carla Suárez Navarro pushed world number one Ash Barty to three sets after being diagnosed late last year with Hodgkin lymphoma, and Francesca Jones put in a strong showing versus Coco Gauff, despite the rare genetic condition Ectrodactyly Ectodermal Dysplasia which left her at birth with seven toes and eight fingers.
In the second round, the third seed Elina Svitolina and the fourth seed Sofia Kenin were dispatched in straight sets. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist and twice Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka also lost out to an in-form Sorana Cîrstea, but Sabalenka came from behind to edge past the local favourite Katie Boulter, while previous Grand Slam champions Angelique Kerber and Jeļena Ostapenko prevailed at the end of three close-fought sets.
Meanwhile Roger Federer eased out of first gear up against a choice opponent in Richard Gasquet. The eight-time Wimbledon champion was playing in his fifth tournament following knee surgery, which resulted in more than a year away from the tour. After struggling in the first round against Mannarino, the Swiss made light work of the Frenchman, who possesses a splendid backhand but plays more like an amiable hitting partner than a genuine threat. As Federer revved the engines, Andy Murray sought to rekindle the flames in the second round, even as his very presence on court seemed like something of a throwback.
Players were still slipping out on the show courts. Novak Djokovic met the turf on numerous occasions during his second-round victory over Kevin Anderson, then Murray stretched his groin after falling at the beginning of the fourth set against Oscar Otte. Another enforced break had already come to the rescue, with the British wild card and the German qualifier reemerging once the Centre Court had closed up for the night.
There were more than glimpses of the old Murray, for instance when holding serve at 4-2 in the deciding set, where he showed a combination of speed, drive, and flawless anticipation to run down an angled volley which Otte had managed to pick up off the turf at full stretch. Then again on match point, where he broke serve with one of those dinking lobs which have always been one of his defining characteristics.
From the gangling youth who gobbled down pizza before his first ever matches at Wimbledon to the Grand Slam and Olympic champion with one of the game’s all-time great returns and impeccable core strength, few athletes have managed to pull more from their body than Andy Murray. Now after a couple of hip operations, including hip resurfacing surgery which involves smoothing down the hip ball before covering it with a metal cap, his movement might generously be described as a work in progress, but the touch and determination remain intact. So too does his ability to rouse a crowd, a learned trait which Murray long since mastered.
Almost everyone has been taught to take sides during this unprecedented era of men’s tennis, but whether you have preferred the sprightly panache of Roger Federer, the rugged shotmaking of Rafa Nadal, or the titanium nerves of Novak Djokovic, the sight of Andy Murray back in full stride out on Centre Court was enough to leave a lump in the throat.
British hopes almost came to a crashing halt in the third round, as Dan Evans lost out to the American youngster Sebastian Korda, before tenth seed Denis Shapovalov routed Murray in three sets. The following day, Roger Federer came through in four sets against Cam Norrie, and with Johanna Konta forced to withdraw on the eve of the tournament owing to a close contact with coronavirus, the slew of early departures in the women’s draw left local prospects hanging by a thread.
Up stepped Emma Raducanu, who at 18 years old was entering into the main draw of only her second WTA tournament. On her Grand Slam debut, the Londoner had managed to navigate the first couple of rounds up against Vitalia Diatchenko and Markéta Vondroušová, but it was her third round victory over Sorana Cîrstea on No. 1 Court which grabbed the headlines and captured the public imagination. The young prospect pounced into her cross-court winners and racked up eight games in a row, becoming the youngest British woman to reach the last sixteen in the Open Era.
The women were the stars of the show in the third round, headed by Ons Jabeur who prevailed in three sets up against the former champion Garbiñe Muguruza. Angelique Kerber also mounted a successful comeback after dropping the first set to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while the French Open champion Barbora Krejčíková persevered even as the tricky Anastasija Sevastova posed a stern test.
Meanwhile Madison Keys kept the flag flying for America, with victory over Elise Mertens on No. 1 Court hours after Sloane Stephens had succumbed to Liudmila Samsonova in three sets. Samsonova and Raducanu made for two wild cards in the fourth round, a first for any major in the Open Era. But the real fireworks were flying on the outside courts, where Jeļena Ostapenko and Ajla Tomljanović hurled everything but their rackets, trading insults even though an impromptu medical timeout for Ostapenko could not stop Tomljanović from pulling clear in the third set.
Not to be outdone, Daniil Medvedev and Marin Čilić went all the way in the men’s draw, before the second seed defeated the former Wimbledon finalist 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 at the end of five sets. This was Medvedev’s first comeback from two sets down in a Grand Slam, with his reward a maiden berth in the fourth round. No such luck for Nick Kyrgios, whose complaints of slow courts and aching muscles over the first couple of rounds culminated in early retirement versus Félix Auger-Aliassime. The absorbing Aussie had suffered an abdominal strain, which also put paid to his mixed doubles partnership with Venus Williams.
The air of gentility which wafts like a gentle breeze over Wimbledon has always been carefully cultivated, blown in through the cupped hands of the All England Club. Beyond the strawberries, clotted cream, and tennis whites, the tournament has for many years harkened to tradition by holding off play on the middle Sunday, preserved instead as a quasi-pastoral day of rest. Players have been been able to practise and wander the grounds unfettered, while fans gape through the fencing or begin to busily erect tents.
From next year, Wimbledon will move with the times and finally relinquish the middle Sunday, in a boon for broadcasters and weekend crowds. As a result, the tournament in 2021 bid a fond farewell to Manic Monday, which has traditionally played host to the entirety of the fourth round.
Entering the second week of Wimbledon, the steadily improving Hubert Hurkacz was the only player yet to drop a single game on serve. In the women’s draw, Angelique Kerber was the only remaining former Wimbledon champion, with none of the other competitors boasting experience beyond the quarter-final stage.
The steady favourite however was the world number one Ash Barty, who had reached the fourth round of Wimbledon back in 2019 mere weeks after winning her maiden Grand Slam at the French Open. At the commencement of play on Manic Monday, the Australian faced the reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejčíková, seeded for the first time in a major on the back of her fifteen-match winning streak. Trading from the back of the court, Barty seized control with her slice at the end of the first set to progress 7-5, 6-3.
Top seeds and star names fell thick and fast amid the frenzied action of Manic Monday. Ons Jabeur battled out a three-set victory over last year’s French Open champion Iga Świątek, while in a breakthrough performance, the Swiss veteran Viktorija Golubic handily dispatched Madison Keys.
The last time there was play at Wimbledon, a 15-year-old Coco Gauff emerged as the talk of the town, with victories over Venus Williams, Magdaléna Rybáriková, and Polona Hercog before she was defeated by the eventual champion Simona Halep in the last sixteen. Gauff entered Wimbledon on a high after a strong showing at Roland Garros, where she became the youngest Grand Slam quarter-finalist since Nicole Vaidišová in 2006. Growing in strength while managing to iron out some of the kinks in her serve, she posed a real threat on the grass but lost out in the fourth round to a resurgent Kerber, finally showing a return to form after a couple of patchy years on tour.
Karolína Plíšková was also playing some of her best tennis, after a torrid start to the season as she adapted to life under a new coach. Having dropped out of the top ten for the first time in almost five years, in the fourth round she ended the hot streak of the wild card Liudmila Samsonova, while Aryna Sabalenka overcame Elena Rybakina in three sets. The journey ended for yet another youngster, as Emma Radacanu retired in the second set of her match with Ajla Tomljanović after suffering from breathing difficulties.
Manic Monday proved plain sailing for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, but the waters were much choppier for some of the pretenders to their throne. After fighting to take a two set lead, Félix Auger-Aliassime faced a rain delay and a comeback from Alexander Zverev, before the 20-year-old Canadian finally prevailed over the fourth seed in five sets. Márton Fucsovics also went all the way against the fifth seed Andrey Rublev. But the longest and most tumultuous match of the round belonged to Karen Khachanov and Sebastian Korda, who shared eight consecutive breaks of serve in the final set before Khachanov won 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.
At least they were able to finish their match. Rain washed away Hubert Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev with the rangy Russian second seed up by two sets to one midway through the fourth set. The following morning, they switched to Centre Court to conclude proceedings, and the match ran away from Medvedev who was left almost speechless after succumbing in five sets.
Wimbledon had been operating at half capacity, but on the second Tuesday of the tournament the lid came off. Ahead of the lifting of restrictions across the country, special dispensation was given for major sporting events like Wimbledon and Euro 2020, allowing matches from the quarter-final stage to be played in front of capacity crowds of 14,979 on Centre Court and 12,345 on No. 1 Court.
Previously full of intrigue, everything went according to script in the quarter-finals of the women’s draw. Ash Barty swept her friend and compatriot Ajla Tomljanović, Angelique Kerber ousted Karolína Muchová, and Karolína Plíšková sailed past Viktorija Golubic, while even the prospect of the round proved a straightforward affair, as Aryna Sabalenka ended the charge of Ons Jabeur in two sets. The Tunisian had threatened to carry her form over from Birmingham, where she became the first Arab title holder in the history of the WTA tour, but instead the power hitting of the Belarusian was finally carrying her deep into the second week of a Grand Slam.
While Barty and Tomljanović provided the show courts with some all-Aussie action, friendships prevailed too in the men’s draw as Matteo Berrettini defeated Félix Auger-Aliassime in four sets. There was more joy for the other Canadian in the quarter-finals, as Karen Khachanov sought to repeat his iron man routine but this time came unstuck in five versus the freewheeling Denis Shapovalov.
With the world number one and firm favourite Novak Djokovic progressing seamlessly against Fucsovics, the surprise of the quarter-final stage fell around the shoulders of Roger Federer. Up against Hurkacz, who had been flawless on serve before pulling away in the fourth round from Medvedev, the Swiss struggled to find any semblance of rhythm. After working his way into the tournament, and raising hopes with his comfortable fourth round victory over Lorenzo Sonego, Federer struggled to ward off breaks against Hurkacz, who took the first set 6-3.
Normal business resumed in the second set as Federer raced into a 4-1 lead, but the odd wobble turned into a full-blown collapse as Hurkacz broke back to take the set into a tie-break. Standing 6 feet and 5 inches, the towering Pole provisionally seems like a power hitter, but his prowess on serve masks a style from the back of the court whose patience and precision has drawn comparisons with Andy Murray.
As Federer increasingly stormed the net in an effort to force the action, Hurkacz always had an answer, whether it was a firmly struck backhand down the line, a cross-court passing shot, or something more deft pushed out wide or dropped at the feet in such a way as to make life difficult for his opponent.
In windy conditions, palpably irked by the anxious cries of the capacity crowd, Federer lost his bearings in the tie-break, crucially slipping beneath an easy put-away smash to allow Hurkacz to assume an unassailable position. His energy spent, Federer folded in the third set, as Hurkacz won through 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 while producing only twelve unforced errors.
That meant a new finalist from the bottom half of the men’s draw, and just like Murray earlier in the tournament, Hurkacz followed up his heroics with something more like a damp squib. In truth the Pole was fortunate to snatch the third set against Matteo Berrettini, as the seventh seed and Queens Club champion progressed 6-3, 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4. On the other hand the match between Djokovic and Shapovalov had the feel of a five-set epic, though the indomitable Serb held sway over the big points. Despite an impressive display of rugged shotmaking, Shapovalov fell in three with the final score reading 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 7-5.
Two tantalising clashes in the semi-finals of the women’s draw pitted top seed Ash Barty against the former Wimbledom champion Kerber, while at different stages of their careers, Karolína Plíšková and Aryna Sabalenka were both hoping to get over their Grand Slam hump.
Since winning Wimbledon in 2018, Kerber had failed to stretch beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam, while at the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year she suffered troubling first round exits. Reunited with her old coach Torben Beltz, the long road back for the 33-year-old saw her once more in the semi-finals of a major, where she refused to wilt even as the world number one showed an enviable slice and peerless focus.
Resetting the points through her slice, attacking with her forehand and steady on serve, Barty took the first set 6-3. Kerber stepped up at the start of the second set, reeling off the first three games before Barty began to claw her way back, eventually stringing together enough points to earn a tie-break. Kerber had been the aggressor early in the set, and at 5-2 had stood a couple of points away from the decider, but she faded slightly in the tie-break as the gruelling rallies and her tenuous position in the match finally took their toll, with Barty winning 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) to progress to her first Wimbledon final.
Aryna Sabalenka snagged the upper hand at the end of the first set of the other semi-final. After saving eight break points on her own serve, her solitary chance to break arrived gift-wrapped as Plíšková double faulted to drop her first set of the tournament. Thereafter however it was the Czech who seized control of the match, more through a display of cunning and craft than her usual awesome hitting power.
Plíšková began to hit more winners in the second set, but she also continued to mix up the pace and tempo of her groundstrokes, sometimes pushing or hitting slowly through the ball in a successful attempt to drag her opponent out of rhythm. And she was imperious on serve, especially at 3-2 in the second set when she scored three consecutive aces.
Each piercing cry and every increase in volume from the other side of the court showed Plíšková steadily turning the screw on her opponent. Sabalenka is a fearsome competitor, and she fought especially hard in her first semi-final at a Grand Slam, but by a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 it was Plíšková who emerged the victor.
The precarious nature of women’s tennis meant that thirteen different women had won the past seventeen Grand Slams heading into Wimbledon. Still if the tour seems in a state of constant flux, this was the first time since 1977 that both competitors were making their debut in a Wimbledon final. Barty was hoping to add to her French Open from 2019, while Plíšková was eager to improve upon the status of runner-up achieved in 2016 at the US Open.
The final threatened to be a one-sided affair, as the form and composure which Plíšková had shown in the semi deserted her during a nervous first set. Barty forged ahead, winning the first fourteen points thanks to seven winners and more than a few unforced errors, before wrapping up the first set and securing an early break in the second. But Plíšková kept calm and began to fight back, picking up some pace and consistency on serve before a loose game by Barty at 6-5 took the second set to a tie-break. Plíšková was now in full flow, striking winners and moving freely as she took the tie-break by the scruff of the neck.
The third set remained close, as the Czech frequented the net and continued to hit winners. But her vulnerable second serve was seized on in the early stages of the decider, and Barty held her nerve to claim a memorable victory. The final score read 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 in favour of the beaming Australian, who celebrated by climbing up into the stands.
In the middle of an eight-month grind as the twin pressures of tennis tournaments and the coronavirus pandemic keep her away from home, Barty thanked her team and family and grew tearful as she paid tribute to her friend and mentor Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who fifty years ago became the first indigenous Australian to win at Wimbledon. Barty said:
‘It took me a long time to verbalise the fact that I wanted to dare to dream and say I wanted to win this incredible tournament. And being able to live out my dream right now with everyone here, this has made it better than I could have imagined. My team is incredible, they are with me every single step of the way. I can’t thank them enough for sacrificing their time and energy into my career and into my dreams.’
Her achievement was all the more impressive given the year’s sabbatical she took from the sport in 2015, when she turned her hand to professional cricket for her hometown of Brisbane, and the hip injury which forced her withdrawal from the French Open less than four weeks before she strode out onto the Centre Court grass. At 25 years old, Barty is just hitting her peak.
On the final day of the tournament, Matteo Berrettini was making history as the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon final in the Open Era, and the first Italian to reach any Grand Slam final since Adriano Panatta won the French Open 45 years ago. For Novak Djokovic, everything which enters into the record books is writ large, and there was no more momentous occasion than this as the great Serb sought to tie Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal on twenty Grand Slams.
Sometimes a slow starter of late, there seemed no danger of that as Djokovic brushed aside a couple of nervy service games to move into a 5-2 lead in the first set. But when Djokovic spurned a set point, Berrettini began to battle back from the baseline, lashing down the forehand winners before snatching the first set with an ace at the end of an unlikely tie-break.
In the second set, Djokovic bounced back and began smothering his opponent on the return, improving his own first serve percentage while managing to wrangle seven break points out of the hard-hitting Italian. Showing all of his usual grit and agility out on court, Djokovic needed two of those break points to secure the second set. By the third, Berrettini had decided to up the aggression, and he was rewarded with more winners and aces, but a solitary break point was all that Djokovic needed to once more edge ahead. By set four it was all over bar the shouting, as Djokovic triumphed 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 before slumping back onto the turf.
Despite the preponderance of chants for ‘Matteo’ hours before Italy played at Wembley, the crowd on Centre Court embraced Djokovic even as he engaged in his own peculiar tradition by nibbling on the worn grass. Now level with Federer and Nadal on twenty Grand Slam titles, after the match Djokovic indicated that the best is yet to come:
‘I consider myself best and I believe that I am the best, otherwise I wouldn’t be talking confidently about winning slams and making history. But whether I’m the greatest of all time or not, I leave that debate to other people. I feel like I’m probably the most complete that I’ve been as a player right now in my entire career.’
The argument is impossible to refute given his unrivaled mental strength allied to a beefier serve and all-court sensibility, with Djokovic winning many of his points against Berrettini in at the net. At the US Open in September, Djokovic will aim to become the first man to win a calendar Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969. In the meantime there is the small matter of a Golden Slam and the Tokyo Olympics, with Djokovic and Barty briefly free to bask in the sun as legends like Federer, Williams, and Murray head back to the drawing board.
