Wimbledon gets ready for a Centre Court party as change comes to SW19
Wimbledon returns in all its verdant pomp on Monday, the sun set to shine on SW19 after two years blighted by Covid. The full resumption of the Championships will be welcomed by millions who plot their summer around a sporting fortnight played out against a backdrop of manicured lawns and cultivated blooms. But beneath the genteel surface there is change afoot.
Tension between tradition and progress at a global event run by a local tennis club is constant, but this year it has been noticeably heightened. A decision by the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC) to ban Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine kicked off a political spat which saw the Championships stripped of the ranking points vital to players’ careers outside marquee grand slams.
It also deprived the tournament of as many as 20 competitors, including the current men’s No 1-ranked player, Daniil Medvedev, and three of the women’s top 20.
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The AELTC found itself taking a political decision that has not been followed by other competitions and that has seen the Championships reduced to the status of an “exhibition”, in the words of Britain’s Cameron Norrie.
It also deprived the tournament of as many as 20 competitors, including the current men’s No 1-ranked player, Daniil Medvedev, and three of the women’s top 20.
The AELTC found itself taking a political decision that has not been followed by other competitions and that has seen the Championships reduced to the status of an “exhibition”, in the words of Britain’s Cameron Norrie.
But despite the rankings sanction, players have chosen not to skip the tournament. Those who are missing, including Roger Federer, Naomi Osaka and Alexander Zverev, are out because of injury.
Norrie, currently the world’s No 12 and No 9 seed in the men’s draw, is a rising star for home fans to cheer on.
He should be joined by the US Open champion, Emma Raducanu, who looks to have recovered from a side strain injury and is seeded 10th in the women’s draw. Andy Murray has battled his way through the early days of the grass-court season, too, to claim a place.
The Brits join a cast of stars that offer the prospect of thrilling and uncertain competition in the coming days. Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff head up a new generation of talent in the women’s game, but there is also the return of Serena Williams to watch and the rise of Ons Jabeur, the 27-year-old Tunisian who this year won the Madrid Open to become the highest-ranked African player in tennis history.
On the men’s side, both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be there, slugging it out as ever, but new stars Caspar Ruud, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz can see their route to the quarter-finals after the draw was made on Friday.
Change on the court will be better showcased by a change in scheduling, with the Championships set to continue through the fortnight’s “Middle Sunday”.
This sacrosanct break, only previously eschewed when bad weather dictated, has been given up so as to give breathing room to matches in the last 16. That will mean the end of another tradition, the packed schedule of “Manic Monday”.