The Championships, Wimbledon: First 3 days

We’ve had 3 days of The Championships, Wimbledon. Mainly hot and sunny, very windy, and a spot of rain to close out Wednesday, the day there were more women players on show courts than men. Is this gender parity scheduling something that will occur ever year from now on or just a special for the 100 years anniversary of Women in the UK getting the vote? 

There have been ideas circulating that the women and men’s final could alternate bi-annually as could the defending champions opening centre court on the first Monday and Tuesday. A good idea? I’ve given it some thought and there may be more merit to it than at first blush. As it stands, the men’s champion from the previous year is the first match on centre court on the first day of the tournament and the men’s final closes out the singles championships. This sends out the message that men are more important because they start and finish a Grand Slam, which are prestigious tournaments attracting huge sums of money, while the women play second fiddle by playing on the second day on centre court, and being conveniently dispatched before the important final/match takes place on the last day. The chief executive of AELTC has dismissed the idea without taking time to give it due consideration.

Personally, I would go further and have the women’s and men’s defending champions opening The Championships by both playing on centre court on day one and, similarly, both finals being played on the last day, alternating bi-annually which match comes first. This is gender parity and avoids status comparisons between which past champions played on the old or new rota system. All doubles finals could be played on the Saturday. This may seem a drastic change but it’s not as drastic as Brexit and certainly more pleasant!

In the eventful first 3 days of this Grand Slam, many seeded players have already departed from The Championships, including Kvitova, two times Wimbledon champion and one of the favourites for this year’s title who won Birmingham in 2017, 2018 (a rare feat); Sloane Stevens, current US Open Champion; Wozniacki, current AO Champion who came to Wimbledon on the back of winning Eastbourne; Sharapova, another past Wimbledon champion who surely was a real contender for the title; and Svitolina who won Rome this year. Only 3 out of the top 8 are left standing to go into the 3^rd round: Halep, Muguruza, and Pliskova. However, there are also other lower seeded players who could win, such as Venus, Serena, Keys, Kerber, and Ostapenko who has already won Roland Garros (2017) and is a very talented player who has great pace/racquet acceleration on her shots. I think she is criticized unfairly for spraying the ball because this is often par for the course if you are a hard hitter and relatively new to the tour. Venus had the same problem when she first started on the tour. Ostapenko had tough windy conditions and tends to play close to the lines which, although when on form she executes with laser-guided accuracy, can be error prone in swirling wind. Take a leaf out of Martina Hingis’s book, play well within the lines on windy days! Players have mentioned that there are differences between their practice courts and match courts, notably how the wind blows and the state of the grass. I think this may account for many slower starts in matches while they try to adjust to the different playing conditions. Ostapenko became more accurate as the match progressed.

I watched matches all 3 days and enjoyed all of them. I was really impressed with Venus’s match today (Wed) especially in the 2^nd and 3^rd sets. Not only did she power down her serves but she had soft hands producing exquisite shots and ball placement. Serena was playing well, expressively, and using her weapons to good effect. I was impressed by Ostapenko and the way she fought her way to win against Dunne. I also enjoyed watching Safarova. She has a powerful, accurate game that is a joy to watch!

Of the lower ranked players, I was impressed by Taylor Townsend (ranked 71) who played Parmentier on Tuesday. She is strong, accurate, knows when to come into the net and serves well. A talented player who already has a mature game.

Zvonareva, who I used to watch and saw play at Eastbourne years back, has returned to the tour as a mother joining, Serena, Azarenka, Tatjana Maria, and a few others. It’s great to see these female players return to their tennis careers. Kim Clijsters won Grand Slams as a mother (as did Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Margaret Court) so no reason why mothers shouldn’t do well on returning. Hopefully, a rule will be introduced enabling women who have been on maternity leave to keep the ranking they had pre-leave and that this retained ranking and seeding is applied at all tournaments, not just Grand Slams. This will make their return easier. As we can see Azarenka is having a tough time getting back to being in the top 10 where she belongs because she wasn’t able to keep her pre-leave due to pregnancy ranking. Her situation was further complicated by a child custody battle which prevented her from playing on the tour. Would a case such as Azarenka’s custody battle still qualify for retaining ranking under the absence from the tour resulting from ‘factors due to pregnancy’, as cited by the USTA? Crèche facilities, which are non-existent on the WTA at the moment, are a must on the WTA tour, not just at Grand Slams, to ensure that mothers can focus on their tennis. Men have this facility on the ATP tour even though they don’t fall pregnant or ever have sole responsibility for the children so they don’t have to juggle tennis and fatherhood. Female tennis players are under pressure to be with their child while still putting in the hard work and hours of practice/gym training so they can compete internationally on the tour. This juggling act makes life very draining so they need a supportive infrastructure that enables them to continue their careers, literally, where they left off.