Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On Day 1 of Wimbledon 2024, Casper Ruud returned from 10 days of pain, Aryna Sabalenka changed the complexion of the women’s draw, and Frances Tiafoe made new strides after a long period of difficulty.
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Casper Ruud’s long journey back from French Open pain
Casper Ruud has never been big on the Wimbledon grass, a topspin player who struggles to hit the flat balls that stay low and are most effective on the green stuff.
He spent recent Junes following the French Open playing golf and attending concerts (The Weeknd is a fave) rather than playing tournaments in Halle, Germany and at Queen’s in London.
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When he didn’t play a grass tournament ahead of this year’s Wimbledon, few were surprised. But Ruud said the reason this time wasn’t extracurricular activities. It was a parasite, that started to make him feel ill at the worst time – during the semifinals of the French Open against Alexander Zverev. Ruud won the first set, then used most of his strength to not lose his lunch on the court.
He spent most of the next week in bed, then finally went to doctors in Norway to see if anything serious had caused him to feel so lethargic and lose his appetite. They discovered a rare parasite that he said poses little long-term damage but takes three or four weeks to pass through your system. Eating foods with a lot of fiber helps moves things along.
As for his tennis, he barely played before coming to London early last week. He began practicing on the grass Tuesday. On Monday, with few expectations, he played as though grass was his favorite surface, beating qualifier Alex Bolt, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“I’m just happy to go through,” he said. “Every match win on grass for me, it’s important, and I’m happy about it.”
And happy, too, not to have a microscopic bug in his system anymore.
Who will take advantage of a very open bottom half in the women’s draw?
Tennis players will often claim they don’t look at their draws at a tournament — world No 1 Iga Swiatek was saying as much on the weekend — and there’s good reason for this policy. Ignorance can be bliss, both if you’ve been dealt a particularly bad hand and don’t want to be daunted or if things have fallen kindly for you and you don’t want to put undue pressure on yourself.
For world No 2 Coco Gauff, the draw at this year’s Wimbledon has been more than kind: It’s been positively loving. The most dangerous players are overwhelmingly in Swiatek’s top half of the draw (good thing she has no idea) and Gauff’s route to the final became even more open on Monday.
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First world No 3 and one of the tournament favourites Aryna Sabalenka had to pull out with a shoulder injury, before her compatriot and 16th seed Victoria Azarenka withdrew with the same injury. Shortly after, the No 8 seed Qinwen Zheng bowed out to New Zealand’s Lulu Sun in three sets. Mirra Andreeva, fresh from reaching the French Open semifinals earlier this month was next to go — defeated in three sets by fellow 17-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova.
As things stand, the two highest seeds in the bottom half of the draw after Gauff are No 7 Jasmine Paolini (no grass-court wins in her career until last week), and No 9 Maria Sakkari (having a rough year and with a third-round best run at Wimbledon).
Gauff has never been past the fourth round here herself, but having improved so much since exiting in the first round last year, she should surely be feeling pretty confident about her chances. Gauff certainly looked confident and comfortable as she motored past her compatriot Caroline Dolehide 6-1, 6-2 on Monday.
There are no Wimbledon champions in this half of the draw, but there is still a four-time slam winner. Just. Naomi Osaka was made to work extremely hard by Diane Parry but eventually came through 6-4 in the third.
Can Frances Tiafoe make this the first day of the rest of his tennis life?
On the first Monday at Wimbledon, Frances Tiafoe did one thing he had not done in a while, and one thing he had never done before in his life.
Tiafoe, who has been in the tennis wilderness since losing in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open last year, won a match against a high-quality player, beating Mateo Arnaldi of Italy. He did so with some style — a little more than he would have preferred.
Tiafoe came back from two sets down for the first time in his career, winning 6-7(5), 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
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“This is big,” Tiafoe said when it was done. He had every reason to go away after the second set. He’s been battling a sprained ligament in his knee, he’s homesick, and ready for this European segment of the season to be over.
All that went through his head, but he loves Wimbledon (unlike Roland Garros) and decided to just try and have some fun and do the thing he’s been doing well since he was a little kid, which is play tennis. He did that, very well, pushing Arnaldi around the court and coming in every chance he could.
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Time will tell just how “big” this match will ultimately be. He’s been looking for a turning point to a highly mediocre season. If the momentum builds and he can win his second-round match against Borna Coric, he’ll have a treat waiting for him — Carlos Alcaraz, likely on Centre Court.
Just how lucky are the lucky losers?
Last week, Erika Andreeva was in Roehampton, getting beaten by Britain’s Sonay Kartal, who is now world No 298, and knocked out No 29 seed Sorana Cirstea in the first round at SW19. Ordinarily, Andreeva would have been watching on, likely at least a little envious at the opportunity to have tested herself against a top-30 seed.
Then, on Monday morning, the ping came through: Aryna Sabalenka, world No 3, had withdrawn from Wimbledon at the eleventh hour with a frustrating shoulder injury, only painful when she was serving. Andreeva, the so-called lucky loser, was back in the game.
The Russian 20-year-old, elder sister to rising star Mirra, faced American Emina Bektas in Sabalenka’s stead, and took full advantage of her opportunity, winning 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 to go along with the £60,000 attached to making the first round of Wimbledon. Mirra sadly exited the tournament at the hands of the highly rated Fruhvirtova, who herself has a talented sister, Linda, but Erika will now take on Donna Vekic of Croatia in the second round.
From lucky loser to a thoroughly deserving winner 👏
After replacing Aryna Sabalenka, Erika Andreeva made the most of her chance, advancing to the Second Round!#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/rAwS9EduB7
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 1, 2024
She was the only lucky loser in the women’s draw to triumph, with Renata Zarazua losing out to Emma Raducanu, Elsa Jacquemot falling to Sloane Stephens, and Olga Danilovic losing to Anca Todoni.
Shot of the day
On a match point, to boot.
Wimbledon men’s draw 2024
Wimbledon women’s draw 2024
Tell us what you noticed on the first day as things continue…
(Top photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)