Just a few days ago, tennis statisticians were talking about the end, perhaps definitive, of an era. Only one champion was going to appear in the men’s draw at Wimbledon, the current one, Carlos Alcaraz, the strongest representative of the new generation that has come to take everything. Everyone else in the draw was there to try their first taste of winning in the biggest tournament in the world of tennis. But no, not so fast.
Novak Djokovic has recently had knee surgery. He underwent meniscus surgery after leaving it on the slopes of Roland Garros. It was estimated that she could reach, at most, the Olympic Games. He is not a young player either, it is assumed that physical processes should be somewhat slower at his age.
The photos, however, do not lie. Djokovic has been at All-England Tennis these days to rally against whoever wants to get ahead. He wears protection on his leg and arm, but he does not seem to be ruled out by any means. He played a couple of tie breaks with Federico Coria, trained with something resembling normality on Tuesday.
To some BBC reporters who asked him, he told them not to erase him yet, but also not to be sure of his presence at Wimbledon. The Serbian told them that he would only enter the team if he saw the possibility of doing well., pass rounds and, who knows, maybe pick up the pace and be able to cause some scares. His season is not going well, he has not yet won a tournament this year, but no one would dare to rule out the greatest winner in the history of tennis.
She has won Wimbledon seven times and is also in doubt about putting herself at risk for the Olympic Games. Because perhaps gold in tennis is not worth as much as in other sports, but when you already have all the tournaments on the calendar at home, most of them repeated several times, priorities change.
Murray’s Last Dance
The one who will not win is Andy Murray, but his case is even more particular than that of Djokovic. The Scottish player played the 1,000th match of his illustrious career in the first round of Queens, which includes two titles at Wimbledon as the greatest jewels in his repertoire. The next day his legs began to fail and he commented that he was without energy, that he did not have the strength to reach his legs..
Shortly after it was leaked that he had a spinal cyst, a rare inflammation that was going to keep him out of the tournament. The ailment It was estimated at six weeks of rest and he would only have a few days to reach what was intended to be the last of his great tournaments, a farewell worthy of the greatest idol of British tennis fans in practically a century.
The news, which appeared in the Telegraph, greatly angered Murray’s mother, Judi, a figure always present in his life and who was his coach in the early days. She did not rule out her son being able to play in the tournament, even if the dates do not fit right now. It is also true that Murray can show a curious history of physical resistance. The hip injuries that have hampered most of them in recent years would have prevented them from returning, but he has always fought to make his way again, even if it was without the effectiveness of the past.
This season will be his last and it would be a shame if Murray were not in the London sanctuary. Because He has been a very special player, both for his way of approaching sport and society and for his special talent.. In any other era in the history of tennis he would have been the man to follow, but he had to swim with sharks.
It remains in your case an option B, which is to play doubles together with his brother Jamie, with whom he has been competing in pairs tournaments for decades. It starts a little later and is less physically demanding, one more opportunity to hide the ailments and be able to say goodbye to that tournament in which they named it after a hill on which they waited for a British victory that ended up happening.
Under no circumstances will Rafa Nadal be there. He, a double champion at Wimbledon, has long had to save his body and look for the best opportunities for him. The London tournament is not, which would force him to adapt to a new surface and take away flying hours for the Olympic Games, which will be held at Roland Garros and that makes everything a little different. The physique that grass demands invites him to look for other tournamentsthat is why he will go to Bastad, a tournament that has hit the jackpot by having the best player in the history of clay in its draw.
The favorites will be the young ones, Alcaraz or Sinner, it is possible that the older ones will not even be in the draw, but their intention also demonstrates what Wimbledon is. It’s not that Djokovic or Murray have to prove anything, far from it, it’s just that they also want to savor, once again, everything it means to go to the cathedral of tennis.
