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      Novak Djokovic Aims to Win at Wimbledon, and His Side Hustle

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      The Professional Tennis Players Association, off to a slow start it was first announced in 2020, has at times been a distraction for the world’s best men’s player.WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic has the opportunity to make history many times over at the All-England Club in the coming two weeks.Djokovic, a five-time Wimbledon champion, is vying for a third straight title. He won the tournament in both 2018 and 2019 before last year’s edition was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.“I’m trying to peak at the majors; I’ve been managing to do that throughout my career,” Djokovic said in his pretournament news conference on Saturday. “I’ve had the fortune to really play my best tennis when it mattered the most.”This tournament might matter more for Djokovic than any before. It could be his 20th career Grand Slam singles title, which would tie Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the career lead. Having already won the first two major tournaments of the season, Djokovic could also become the first man to head to New York with the chance to win the U.S. Open and a Grand Slam since Rod Laver did so in 1969. This being an Olympic year, Djokovic would also have a chance to win a “Golden Slam,” only achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988, if he wins gold in Tokyo.“Once I’m on the court, I try to lock in and I try to exclude all the distractions,” Djokovic said. “I feel like over the years I managed to develop the mechanism that allows me to do that.”The top-seeded Djokovic, who will play his first-round match on Monday afternoon on Centre Court against Jack Draper, a Briton who earned a wild card, has perhaps more gears turning than anyone else in the draw, having built his own off-court machinery: the Professional Tennis Players Association.On Friday evening, Djokovic held his own virtual news conference, along with the Canadian player Vasek Pospisil, the PTPA co-founder, and Adam Larry, the organization’s newly appointed executive director, to announce a more formal launch of a group that had a more nebulous, nascent beginning at last year’s U.S. Open.Djokovic, a former president of the ATP player council, became convinced that trying to represent player interests from within the ATP Tour’s governing framework was futile, and has devoted significant time and energy to founding his breakaway, “outside the box” player representation organization, for which there is not an obvious seat at the table in the current tennis power structure.“We have tried the so-to-say conventional way and we are now trying the unconventional way to make a significant long-term difference for the players,” Djokovic said Friday.“Obviously nothing is guaranteed,” he said. “We are a new, young, learning organization. We would love to have as many players and people who are a part of this sport support us. We need your help. We need everyone to recognize the core value, the very reason PTPA was founded and why it exists.”The ATP Tour, which in 1990 was founded as a joint partnership between players and tournaments, has staunchly opposed the idea of an independent organization for players since the PTPA first announced its intentions last August.“ATP management, together with the Board and the ATP Player Council, whose representatives are democratically elected by all players, work week-in and week-out to advance the interests of players,” the ATP said in a statement issued after the PTPA announced its advisory board last week.“The players’ interests, and those of the Tour as a whole, must and will continue to be protected under ATP governance,” the statement continued. “By contrast, the creation of a separate player entity provides a clear overlap, divides the players, and further fragments the sport.”Djokovic, at a news conference ahead of Wimbledon, said he believed that work on the PTPA could be challenging.Aeltc/Florian Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLarry, who previously worked for the N.H.L. players’ union with a focus on licensing agreements, said that the PTPA had a list of members, but would not provide a specific number.“We have hundreds of players right now representing all the tours, including over 70 percent of the players on the ATP Tour,” Larry said.Pospisil, who said the PTPA “currently has a supermajority of the targeted players we’re going for,” said that he wanted to keep members’ identities confidential, because certain players “fear retribution, which is something that we have to take very seriously.”The tone of the PTPA news conference was largely conciliatory in its language toward the ATP, with the group’s leadership using forms of the word “collaborate” 16 times, but without providing many details of what their strategy or concrete objectives will be.“We’re reaching out here with an olive branch to say let’s work together, let’s be collaborative so that we can provide a greater livelihood for many more players,” Larry said.On Friday, Pospisil admitted that he had taken nearly three months off the tour because he was “burned out a little bit” from carrying out his PTPA activity with his playing career.“I’d be sugarcoating it if I said it hasn’t impacted my focus on tennis and on performance,” Pospisil, who is ranked 65th, said. “I’ve been doing everything possible to find the balance, but it has taken a toll, for sure.”Djokovic, who is wading deeper into bureaucracy as his career reaches new heights, admitted that his off-court fights had taken a toll on the court. “Many times in the last couple of years it has backfired on me,” he said, “in terms of the energy levels, for my tennis and my performances and my recovery.”Djokovic, who has earned nearly $150 million in prize money in his career, emphasized that his lobbying for greater earnings and power for players was not motivated by personal financial gain.“With this blessing comes a huge responsibility to help the young guys help the next generations, help the lower-ranked players,” he said.On court at Wimbledon, Djokovic will look to hold off those younger generations, keeping the iron-fisted grip he, Nadal, and Federer have held atop the men’s game well into their 30s.But as he chases history, and admits that his French Open title run two weeks ago “took a lot out of me mentally, physically, and emotionally,” Djokovic said he realized why “former generations did not manage to get to where we are at the moment” in terms of player organization.“It’s really difficult for a player whose priority is to hit the tennis ball, recover, have all his needs met in order for him to perform at his best, then, if he has time and energy, to deal with the politics and business side of things in tennis,” he said. “It’s very difficult for us to take this step forward and be responsible and really fully active and involved in the business side of things. But I’m glad I’m able, from the ranking position that I have in the tennis world, that my voice is being heard.” More

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      Danielle Lao Gets Back to Wimbledon, and Makes the Most of It

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      Lao still lives at home in California with her parents to save money, but will be on Court 17 on Monday after qualifying for the Grand Slam tournament for the first time at age 30.When Danielle Lao made her first visit to Wimbledon in 2019, she tried to describe it to her parents Bessie and Danny.“I told them it’s like Narnia, but for tennis,” Lao said. “It almost seems not real. All the Slams are special and have their own style, but Wimbledon just has this mystique about it that just sets it apart.”In that 2019 visit, Lao was a spectator as she walked the grounds, taking photos with some of her former University of Southern California teammates. She had come within one match of qualifying for the singles draw, losing in the final round in three sets after winning 6-0 against Arina Rodionova of Australia.“Arina made an adjustment to me that I could not adjust back to,” Lao said. “It was like a slow death, and I couldn’t do much about it, so that was tough for me.”For weeks it was difficult to accept, but Lao, an American small in stature and slight in build, is undeniably stout in spirit. Her nickname is “The Little Giant,” which is also the name of her Twitter and Instagram accounts and her blog. And as Lao walked the well-tended grounds of the All England Club again on Saturday taking photos with her phone, she did so as a competitor.This year, after continuing to push and aspire through the pandemic on a tight budget, she qualified for her first Wimbledon main draw at age 30. She is ranked just 238th in the world, still lives at home in Arcadia, Calif., with her parents to save money and still strings her own rackets when she is at home, on a machine she has had since she was 12.But on Monday, she will face Katie Boulter of Britain on Court 17 in the first round of the oldest tennis tournament of them all.“I’ve been dreaming about Wimbledon ever since I started playing,” Lao said in a video interview on Saturday. “The first time I ever had any aspiration to be a professional tennis player, I was watching Pete Sampras win at Wimbledon. I think I was on vacation in Mexico, and it was the first time I’d ever seen a grown man cry. I had to have my parents kind of explain to me why he’s crying.”Lao said she was 9 years old at the time. She would go on to play high school tennis and earn a scholarship to U.S.C. She never played No. 1 singles or No. 1 doubles for the Trojans in her four years, but was a two-time all-American and team captain.“She’s earned it the hard way,” said West Nott, the former U.S.C. assistant coach who recruited her in high school. “I know a lot of people say they love the game, but I think she takes it to a whole other level. She is just trying to turn over every little rock to keep improving.”After briefly exploring work in finance after graduation, Lao decided to pursue a professional tennis career.“I was looking for jobs, and it just didn’t feel right,” she said. “I still had a really deep love and connection to the game, so I thought I’d get on tour and get it out of my system a little bit.”She talked to her childhood coach, Kal Moranon, who agreed to forgo his usual fees and have her buy him lunch instead.About eight years later, she is in Wimbledon at last, just like her childhood idol: Roger Federer.“That is incredible,” she said. “Seeing him on the grounds here, it’s like, yeah, things are just right.”Lao said that growing up she never heard she was destined for Grand Slam tennis tournaments.“I am 5-3, 115, 120 pounds,” she said. “I never had anyone tell me you’re the model and the perfect stature to be a professional tennis player. In fact, maybe the opposite. No one’s ever told me, ‘You will never make it on tour’. But they always said, ‘You’d be a pretty good college player.’”She has yet to become a mainstay on the main tour. She reached her career-high singles ranking of 152 in April 2019, the same year she just missed qualifying for Wimbledon.“I would say getting into the top 100 is probably where you can find a sweet spot,” Lao said, “where you are making money, living kind of comfortably and not really stressing too much about finances and still being able to get what you need to perform.”She has spent the bulk of her career on the ITF Tour, the sport’s equivalent of the minor leagues where the total prize money at an event is often less than what a player makes for losing in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament (48,000 pounds at Wimbledon).She has stayed with friends and host families on the road to save money, budgeting her funds for the essentials: airplane tickets, training and the occasional traveling coach.“It is challenging,” Lao said. “I think by time you get to play some WTA events, you have certain expenses comped, and it helps a little bit. But if you are wanting to bring a coach on the road, you are paying for two people, so it’s always a balance. Am I going to operate on a budget or am I going to do this to max out my abilities? But my parents have been very supportive.”Both of Lao’s parents are immigrants from the Philippines. “My dad came over to the States when he was 16, my mom came over when she was in her mid-20s,” Lao said. “Neither have an athletic background. Tennis was a complete accident. We were on vacation in Mexico. Instead of leaving me at day care, they left me at a tennis lesson.”She did not get to play on real grass until 2017, but she has an excellent one-handed slice backhand and a relatively flat forehand that are both effective on grass.In 2016, she won a wild-card playoff with partner Jacqueline Cako for a spot in the U.S. Open women’s doubles tournament. They lost in the first round, but it was a taste of what professional tennis could be.Inspired, Lao pushed on and qualified in singles for the 2017 U.S. Open and, just as importantly, the 2018 U.S. Open.The pandemic, which shut down the tour for several months, could have knocked Lao out of it. Instead, she bought a stationary bike, assembled it with her sister, and focused on fitness before returning to the court and the tour.After struggling in her recent tournaments, she arrived at Roehampton for Wimbledon qualifying with her new traveling coach, the tour player Irina Falconi. Lao settled into a deep groove and found herself up 6-3, 4-1 on Ursula Radwanska in the final round of qualifying.“I started to think, oh my goodness, I’m so close to Wimbledon, it’s right there,” she said.This time, she calmed her mind and closed out the final set, 6-2. After watching Sampras tear up at Wimbledon, Lao can now relate.“When I sat down, I covered my face with a towel a little bit,” Lao said. “But when Irina and my boyfriend came around, I was, like, they can’t see me cry. The tournament’s not over yet, and this was a straight setter. This is embarrassing. But that evening, I was thinking about it and joking with them, and I told them, ‘It took 23 years to get here guys, but we made it!’”Win or lose on Monday, one journey is complete. More

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      Serena Williams Won’t Play at the Tokyo Olympics

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      The four-time gold medalist previously said that travel restrictions that might prevent her from taking her daughter to the Games would factor into her decision.Serena Williams, a four-time gold medalist, indicated on Sunday at Wimbledon that she would not play in the Olympics in Tokyo next month.“I’m actually not on the Olympic list,” she said. “If so, then I should not be on it.”The decision was not unexpected. Williams had expressed hesitancy about playing in Tokyo in part because of the travel restrictions that might have prevented her from taking her daughter, Olympia, with her to the Games.“I would not be able to go function without my 3-year-old around,” Williams said earlier this season. “I think I would be in a depression. We’ve been together every day of her life.”Olympic officials have not made clear publicly what exceptions might be made for athletes who wish to come to Tokyo with their children. It was unclear on Sunday whether that was the decisive factor for Williams, who is 39 and set to play at Wimbledon for the 20th time.“There’s a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision,” she said at a news conference. “I don’t feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry.”Williams has been one of the most successful Olympians in tennis, winning gold medals in doubles with her sister Venus in 2000, 2008 and 2012. She also won the singles at the 2012 Olympics in London, where the tennis event was held on the same grass courts as Wimbledon.Her singles victory in London was perhaps the most dominant performance of her career. She did not come close to dropping a set in six matches and overwhelmed four players who had been ranked No. 1: Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and, in the final, Maria Sharapova.Williams, who missed the 2004 Olympics because of an injury, was asked on Sunday whether it would be difficult for her to miss the Games.“In the past, it’s been a wonderful place for me,” she said. “I really haven’t thought about it, so I’m going to keep not thinking about it.”The top four American women in the singles rankings are eligible to compete in Tokyo. Sofia Kenin, Jennifer Brady and the 17-year-old Coco Gauff have all confirmed that they intend to take part. Williams’s decision opens a slot for Jessica Pegula. More

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      For Roger Federer and Andy Murray, Wimbledon Is the Same, but Different

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      The All England Club is a special place for Federer, who has won eight titles on its grass courts, and for Murray, who lives nearby and won Olympic gold in 2012.Roger Federer went first in the Wimbledon interview room on Saturday. Andy Murray soon followed.“Ah, this is different,” Murray said in his baritone, as he settled into a familiar seat in unusual circumstances.Normally both Federer and Murray pack the place, but not this year as Wimbledon returns after a forced hiatus. Interviews are remote because of the pandemic, and the room was all but empty as they answered questions from the news media via Zoom.Federer holds the men’s record, with eight Wimbledon singles titles. Murray in 2013 became the first British man in 77 years to win the singles title, and he won it again in 2016.This Grand Slam tournament, venerable and beautiful, is their special place, the grassy and iconic spot that our minds will probably travel to first when we consider Federer and Murray after they are long retired and hitting tennis balls, or kicking soccer balls, to their grandchildren. They are both much closer to the end than the beginning of their remarkable careers, and this particular Wimbledon has a valedictory feel, even as both men are resistant to anyone else’s timetable. They will draw their own finish lines.Federer will be 40 in August and is playing on after three knee operations. Murray turned 34 last month and is playing Wimbledon for the first time since 2017, and the first time with an artificial hip joint.Both have proved their passion for the game beyond any reasonable doubt by enduring beyond even their own expectations.“Truthfully, I don’t think my goal was to play till 39 or 40 or more,” Federer said. “It was maybe more like 35, which was already a high number at the time.”His boyhood tennis role models, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras, were all retired by their early thirties. Andre Agassi, the tour’s elder statesman when Federer began dominating the tour with panache in the early 2000s, was finished at 36.“I remember a conversation with Pistol 10 years ago,” Federer said, using Sampras’s nickname. “He was wondering how much longer I had in the tank.”The surprising answer was at least 10 more years, but the question now is whether Federer still has enough in the tank to win one more Wimbledon or even make one more deep run.He hinted on Saturday that the answer would help determine how much longer he plays, as would the opinion of his wife, Mirka.“I think I made the most of it on the tour,” he said. “I enjoyed my travels, made it fun with Mirka and the family and the team, persevered somehow. No, the goal was not to play until 40. This all mainly came in the last years. I never thought. also, with the last surgeries I’ve had I would still be going. Look, I feel I still really love it, enjoy myself. I will see about the results — if they’re going to come back. This is why Wimbledon is clearly very important to me right now.”Federer has not won a major singles title since the 2018 Australian Open but he came within one point (and a few inches) of winning Wimbledon in 2019, failing to convert two match points against Novak Djokovic in the final and missing a first serve into the tape that would probably have been an ace on the first of those match points.But it’s a different Wimbledon now after a two-year break that saw the 2020 edition canceled because of the pandemic. The players, accustomed to renting homes near the All England Club, are not allowed to stay in private accommodation this year. All are required to stay in a large hotel near the Thames River, a 45-minute drive from the tournament.“It does feel totally different than the last 20 years here,” said Federer, who is in London with his support team but not his family. “We would arrive with the family — kids would be running everywhere. We organized the grocery shopping, got the house set up and all that stuff.”He sounded wistful but not resentful. “I still feel it’s a big privilege that I’m actually able to play Wimbledon,” he said. “I’m happy I’m here. I’m not going to be complaining,”But it is, in his own words, “strange to arrive at the hotel.”It must be even stranger for Murray, whose home is in Surrey, not far from the All England Club. But even the British players must enter the bubble.“I know it’s not normal, but it feels somewhat normal now that we’re a couple days out from Wimbledon, with all the players around and stuff, practicing, everybody doing media stuff today,” Murray said. “Knowing that in a couple of days’ time we’ll be playing not in front of a full crowd but in front of a lot of people. Just to me anyway, it feels like we’re getting closer to more normality. I’m happy about that.”Murray and Federer have shared plenty of tense and emotional moments at the All England Club. In 2012, Murray broke down in tears at the ceremony after losing the singles final to Federer. A few weeks later, Murray was in a very different mood after winning the gold medal over Federer at the London Olympics, where the tennis event was played on the same iconic patch of grass.Though Federer trails his two biggest rivals — Djokovic and Rafael Nadal — in their head-to-head matchups, he still leads Murray 14-11. They played five times in 2012 but, in a sign of how much has changed, they have not played on tour since August 2015: Their only match since then was at a charity exhibition in Glasgow in November 2017, when Murray, who was born in Glasgow, donned a Tartan hat and Federer wore a kilt.Such lighthearted moments on court have been rare of late. They have played and won little in 2021. It has been a rough road, but the journey has been rougher for much longer on Murray, whose body broke down not long after his finest season in 2016, when he finished No. 1.Murray, now ranked 119, is not necessarily playing for more major titles. He is playing to practice his craft, use his talent and sink his teeth into competition — and is convinced he can still compete with the best if he can just stay healthy. Federer, still ranked 8th, is more focused on the trophies, which is partly why he withdrew after winning three rounds at the French Open earlier this month. He knew his chances of reaching the finish line were better at Wimbledon than at Roland Garros.But he lost early on grass in Halle, Germany, at his traditional Wimbledon warm-up tournament, looking disgruntled and off-target with the match on the line against the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. Murray warmed up at Queen’s Club and was beaten in the second round by Matteo Berrettini, an Italian with a thunderous serve and forehand.Long ago, Murray and Federer had a rocky start to their relationship, with Murray, the younger player on the rise, taking exception to some of Federer’s post-match comments on his game. But there is genuine warmth between them at this late stage. They are both fathers of four with a taste for country life and a desire to serve the game. Murray has become the more outspoken, often carrying the banner for the women’s game as well as the men’s, but both are members of the ATP Player Council.On Friday, they trained together, occupying Court 14 with Centre Court looming nearby. It was, if their memories served, their first practice session together in more than 15 years.“I’m probably appreciating those things more,” Murray said. “When I take a step back from that, as a tennis fan, getting to play with Roger Federer two days before Wimbledon, it’s really great. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that sort of stuff much over the last few years. I enjoyed it.”So did Federer.“You can see how comfortable he is on the grass,” Federer said. “Clearly, it’s just practice. We’re trying things, but I hope he can go deep here, have a nice run. Same for me.” More

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      Future Tennis Stars Get an Early Start at the Junior Championships

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      The events often feature future stars, like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov. “I couldn’t believe the level of play,” one observer said.At Wimbledon in 2016, Chris Fowler dragged his ESPN broadcasting partner Brad Gilbert to the semifinals of the boys’ Junior Championships. They were treated to a preview of two future stars: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov, who won the tournament.“I couldn’t believe the level of play,” Gilbert recalled.That event looked like a snapshot of things to come. Shapovalov defeated Alex de Minaur in the finals; de Minaur beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarters. All three have since broken into the ATP Top 20, while Tsitsipas reached the Top five.Denis Shapovalov defeated Alex de Minaur in the Boy’s Singles Final at Wimbledon in 2016.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesYet Gilbert was initially unenthused about watching because it easily could have been a replay of the 2014 Junior Wimbledon finals when Noah Rubin beat Stefan Kozlov before both vanished into the lower rungs of the ATP Tour.The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors is important to the development of many players 18 and under. In 2019, there were over 600 ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors tournaments, with about 8,000 boys and 7,000 girls playing at least one tournament. Its Grand Slam events are held alongside the professional tournaments.At Wimbledon this year, 64 boys and 64 girls will be competing in main draw singles. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, who won the girls’ singles title at the 2020 Australian Open, is still competing as a junior and will be at Wimbledon, as will the most recent Boys’ French Open champion, Luca van Assche.Winning a Junior Slam is obviously a meaningful triumph, but that does not mean it is a barometer of future success. Roger Federer and Andy Murray won Junior Slams, but Rafael Nadal showed that you can go from boy to man while barely playing in the ITF Juniors. Venus and Serena Williams, along with the recent champions Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka, also skipped playing in the Juniors circuit.Earlier this month, Luca van Assche won the Boys French Open. He, too, is competing in the Juniors at Wimbledon.Christophe Ena/Associated Press“A good junior career is a good start, but never a guarantee,” Stan Wawrinka, winner of the 2003 Junior French Open, wrote in an email interview. “I never even dreamed of winning a Grand Slam until I eventually did at the 2014 Australian Open,” his first of three.Jeff McFarland, creator of the Hidden Game of Tennis website, said that Wawrinka was smart to keep his dreams modest. Winning a Junior Slam is less predictive than being a top pick from college football or basketball.“Tennis has such an unstructured development system, so it’s hard to say what these wins might indicate,” McFarland said, adding that the physicality of the modern game makes it difficult to know how players will evolve when their bodies have yet to fully develop. “They may be the cream of the crop in the Juniors, but at the next level everybody is that good.”The Junior Slams have produced more top women than men in the last 15 years: the Grand Slam winners Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Ashleigh Barty, Jelena Ostapenko and Iga Swiatek; the No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Karolina Pliskova; and a lengthy list of Top 10 players.The boys’ side peaked from 1998 to 2005, with Federer, Murray, Wawrinka, Andy Roddick, Marin Cilic and the Top 10 players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils. The next eight years produced Dominic Thiem, who won the United States Open last year, but otherwise it was a meager crop, But since 2014, a new generation has emerged: Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and those stars of that 2016 Wimbledon tournament.McFarland said a successful pro career needed not include a Grand Slam — especially on the men’s side, where Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Federer, Murray and Wawrinka have won all but four titles since 2004 — or even cracking the Top 10. The Junior Slam winners Leander Paes and Jack Sock foundered on the ATP Tour but won multiple Grand Slams in doubles, while Richard Gasquet, “who the average American fan never heard of, has nearly $20 million in prize money,” McFarland said. “No one would call those careers a failure.”Still, McFarland said that since 1990 only half the male Junior Grand Slam winners even hit the Top 50, while only one-third of Junior Slam finalists reached that high. Girls fare better, with two-thirds of the Junior Slam winners and half of the runners-up breaking into the Top 50. (McFarland said winning multiple Junior Slams, as Azarenka and Roddick have, actually did predict higher pro earnings.)“Honestly, winning a Junior Slam doesn’t give you as much help as you might think,” said Elina Svitolina, the 2010 Junior French Open champion, who had reached No. 3 on the WTA Tour. “That’s only the beginning — you have to work so many hours on and off the court to not have the Junior mentality anymore, because when you start to play the women’s circuit it’s completely different.”Stan Wawrinka beat Brian Baker in 2003 to win the Junior French Open. “A good junior career is a good start, but never a guarantee,” Wawrinka said recently.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWawrinka said he saw more positives.“The pro tour is a completely different level,” Wawrinka said, “but traveling on the Junior tour helps you get used to the travel routine at a young age — the jet lag, different food and being away from home is not always easy for juniors.”Sofia Kenin, a Junior U.S. Open finalist, said having soaked up “the vibe and atmosphere” at the Grand Slams as a junior helped prepare her mentally when she won last year’s Australian Open and reached the finals of the French Open.One issue that McFarland and Gilbert raise about the Juniors as a predictor is that many top young players opt instead for low-level pro tournaments, either because they want the challenge or for economic reasons.“It’s more of a commitment to build your junior ranking — the international travel can cost as much or more than the pro tour,” Gilbert said. Winning the Australian Junior Open, he said, is less predictive than the other three majors perhaps because it requires more travel for American and European players.The result, McFarland said, is that the winners “may not be facing the best talent.” Indeed, of Svitolina’s six opponents en route to her Junior Slam win, only two later broke into the WTA’s Top 150.Gilbert said that ideally the winners of the Junior Slams should be granted a wild card into the main draw of that Grand Slam the next year.“This would give young players the incentive to play in the Junior Slams and bring more talent back,” he said. More

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      Paul Skipp, the Master of Thwack at Wimbledon

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      He has been the head stringer at the tournament since 2014, and players turn to him to make their rackets sing.In the shadow of No. 1 Court at the All England Club, Wimbledon’s stringing team is readying for a crush of requests. The day before the tournament starts, the team usually strings about 500 rackets, carefully following players’ instructions about tension levels, knot placement, logo color and string type. Then, the team will come back the next day and do another 500 rackets.“If we do a good job, and the player wins the tournament, excellent, great, fantastic, we feel we’ve done our part,” said Paul Skipp, who has been Wimbledon’s head stringer since 2014.Players restring their rackets mainly because strings quickly lose tension, and they need to be confident that the ball will come off their strings in a certain way. Led by Skipp, Wimbledon’s stringing team works long days, sometimes past midnight. Depending on personal preferences, weather and time spent on the court, players may get their rackets strung every day. At Wimbledon, players will use freshly strung rackets for only one match.Skipp, 51, figures he has strung rackets for 10 players who have won Wimbledon titles, including Angelique Kerber of Germany in 2018. When the Scottish player Andy Murray made his 2005 Wimbledon debut, Skipp was there to string for him. He has worked on Rafael Nadal’s rackets at previous Wimbledons. He regularly strings for Alison Riske of the United States. In 2019 at Wimbledon, she upset the top seed Ashleigh Barty and reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time.Alison Riske has consistently used Paul Skipp to string her rackets at Wimbledon.Nic Bothma/EPA, via Shutterstock“Paul is absolutely my go-to stringer at Wimbledon, and I’m so grateful for all of the good juju he puts over my rackets there,” Riske said via email. “Paul is good at what he does for many reasons, but first and foremost, I believe it’s his consistency. Consistency with how he strings and then how my strings feel to me in return.”If players do not use Wimbledon’s stringing service and pay the $28 per racket fee, then they pay for an off-site service. But over the past decade, the number of rackets strung by the on-site service has more than doubled, and Wimbledon’s stringing team has nearly doubled. The 16 team members come from a mix of European countries: Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain. “We are a bit of a family,” Skipp said.In 2009, when Jeremy Holt’s company Apollo Leisure took over the stringing operation at Wimbledon, the team worked on 2,300 rackets. Holt expects that the team will string about 5,500 rackets during this year’s tournament.“The tournament services throughout the world have improved considerably, so I think the players have more faith in them,” he said, explaining the increase. “People who are at the top of their game as racket stringers are involved.”At Wimbledon, players, or more often, coaches, drop off rackets at the service’s front desk and explain how they want them strung. A racket then goes to a team member, who puts it on a stringing machine. The main strings and cross strings get measured out, threaded through the frame, tightened to the player’s desired tension and knotted. It is generally considered that lower tension gives players more power; higher tension gives players more control.Paul Skipp uses a stringing machine to work on a racket. Krisztina Kobanyai“If I request tighter than my average, then I expect it to feel so, or vice versa,” said Riske, who is ranked No. 31 in the world. “And that is where a stringer like Paul is truly priceless because he will nail it every time, and I trust his ability, so it is one less worry for me, which is very important.”Players can request a certain stringer. That typically happens when a player has a past working relationship or familiarity with a stringer, the way Riske has with Skipp, or when a player has done well at a tournament with a stringer. But generally, a player’s rackets are assigned to a team member based on scheduling considerations. Skipp tries to ensure that all of a player’s rackets can be strung by the same team member throughout the tournament.Skipp expects a tournament stringer to easily finish a racket in 20 minutes. If it is needed on court, then he said, “we turn on the afterburners, and you could be looking at 10 to 11 minutes.”“To get it right, to get it consistent, it could be considered a craft or an art, certainly a skill,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of bad stringing. Could we make Rafa Nadal play badly with a bad string job? Yeah, for sure. Could we make you play like Rafa Nadal with a better string job? No. Could we turn even a lower professional into a Rafa Nadal with a very good string job? No.” More

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      The Special Magic of Wimbledon Returns, Changes Included

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      The pandemic forced the tournament’s cancellation in 2020 and led to some changes this year, but much of its tradition is back.Serena Williams leaned back in her chair and thought.The seven-time Wimbledon champion had just been asked about the one thing she is looking forward to upon returning to Wimbledon for the first time since the coronavirus shut it down last year. Suddenly, Williams burst forward, as if she had just had an epiphany.“I love the grass,” Williams said this month at the French Open, though she also admitted that she hadn’t even practiced on the surface since she lost to Simona Halep in the 2019 final. “What I love most about it is just the cleanness of it. I just think it’s so chic and so crisp. That’s a good word: crisp.”Crisp may be the perfect word to describe the aura of Wimbledon. Those iridescent green grass courts are immaculately manicured. It is the only professional tournament that still requires its participants to wear logo-less, all-white clothing. The facilities, including a Royal Box that features signature purple-and-green blankets, oozes decorum.And it’s not just Williams who understands the significance of the only major still played on grass.Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, serving to Simona Halep at the 2019 tournament. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images“Wimbledon is something magical,” said Elina Svitolina, a semifinalist in 2019. “We know the rules are quite strict, and it’s going to be even more strict this year. But you’re just in white, and you’re in such a nice, historical venue, so the whole atmosphere makes stepping on the court an experience.”Now Wimbledon, which begins on Monday, is back, though it looks and feels quite different this year. Attendance is capped at 50 percent for the Centre and No. 1 Courts, while smaller show courts can seat 75 percent of capacity. For the semifinals and finals, seating capacity is expected to rise to 100 percent on Centre Court.There are also strict regulations regarding vaccination and testing protocols. All ticket-holders are required to show proof of Covid status upon entry, either in the form of two vaccination doses or proof of a negative Covid test within the past 48 hours. While moving around the grounds, all attendees must wear face coverings, though they are free to remove them while at their seats. The players have their own set of rules in place that allow them to be exempt from public quarantine requirements while also keeping themselves and the public safe.“This will be a Wimbledon like we’ve never known it before,” said Dan Evans, the British No. 1 in singles. “It’s obviously an amazing place to play tennis, but my overriding feeling is that it will be very different to what we know.”Because tickets are being distributed through mobile devices this year, some traditions have disappeared. No one will be permitted to camp out for spare tickets, for example. Because the players are required to stay at a designated hotel in London, spotting celebrities outside their rental homes in Wimbledon Village is gone. And for environmental reasons, the plastic cups adorned with pictures of strawberries for the traditional Wimbledon dessert strawberries and cream have been replaced with sustainable cardboard containers.As with other major championships this year, prize money has been redistributed, with more going to early round losers. This year, the men’s and women’s singles champions will receive £1.7 million (about $2 million), down from £2.35 million in 2019, but those who fall in the first round will get £48,000, significantly more than than two years ago.Other changes include players on all of the courts, not just the premier ones, being allowed to challenge the calls of linespeople and have them verified by Hawk-Eye Live, a device that uses 10 cameras around the court (though no linespeople have been cut as a result, as other tournaments have done). And there also has been the introduction of a serve clock on all courts.Like Williams, Roger Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, is currently ranked No. 8. Christian Hartmann/ReutersSeedings are according to the WTA and Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, which means that the champions, Roger Federer and Williams, both now ranked No. 8, could meet the top seeds Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals. In the past, Wimbledon has often deferred to past champions when making seedings.Simply adjusting to playing on grass — with its hard-to-grip surface and uneven bounces — will be a challenge for players, many of whom have not competed on the surface in two years: When Wimbledon was canceled last year, the few grass-court warm-up events were as well. This year, because the French Open was postponed by a week to allow for the lifting of more Covid-19 restrictions in France, there has been even less time to for players to make the transition.“Nobody practiced on grass because there was no reason to,” said Daniil Medvedev, who is seeded second. “It’s not going to be easy this year.”For most players, nothing is certain this year. Barty enters the tournament still nursing a hip injury that caused her to retire during her second match at the French Open. Halep, the defending champion, didn’t play that tournament because of a calf injury. She withdrew from Wimbledon on Friday. Dominic Thiem, the reigning United States Open champion, also withdrew, because of a wrist injury sustained earlier in the week.Naomi Osaka, the world’s No. 2 player, also withdrew from the tournament, citing a need for more time away from the game. She also pulled out of the French Open citing mental health issues. And Williams, still one shy of tying Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles championships, has played a sparse schedule this year. She reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in February, losing to Osaka, the eventual champion.Barbora Krejcikova, the winner at the French Open, has never played the main draw at Wimbledon, but she is seeded at No. 15.When Rafael Nadal announced that he was pulling out of Wimbledon and the Olympics following a semifinal loss to Djokovic at the French Open, the most intriguing story lines at Wimbledon suddenly became Federer and Djokovic.Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, has played just eight matches in the last two years and two weeks ago lost unexpectedly to Felix Auger-Aliassime at a grass-court warm-up in Halle, Germany.Novak Djokovic, the 2018 and 2019 champion, eats a blade of grass (a personal Wimbledon tradition) after beating Federer in 2019.Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThen there is Djokovic who, with his wins at the Australian and French Opens this year, is halfway to a Grand Slam. If he also wins a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo, he will accomplish the Golden Slam, which has been done only by Steffi Graf, in 1988.“Everything is possible,” Djokovic said after he beat Alexander Zverev to win his second French Open. “I did put myself in a good position to go for the Golden Slam.”Wimbledon is already thinking ahead. In 2022, the All England Club, which holds the tournament, will add play on the middle Sunday of the event, which traditionally was reserved for rest and rejuvenation of the courts and the players. The All England Club also recently unveiled plans to expand into neighboring parkland and create an 8,000-seat show court that the club expects to be ready by 2030.But for this year, people who treasure the tournament are relieved it’s back.“Wimbledon is such an anchor for all of us,” said Jim Courier, a former world No. 1 and current Tennis Channel commentator. “I think it will be rejuvenating for the sport as a whole. It’s going to be a relief that Wimbledon is back and going to be visible again.“Wimbledon,” Courier added, “is that perfect blend of the old and the new. They’ve gotten it right in so many ways. We missed it.” More

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      Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams Have Promising Paths at Wimbledon

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      For the first time, seedings at the tournament, which begins on Monday, did not take into account a player’s past performance on grass.Wimbledon conducted its draw on Friday, and for the first time past grass-court success was not a special factor in the seedings.It has been a long road to this moment, but then Wimbledon, the oldest of all the major tennis tournaments, has no shortage of history.Started in 1877, it took 50 years to begin seeding players and nearly 100 more for the All England Club to decide that it would adhere exclusively to computer rankings for the men instead of using a seeding committee or a grass-court seeding formula.“I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Mark Petchey, a coach and former player from Britain who is now a television analyst. “At the end of the day, tennis is very much a meritocracy, and you should definitely get the reward for the matches and the tournaments you’ve played before.”Tennis being tennis, not everyone agrees.“I hate it,” said Brad Gilbert, an ESPN analyst and a former top-five player. “If I’m the commissioner, I like that you can change the seedings on grass based on your success or lack of success on that surface.”But uniformity is now the rule on tour and at the four Grand Slam tournaments, which now all seed the men solely according to the rankings. Wimbledon retains the right to adjust the women’s seedings but has rarely exercised that right. As usual, it followed the rankings precisely this year, even though that meant that the No. 2 seed would be Aryna Sabalenka, the powerful Belarusian who has won just one singles match at Wimbledon and has yet to get past the fourth round in any Grand Slam singles tournament.Sabalenka, ranked fourth, has such a lofty seeding because No. 2 Naomi Osaka and No. 3 Simona Halep have withdrawn from Wimbledon. Osaka did so last week, extending her break from the game to protect her mental health but saying that she would play in the Olympics. Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion, withdrew shortly before the draw on Friday because of a left calf injury that had already prevented her from playing in the French Open.Halep won the singles title in 2019 with a brilliant performance in the final against Serena Williams. Wimbledon was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. Though Halep was eager to try to defend her title and trained this week at the All England Club, her calf remained tightly wrapped. She ultimately decided that she was not fit enough to compete.“I gave it everything I had,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “After having such special memories from two years ago, I was excited and honored to step back on these beautiful courts as defending champion. Unfortunately, my body didn’t cooperate.”She joins an increasingly long list of absentees. The men’s tournament will be without the two-time champion Rafael Nadal, the 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic and the Grand Slam singles champions Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka. The women’s tournament will also be without the American Jennifer Brady, who lost to Osaka in the final of this year’s Australian Open; she has developed plantar fasciitis.Despite Brady’s withdrawal, 21 American women are in the singles draw, the most since 1995 and by far the most women from any nation this year. The field includes the 41-year-old Venus Williams and the 39-year-old Serena Williams. Venus first played at Wimbledon in 1997 and has won five of its singles titles, the most recent in 2008. Serena first played in 1998 and has won seven singles titles, the most recent in 2016.Venus, who is unseeded in what could be the final Wimbledon for both sisters, will open against Mihaela Buzarnescu, a 33-year-old Romanian with a Ph.D. in sports science. Serena, seeded sixth, will face the unseeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich, a former top-30 player from Belarus.Serena, still chasing a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, has a promising draw. If she reaches the fourth round, she could face the 17-year-old American Coco Gauff, who is seeded 20th in her second Wimbledon, after a stirring run to the fourth round in her debut in 2019.Ashleigh Barty, the No. 1 women’s seed, will play Carla Suárez Navarro in the first round. Their match should be played on Centre Court and give Suarez, a former top-10 player returning from cancer treatment, a fittingly grand stage for her comeback.Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 and the reigning men’s singles champion, will play on Centre Court on Monday against Jack Draper, a 19-year-old British wild card. Djokovic’s draw looks clement, even if he could face a second-round rematch with Kevin Anderson, the tall, big-serving South African who is now ranked 103rd. Djokovic defeated him in the 2018 Wimbledon final.Djokovic, on track for a Grand Slam after winning this year’s Australian Open and French Open, is heavily favored to defend his title and the men’s record of 20 major singles titles, now shared by Nadal and Roger Federer. The other leading contender in his half of the draw is No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, the young Greek whom Djokovic defeated on clay in the French Open final. Tsitsipas’s all-court game also looks well suited to grass, and his first-round opponent is the American Frances Tiafoe.“I don’t know if it’s this year or next year, but I’d be very surprised if Tsitsipas doesn’t win Wimbledon,” Gilbert said. “I’m very impressed with his movement, willingness to play defense and his transition game. He knows how to move forward.”So, of course, does Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion. He is in the other half of the draw with No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev and No. 7 Matteo Berrettini, the forceful Italian who won the grasscourt title at the Queen’s Club Championships last week.Federer, 39, lost to Djokovic in a classic five-set final in 2019, after holding two match points. He is back for at least one more Wimbledon after two knee surgeries, but he has struggled for consistent form in his few tour appearances this season. Federer, the sixth seed, faces a tricky first-round opponent in Adrian Mannarino, a flat-hitting French veteran who thrives on grass.The surface remains an unusual challenge even though playing conditions are now more similar to hardcourts than in the serve-and-volley days of Rod Laver and Pete Sampras. The All England Club switched to more durable grass in 2002. The bounces are higher, and baseline play is now the rule instead of the exception.“Grasscourt tennis is still different, even if it’s nothing like the ’80s or ’90s when you’d drop the ball on the grass and it didn’t bounce, and it was really imperative to come forward,” Gilbert said.The movement remains specific. It is easier to slip, particularly after a split step on fresh grass behind the baseline. Quick directional shifts can be challenging, and with the tour’s grass-court season lasting only a few weeks, young players often need several seasons to grasp the nuances.“It’s very tough to walk on grass and just pick it up if you practice predominantly on clay or hardcourts,” Petchey said.That was part of the thinking behind preserving a grass-court bias in the Wimbledon seeding. The All England Club sought to balance its draws by giving the best grasscourt players a boost. A seeding committee long made those decisions, but leading men like Gustavo Kuerten and Àlex Corretja grew increasingly disgruntled about being downgraded at Wimbledon. Corretja skipped it altogether in 2000, along with his fellow Spanish stars Juan Carlos Ferrero and Albert Costa.The All England Club responded by eliminating the subjective element, deploying a seeding formula in 2002 that factored in recent grass-court results. But that, too, is now gone for the men. The rankings, and only the rankings, will rule. More