Last year, there was no all-white dress code. There was no strawberries & cream. There were no perfectly-manicured grass courts or royal boxes. There were no Championships! But now, after the tournament's first cancellation in 75 years, Wimbledon is back in all its glory!
And, it'll feel like Wimbledon too! They're not allowing 100 percent capacity until the finals, but it'll be a full house at Centre Court on championship weekend! July 11, the date of the men's final, should be a crazy one in London, too. The final of Euro 2020(1) will be played in front of 60,000 fans at Wembley Stadium later that evening. (Slowly but surely, the world is getting back to normal!)
The last Wimbledon match was so long ago that people might forget that it was a historic one. The 2019 men's final between Djokovic and Federer was the first time that the final-set tiebreak was used, with Djokovic winning 13-12 in the fifth to capture his fifth Wimbledon title and keep Roger at 20 career Grand Slam titles.
Now, after his remarkable comeback in the French Open final, Djokovic enters the 2021 Championships sitting at 19...one behind Roger and Rafa for the all-time record. And, I've gotta admit, I'm actually rooting for Novak over Roger this year. I just think it would be so cool if they go into the US Open in a three-way tie! (A win here would also mean Djokovic heads to New York with a chance to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam again...and, wins at both Wimbledon and the Olympics could give him the chance to join Steffi Graf as the only players in history with the Golden Slam.)
It's also hard to say anybody but Djokovic is the men's favorite. He vanquished Nadal at Roland Garros and is the two-time defending champion here. There are also few, if any, players who can challenge him on grass. So, Djokovic not making it to at least the final would be considered a major upset. Really the only thing that I can see holding him back is his recovery from the French Open. That run was a grind, and it took a lot out of him. He hasn't played since the final, though, so you'd have to figure he's had enough time to recover.
That's the exact reason why Federer withdrew from the French Open after the third round. His match was Dominik Koepfer was brutal physically, and Roger knew the longer he played in Paris, the worse his chances at Wimbledon. I don't want to say Roger's putting all of his eggs in his Wimbledon basket, but grass has always been his best surface, and at this point in his career, he knows Wimbledon is his best chance to add to his career total and stay the all-time Grand Slam leader (at least for now). Then, you throw in the fact that the French Open was his first tournament in more than a year, and his decision to withdraw makes even more sense.
Fortunately, the tennis gods have smiled on us and the two legends are on opposite sides of the bracket. That means they can't meet until the final (unlike that ridiculousness in Paris where all three of them were on the top half). And I'd be surprised if we don't see that matchup. Because as much of a favorite Djokovic is on the top half, Federer is equally as big a favorite on the bottom half. Roger probably needs more to go his way than Novak, but I'm fully expecting Serbia vs. Switzerland to be the first final in London on July 11.
Most of the other top men have historically struggled at Wimbledon. Daniil Medvedev has never been past the third round, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the first round in two of his previous three appearances, and Alexander Zverev has only been to the fourth round once. However, they're all much better players now than they were the last time Wimbledon was played, so I don't put a deep run past any of them.
Just like Roger Federer, Serena Williams knows Wimbledon is her best chance to get that elusive record-tying 24th Grand Slam title. Serena has been to the final in each of her last four appearances, although the last two were losses to Angie Kerber and Simona Halep. Halep won't be defending her title, though, so that has to make Serena the women's favorite.
Although, Wimbledon has seen a similar trend to the French Open on the women's side in recent years. While a Williams sister has been to the last five finals, there have been four different champions--Serena, Garbine Muguruza, Kerber and Halep. The latter three were unexpected, as have most of the French Open champions. So, an "unexpected" winner wouldn't be totally unsurprising at all.
We've seen a lot of players emerge and rise to the top of the women's game since the last Wimbledon. Bianca Andreescu, for example, has only played one career Wimbledon main draw match--a first-round loss in 2017. She's got the perfect game for grass though! Same with Sofia Kenin, who's lost in the second round in each of her two previous Wimbledon appearances.
Or will it be a veteran who's had Wimbledon success in the past? Petra Kvitova has won Wimbledon twice and did the same thing as Federer at the French, withdrawing from the tournament after her first-round win to focus on Wimbledon. It seems to have worked. She reached the semis at her Wimbledon tune-up tournament. Her draw isn't a slam dunk. But she has to be the favorite on the bottom half.
Players joining Serena on the top half of the draw include third-ranked Elina Svitolina, a semifinalist in 2019, and Coco Gauff, whose major breakthrough was a fourth-round run in her 2019 Grad Slam debut that included a first-round win over Venus. Gauff made the quarterfinals at the French and has qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, so you know she's got a ton of confidence. She'd play Serena in the fourth round in what figures to be a must-see matchup.
French Open finalists Barbora Krejcikova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova are both on the top half, as well. Krejcikova has actually never played in the Wimbledon main draw before (she did win the doubles title in 2018, however), so I'm especially interested to see how she follows up her French Open title. Pavlyuchenkova, meanwhile, has one quarterfinal appearance mixed in with a lot of early-round losses in her Wimbledon career. But how will she play now that she's finally reached a Grand Slam final?
Hometown favorite Johanna Konta also has a chance to make some noise. A quarterfinalist in 2019, she's one of three seeded British players. The others are both men--Daniel Evans and Cameron Norrie. Andy Murray also returns to the site of his greatest triumph for the first time since 2017. He's no longer a contender for major titles and his ranking has slipped so far that he needed a wild card, but none of that matters. There's something right about seeing Andy Murray on Centre Court Wimbledon. This might be the last time, too, so you know the fans will savour it (yes, I spelled it the British way on purpose!).
There's something right about tennis being played on Centre Court Wimbledon period! That's really the biggest thing about this year's tournament. Whoever wins will be secondary. We're all winners because Wimbledon is back. It's been a long time since July 2019...in more ways than one! For that reason alone, Wimbledon 2021 will be one of the most memorable ever. Regardless of the results!
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