Wimbledon Briefing: What tennis learned from a fortnight at the All England Club

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories from the past week on-court.

This week, Wimbledon drew to a close in London, with the third Grand Slam of the season playing out at the All England Club. Barbora Krejcikova and Carlos Alcaraz won the singles titles, in a fortnight of five-setters, roof closures, farewells, and much more.

For a special edition of the Tennis Briefing, the writers at The Athletic look back on the tournament, ahead to the coming hard-court season, and consider the imminent return to clay for the Olympics back at Roland Garros in Paris.

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Was Andy Murray’s Wimbledon farewell truly the end?

For a player whose actual tennis output over the past three-and-a-half weeks amounted to a straight-sets men’s doubles defeat, Andy Murray didn’t half dominate this year’s Wimbledon news cycle.

The lead-up to the tournament centred on medical bulletins about spinal cyst injuries. There was a singles withdrawal and an emotional retrospective, before the soap opera of being jilted at the mixed doubles altar by Emma Raducanu.

With the exceptions of Henry Patten’s remarkable share of the men’s doubles title, Raducanu’s run to the fourth round, and qualifier Sonay Kartal’s fairytale that ended at the hands of Coco Gauff, what British players did at Wimbledon barely registered compared to the myriad dramas surrounding Murray. The 37-year-old Scot was playing his last match at SW19 and is expected to retire from tennis after the upcoming Olympics.

Next year will be different. Murray will be putting his feet up and the onus will be on Jack Draper et al to provide the headlines and the hope for the home crowd.

Maybe. But Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and many others in the locker room are at least a little sceptical that this year really will be it for Murray. Djokovic said he expects to see Murray back here in 2025, playing that last singles match on Centre Court that injury denied him this time.

Freed from the physical toll of gruelling regular competition, he’ll probably be feeling good hitting balls as the UK grass-court season gets underway. Maybe, just maybe, he will be tempted into one last dance.

And if he’s not, well, that won’t stop people speculating.

Don’t expect the Murray saga to have finished quite yet.

Murray waved goodbye to Wimbledon in an emotional ceremony (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Charlie Eccleshare

Was Krejcikova’s title really that much of a surprise?

Writing off Barbora Krejcikova as a Wimbledon contender in the days before this year’s tournament made some sense. The top four women’s players in the world — Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina — had shared seven of the previous eight majors. Krejcikova was coming off a dreadful run of illness and injuries and after returning from a back problem, had lost in the first round of five of her six tournaments heading into the Championships.

But Krejcikova’s Grand Slam pedigree goes well beyond the French Open she won in 2021.

The Czech has 10 Grand Slam doubles titles to her name, including four since the start of 2022, a phenomenal achievement that should be used as context for her ability to win Grand Slam titles in singles. It’s understandable that Krejcikova was written off for this Wimbledon, but that pedigree and the rock-solid baseline consistency and deft net game that doubles excellence requires were ready to make her a force on the SW19 grass if she could just find her form.

GO DEEPER

A smiling ghost of Centre Court – and a Wimbledon final in no need of a grand narrative

She nearly didn’t make it into the second week. In her first-round match against Veronika Kudermetova, Krejcikova came through one of the scoring system’s great convolutions — winning fewer points overall but winning the match — and she won two tiebreaks against Katie Volynets in the next round.

Krejcikova used her experience in the closing stages of the final (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

But once she got to the second week, Krejcikova’s experience at the latter stages of slams came to the fore in cutting down Danielle Collins and then staying calm after a first-set battering from Rybakina in the semifinal. She also managed to reset after the disappointment of comprehensively losing the second set against Jasmine Paolini in the final.

Her run to the title is emblematic of the depth of women’s tennis.

Charlie Eccleshare

What’s the real story with Iga Swiatek and grass?

A 23-year-old tennis player has 18 wins, seven losses, and one semifinal walkover due to illness on grass — a walkover that followed three easy wins. Their Wimbledon losses have come against a known giantkiller, a crowd favourite in the form of their life and a player who peaked so much they hit one unforced error in 13 games. Otherwise, they have five Grand Slam titles, 112 weeks at world No 1, and a dominant lead in the rankings.

Is that a bad record? For Iga Swiatek, apparently, it is. After previous defeats to Alize Cornet and Elina Svitolina, the wake of her Wimbledon exit to Yulia Putintseva was dominated by the simple conclusion that she was still yet to figure out grass, especially given her decision not to play any warm-up tournaments this year. (Though coming off three consecutive two-week tournament wins, at the Italian Open, Madrid Open and French Open, that last part wasn’t a huge surprise.)

That doesn’t really ring true in the context of her losses, or her recent record overall. More pressing might be a different element of tennis dynamics — crowds. Swiatek is one of the most dominant players in the world, if not the most, so her wins at Grand Slams are often comfortable.

As the best player in the world, and one of its most-loved, Swiatek is a crowd favourite, and when she’s winning they tend to love it… until she starts winning too much. If momentum shifts, that means more tennis and crowds will often get on the side of the underdog, at least temporarily. Some players deal with this well, but occasionally Swiatek can look a little lost, especially if that shift is accompanied by a swing in momentum.

GO DEEPER

How should a world No 1 be? Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka have an idea

Over the past year or so, Swiatek has got better at dealing with these kinds of matches.

Last year’s French Open final win against Karolina Muchova is a high-profile example, ditto beating Danielle Collins at the Australian Open in January — on both of those occasions, Swiatek rebounded from losing the second set to win a tight decider. She also edged past Naomi Osaka in Paris this year having been rolled for the best part of two sets, steeling herself when her opponent held match point.

Which is why Swiatek’s third-round defeat to Putintseva here felt like a regression. On this occasion, Swiatek was completely unable to stop her opponent’s momentum once she levelled the match at one set each. Putintseva won the decider 6-2 and met minimum resistance from the world No 1, who is still yet to go beyond the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

Swiatek looked lost — but Putintseva’s level would likely have beaten any opponent (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

There used to be a feeling around Swiatek that when matches got close, she could get a little frazzled. So used to winning comfortably, it would figure that things might get tense for her when all of a sudden there was a momentum shift. Especially as in those matches she often has the crowd willing on her opponent, keen to see some sort of contest.

In this defeat, her inability to alter the flow of the match once it started to get away from her felt like a much bigger issue than grass.

Fortunately for Swiatek, she’ll soon be back on the Roland Garros clay for the Olympics, when the issue of how to stop an opponent’s momentum rarely comes into play for her.

 Charlie Eccleshare 

How did Naomi Osaka exceed her own expectations?

Naomi Osaka, a former world No 1 who is one of the most captivating players in the sport regardless of her ranking, was never much of a fan of either clay courts or grass ones. With a new baby at home in Los Angeles, Osaka had an excellent excuse to go easy on the European spring and early-summer swing. But she didn’t. Instead, she spent long stretches trying to acclimate her flat, hard power to surfaces that have never been very friendly to her.

Osaka pushed the world No 1, Iga Swiatek, to match point at the French Open. She beat Diane Parry in a tight, three-set match at Wimbledon before falling to a flawless performance from Emma Navarro in the second round. In past years, Osaka would have shrugged this off and moved on — a “hard-court kid”,  as she describes herself, literally on foreign soil.

GO DEEPER

Naomi Osaka, The Comeback Interview: A tale of pregnancy, fear and a ballerina

Not this year. Losing early hurt. “I definitely am excited to go back on hard courts, but I don’t know, I’m a little disappointed because I wanted to do really well. I feel like I put a lot of time into it,” Osaka said.

Osaka does not have an affinity with grass or clay but has done good work on the surfaces this year (Andrej Isakovic/AFP via Getty Images)

Her coach, Wim Fissette, has long said that the goal for this comeback was to be firing on all cylinders during the North American hard-court swing. That’s coming at the end of the month. First, Osaka is leaning into her discomfort once more, heading back to Roland Garros to represent Japan at the Olympics.

She is 16-13 this season, playing more tournaments on grass and clay than on hard courts. She has shown plenty of quality where expectations were modest. She’s a few weeks away from getting the hard stuff back under her feet and quite a bit ahead of schedule.

Bring it on.

 Matt Futterman

Has Frances Tiafoe figured himself out?

There have been concerns about Frances Tiafoe for a while now, ever since Ben Shelton spanked him in Arthur Ashe Stadium in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open last September.

Tiafoe, one of the brightest lights in the game when he wants to be, has been out of form ever since. He fired his coach and has been battling with motivational issues. The 26-year-old doesn’t hide the fact that he only “cares” about a handful of tournaments during the year.

But part of being a professional is learning to care about doing the work, the blocking and tackling of being a high-quality player, whether that means training purposefully or caring about winning a match on a drizzly Tuesday night in the Netherlands when 75 people are in the stands.

He sprained a knee in the Queen’s Club warm-up tournament, so nobody would have questioned him if he skipped Wimbledon entirely, or packed it in when he was two sets down in the first round.

Tiafoe found his game on the Wimbledon grass — for the first time in a long time (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

He didn’t. He stopped feeling sorry for himself and came alive. He won that match, dominated his second one and played one of the great duels of the tournament on Centre Court in the third round when he pushed eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to within a handful of points of elimination.

Alcaraz survived, but when it was over, Tiafoe was interested again. He had that twinkle in his eye. He’d been reminded of how good he is and how good he can be.

Tiafoe said he has his eye on a few coaches — coaches who have been to the mountaintop.

He might not get there, but he knows he wants to try to get there again.

GO DEEPER

‘Better tennis is ahead of me’: Is Frances Tiafoe coming alive again?

 Matt Futterman

What’s next for Novak Djokovic?

Novak Djokovic isn’t planning any sort of ending to his career and he has no plans to make plans, and that was music to our ears.

So much of men’s tennis lately has been dominated by talk of endings. Rafael Nadal’s last season, probably. Andy Murray’s last Wimbledon, perhaps.

A little more than an hour after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s men’s final, Djokovic answered a question about his twilight as though it wasn’t even a consideration.

“I still keep going,” the 37-year-old Serb said. “I still have intentions to play Olympic Games, hopefully have a chance to fight for a medal for my country. On a completely different surface obviously, going back to the place where I got injured some weeks ago. Let’s see. Let’s see how, physically and mentally, I’m going to feel.

GO DEEPER

Inside Novak Djokovic’s recovery – accepting outsiders, hyperbaric chambers, Jelena’s worries

“Hopefully I can find the right tennis, because I’m going to need all I have and more to go to the final of the Olympic Games. As far as coming back here, I mean, I would love to. I don’t have anything else in my thoughts right now that this is my last Wimbledon. I really want to play at least, whatever. I don’t know. I don’t have any limitations in my mind. I still want to keep going and play as long as I feel like I can play on this high level.”

Djokovic can play on the top level. He sees himself as below Alcaraz and world No 1 Jannik Sinner now. He has zero titles this year. But he’s not going anywhere.

“In the face of adversity, normally I rise and I learn and get stronger,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

God bless.

Djokovic was tied in knots by Alcaraz (Francois Nel/Getty Images)

 Matt Futterman

Shot of the week

Just outrageous, really.

Recommended reading:

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Carlos Alcaraz def. Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) to win Wimbledon at the All England Club in London. It is Alcaraz’s second Wimbledon title.
🏆 Roberto Carballes Baena def. Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 6-3 to win the Brawo Open (Challenger 125) in Braunschweig, Germany. It is the Spaniard’s 12th ATP Challenger title.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Barbora Krejcikova def. Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to win Wimbledon at the All England Club in London. It is her first Wimbledon title, her second Grand Slam singles title, and her 12th Grand Slam title overall.
🏆 Martina Trevisan def. Ann Li 6-2, 6-2 to win the Nordea Open (125) in Bastad, Sweden. It is Trevisan’s second WTA title.
🏆 Lucia Bronzetti def. Mayar Sherif 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5 to win the Grand Est Open 88 (125) in Contrexeville, France. It is Bronzetti’s second WTA title.

📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

📈 Lorenzo Musetti moves up nine places from No 25 to No 16. It is his highest career ranking to date.
📈 Jasmine Paolini ascends two spots from No 7 to No 5. It is her highest career ranking to date.
📈 Barbora Krejcikova rises 22 spots from No 32 to No 10. It is her first time in the top 10 since January 2024.

📉 Marketa Vondrousova falls 12 places from No 6 to No 18, after failing to defend her points from last year’s Wimbledon title.
📉 Matteo Berrettini drops 23 places from No 59 to No 82.
📉 Stan Wawrinka tumbles 10 spots from No 95 to No 105.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Hamburg, Germany: Hamburg Open (500) featuring Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Arthur Fils and Zizou Bergs.
📍Newport, USA: Hall of Fame Open (250) featuring Adrian Mannarino, Chris Eubanks, Reilly Opelka and Ethan Quinn.
📍Gstaad, Switzerland: EFG Swiss Open Gstaad (250) featuring Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem, Jan-Lennard Struff and Ugo Humbert.
📍Bastad, Sweden: Nordea Open (250) featuring Andrey Rublev, Rafael Nadal, Leo Borg and Casper Ruud.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Palermo, Italy: Palermo Ladies Open (250) featuring Zheng Qinwen, Karolina Muchova, Anja Tomljanovic and Peyton Stearns.
📍Budapest, Hungary: Budapest Grand Prix (250) featuring Diana Shnaider, Eva Lys, Olga Danilovic and Elina Avanesyan.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.

(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)