Today at Wimbledon, all eyes were on Centre Court—although not for the usual reasons. The world’s oldest tennis tournament may date back to 1877, but this year marks the 100th anniversary of its current premises on Church Road, in the suburb of southwest London that plays host to the championships, and thus the centenary of Centre Court itself. To mark the occasion, there were fireworks, musical performances from Cliff Richard and singer-songwriter Freya Ridings, and 1,500 refugees from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria in attendance.
Also making their way onto Centre Court was a starry lineup of tennis legends past and present, all of whom have dominated the courts at Wimbledon at one time or other, including Billie Jean King, Andy Murray, Margaret Court, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Bjorn Borg, and Rod Laver. Martina Navratilova, who holds the record for the most Wimbledon singles titles in history with nine wins, had flown over from her home in Florida to attend the event but was forced to pull out at the last minute after testing positive for COVID this morning.
Meanwhile, a surprise appearance was made by Roger Federer, who has won a record eight men’s singles titles at the historic Grand Slam tournament, but was forced to withdraw this year for the first time in 23 years due to a knee injury. “It’s great to be here with all the other champions,” Federer said during the celebrations. “This court has given me my biggest wins and my biggest losses. I hope I can come back one more time—I’ve missed it here.”
While the event, which took place on the seventh day of this year’s championships, may have offered one of the starriest moments at Wimbledon thus far, it comes at the end of a tumultuous week marked by everything from dramatic personality clashes to surprise losses. Perhaps the most notable loss was Serena Williams’s, in the first round on Tuesday at the hands of French player Harmony Tan. Later that same day, another twist arrived as the Italian Matteo Berrettini—who reached the men’s singles final last year and has remained undefeated on grass courts this season—was forced to withdraw after testing positive for COVID.
The women’s singles race also grew increasingly unpredictable after Emma Raducanu was knocked out in the second round and Coco Gauff was defeated yesterday by fellow American Anna Anisimova. Thanks to her number one ranking and 37-match winning streak—a French Open win among them—Poland’s Iga Swiatek was arguably poised to be this year’s frontrunner, but saw her remarkable run come to an end at the hands of the unseeded 32-year-old French player Alizé Cornet. As such, the new odds-on favorite to win is the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who recently reached a career-high ranking of number two; if Jabeur were to take home the trophy, she would become both the first Arab player and the first African woman player to do so in the history of all the Grand Slams.
Dominating this weekend’s coverage, however, was the hot-tempered third-round clash between Australia’s notorious “bad boy” Nick Kyrgios yesterday and the Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas. With the crowd audibly throwing their weight behind Kyrgios from the beginning of the match, Tsitsipas lost his cool and smashed a ball into the crowd towards the end of the second set, nearly hitting a spectator. Kyrgios then launched into a series of interruptions in which he appealed to the chair umpire to disqualify the Greek player, causing Tsitsipas to grow increasingly (and visibly) frustrated, even complaining to the chair umpire himself about Kyrgios’s antics. No doubt swelled by the crowd’s vociferous support, Kyrgios defeated Tsitsipas in a thrilling tiebreaker.
The fireworks continued even after the players left the court: In their post-match interviews, both players admonished the other for their conduct during the match. “It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does,” said Tsitsipas during his unusually fiery news conference. “He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like people that put other people down. He has some good traits in his character, as well. But…he also has a very evil side to him, which if it’s exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.”
Finally, earlier today, another player hoping to power their way through this year’s competition, the 19-year-old Spanish wunderkind Carlos Alcaraz, was defeated by the 20-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner. In a thrilling match that felt like a window into the future of the men’s game, both players performed brilliantly under intense pressure and firmly proved themselves as next-generation stars.
Of course, all eyes remain on this year’s two titans, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The former is playing his fourth-round match against the Dutch player Tim van Rijthoven later today, while the latter plays another Dutchman, Botic van de Zandschulp, tomorrow; both are expected to be easy wins as Djokovic and Nadal continue their steady advance to the final. But if this year’s unpredictable race is anything to go by, don’t rule out another wild card over the next week to shake things up once again.