- Alcaraz v Rune, Medvedev v Eubanks to come later on
- Historic British women’s doubles run comes to an end
- Get in touch! Email Daniel or tweet @DanielHarris
It’s sunny on No1 now and Keys is into stride, holding comfortably for 1-2. But at the end of the game she approaches the umpire, who then makes a call with the lesser-spotted telephone. All I heard was she doesn’t want to make it a thing, so perhaps she’s a minor twinge – we shall see.
Email! “‘Then, we end our day with a brute,” says James W, quoting me back to me. “‘Carlos Alcaraz is, quite simply, the future of tennis, a bouncing bundle of joy and violence improving on grass with every set.’
But you know how Sunday is going to go, right? A 20 year old will put his heart and soul into proceedings for two, maybe three sets. But Djok Navakovich, age 36, will just be getting started. And look like he can keep doing this for another 2-3 hours (or 10, if need be), with every return deep and down to the feet, kissing the baseline.
He might get mildly peeved off (by say losing a set or two), while Carlos ‘Escape From (I’ll get my coat, etc and so forth) Alcaraz tires himself out, gets cramp, while Djok will move like a man a decade younger, and systematically, methodically, crush him in four or five. This is Novak’s world. We are just living in it (from a Federer fan). Unreal the heights Djok is taking motivation, having quite literally won everything there is to win in tennis, at least thrice, the fitness, the preparation, the mental game. Borg retired at 26. Fed played on till almost 40 (but when the injuries came, they all came at once – right at the end). Rafa is another outlier, especially given his style. But what these three men are doing (actually, Andy Murray as well, for different reasons, and with different results, not really slams, though still super laudable), for as long as they are doing it – I think it will not be truly recognised till all three retire (Fed is, Rafa basically is, bar one more run at next year’s French Open, Novak probably has another 18 months at this insane level). I don’t think we will see three players quite like this again – for a generation or two. Tennis careers end at early, maybe mid thirties, or at least, they used to. Not any more. Not when you have Novak outplay – and out-fitness, a man 16 years younger, on a consistent basis, in the biggest, most high pressure moments. I take my hat off to the man, what he is doing, for as long as he is doing it, is unparalleled in tennis – perhaps bar Giggsy or Tom Brady in NFL, in ALL of modern sport.”
