Wimbledon 2023
The Spaniards and Russians renew their rivalry knowing that the defending champions should be waiting for them in the Wimbledon final
Thu 13 Jul 2023 at 7pm BST
It’s been two years since Carlos Alcaraz took his first tentative steps onto the pitch of the All England Club as a professional. He was 18 at the time and while he couldn’t jump straight into the tournament with his rankings, the promise he had shown on his early trips to the Australian Open and French Open had landed him a wild card into the main draw at Wimbledon .
In his first professional game on grass, he narrowly survived the lucky loser Yasutaka Uchiyama. Two days later Alcaraz met Daniil Medvedev.
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“He was much less mature and younger, which is normal,” the Russian said on Wednesday. “He was missed. Everyone saw that he was great, but everyone was wondering if he’ll find a way to miss less [while] produce the same performance. And he did it pretty quickly. That’s the amazing thing.”
Their fight ended in an easy 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory for the Russian. The circle closes with the semifinals on Friday. After storming up the rankings, establishing himself as a Grand Slam champion and current world No. 1, Alcaraz will face Medvedev, third seed, in his first Wimbledon final.
The confidence that has driven Alcaraz on and off the pitch since his appearance is clearly evident. He has achieved such great success in such a short space of time, breaking age records and outpacing his rivals, and his goals have changed as a result. His goal was once to win Grand Slam titles and reach world No. 1; Now he wants to be one of the greatest in the history of his sport.
Still, that run and its pace, from winning Queen’s to racing through five straight games at Wimbledon, surprised even the 20-year-old. The speed of his adaptation further underlines his skill and his ability to master a game so diverse that it can adapt to all substrates. He’s shown that the hype that follows him, deafening as it is, does so with good reason.
The pair have only played once since that first meeting, this year in the Indian Wells final. That game was one of Alcaraz’s most notable performances to date, as he demolished his opponent, brimming with confidence in a 19-game winning streak, 6-3, 6-2. Medvedev insists the grass will offer a completely different game.
‘Everyone saw he was great’: Daniil Medvedev in action against Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon 2021. The Russian won but was impressed by his young opponent. Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
“I don’t think Indian Wells will count for much here,” Medvedev said. “Slow down, Indian Wells. I mean it won’t be the same. Wimbledon, the ball bounces lower. The serve is more important. I had the feeling that I couldn’t get any more free points with the serve.”
The surface will certainly allow Medvedev to get more out of his serve and he’s been hitting exceptionally well at times this week. His own progress on both grass and clay has been deeply impressive. But at Indian Wells, Alcaraz dismantled Medvedev’s signature deep-return stance and field positioning with a frenzy of serve and volley attempts, net jabs, drop shots and unrelenting aggression. Such an approach is only deadlier on grass.
The pair will battle knowing they could potentially play for a spot against second seed Novak Djokovic. After 11 days of tennis nothing has changed. The defending champion and seven-time winner remains the clear favorite even in the toughest group of challengers he could face in the later rounds.
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Skupski and Koolhof reach the men’s doubles final
In recent years, Neal Skupski has made a name for himself as a specialist in mixed doubles, winning the title here in 2021 and 2022 alongside Desirae Krawczyk of the United States. What he wants now is to secure the men’s title and on Thursday he was one win away as he and Wesley Koolhof, his Dutch partner Matt Ebden, one half of last year’s winning duo, and Rohan Bopanna defeated India 7 -5, 6-4. The top seeds will face Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in the final.
Skupski is the first Briton to reach a final at Wimbledon, excluding wheelchair users, in three consecutive years since Dorothy Round in 1937. “It’s always nice to have a Brit with us at the end of the tournament at Wimbledon,” he said. “I’ve been lucky with mixed doubles in recent years. But that’s what we want. That’s what we trained for. For me, that’s the highest achievement when we’ve managed to cross the finish line. But we still have a tough game ahead of us.”
As for streaks, this one will take a beating. Britain’s men’s wheelchair doubles duo Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid duly reached their 16th consecutive Grand Slam final together on Thursday by defeating Argentina’s Gustavo Fernández and Spain’s Martín de la Puente 7-5, 6-3.
Another example of why they’ve established themselves as the best doubles pair in the world – in every discipline – the No. 1 seeded won a narrow first set and then effortlessly progressed through the second to leave them just one win from their fifth Wimbledon together -Titles are removed. In the final they play against the Japanese Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda. Simon Cambers
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Despite his lack of experience on grass, Jannik Sinner – who will face Djokovic in the semifinals – has grown on the surface and reached the quarterfinals for the first time last year. His destructive, clean and perfectly timed groundstrokes, unrelenting aggression and love of pace are naturally rewarded on turf.
In that quarterfinal last year, Sinner played the best tennis of his life, leading by two sets, but Djokovic turned the game around and won in five sets. The Italian has the weapons to pummel Djokovic and make him uncomfortable, but the ease with which the 36-year-old recovered was in some ways even more disheartening than a straight-set loss.
Despite finally reaching the long-awaited first Grand Slam semi-final this week, Sinner did so with an amazingly easy draw. He has yet to play a top 50 player; his highest-ranked opponent in the third round was No. 79 Quentin Halys, who snatched a set from him. Now the 21-year-old must face the best player in the world at a place he hasn’t lost in a decade.
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