LONDON | Despite reaching the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday, Denis Shapovalov believes the situation in London these two weeks is “far from ideal”. The Canadian will have to play three games in as many days due to the rain that disrupted Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s competition schedule.
An extremely rare occurrence at Grand Slams, where athletes typically use a rest day between their meetings.
In addition, the 26th favourite, after finishing his match late Wednesday afternoon, was back on the pitch towards Thursday evening to take on Frenchman Grégoire Barrère (49th in the world rankings), whom he defeated 6-3 . 6-4 and 7-6 (7).
“I thought they would put me on the schedule a little later,” said the Canadian, who, like his compatriot Félix Auger-Aliassime, suffers from a sore knee. But such is life when there are rain delays at a major tournament. You have to juggle schedules, and that’s a bit difficult.
20 minutes on grass
However, “Shapo” will be able to enjoy a somewhat longer break on Friday. He will play the third game of the day against a local favorite, Liam Broady, ranked 142nd in the world.
Due to the rain, Bianca Andreescu had to wait two more days to win her first round meeting against Hungarian Anna Bondar, 110th racquet in the world (6-3, 3-6, 6-2).
The 50th player in the world suffered a wrist injury (it’s rare for a Canadian player who isn’t suffering a little right now!) and was happy last weekend that her tournament didn’t start until Tuesday.
A “frustrating” wait
But that extra wait didn’t necessarily bode well for the 2019 US Open winner, who was only able to complete “45 minutes in two days,” including “20 minutes on grass.”
“This waiting is frustrating, especially because some players are already in the third round,” said Andreescu, who will meet 26th seeded Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina on Friday. “But that’s the reality for a lot of players right now.”
“I’m just trying to control what’s in my power,” she continued. And I can’t change something like that until I’m the favorite again [ces dernières ont plus souvent droit aux stades dotés d’un toit rétractable].”
“It will be soon,” she added, smiling.