It’s back, baby! The world’s most beloved tennis championships has returned to SW19 after two years blighted by Covid.
We can all at last enjoy a fortnight of Sue Barker (for the final time), strawberries and — hopefully — a little on-court sun (well, those of us lucky enough to have tickets for Wimbledon 2022, the rest of us will be cheering on from our sofas).
So could this be Emma Raducanu’s moment, after her fairytale US Open victory last year? Who are the other Brits to watch out for? And what are organisers doing about Russia given the ongoing war in Ukraine?
From politics to injury woes, this is your guide.
Will Britain’s biggest stars be fit?
The two biggest draws for home fans, Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu, have both been in a race to prove their fitness for this year’s Wimbledon.
Two-time champion Murray suffered an abdominal strain in the final of the Stuttgart Open two weekends ago leaving him struggling to serve against last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini. At a time when he had been showing his best form since hip surgery three-and-a-half years ago, it is a cruel blow.
The former world No1 has taken his place in the draw but how fully fit and ready he will be remains to be seen.
The same can be said of Emma Raducanu. Wimbledon last year had been her break-out tournament when she reached the fourth round before going on to her fairytale US Open win a few weeks later.
She described her side strain as a “freak” injury but she has been practising at Wimbledon this week and hopes to have the issue at least manageable by the time she plays Alison Van Uytvanck in the first round.
Who are the other Brits to watch out for?
From a British perspective, fans can look well beyond Murray and Raducanu.
Perhaps best placed is Cameron Norrie. Currently ranked 12th in the world, he has won two titles this year but has never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam.
Ryan Peniston proved the outlier at the Cinch Championships at Queen’s Club last week, the habitual warm-up tournament to Wimbledon. The 26-year-old knocked out No1 seed and French Open runner-up Casper Ruud. Glued to Love Island during Queen’s, Peniston is expecting to employ a similar TV-viewing philosophy at SW19.
Another rising star of the game is Jack Draper, whose father Roger was the former CEO of the Lawn Tennis Association. The 20-year-old left hander has the sort of game suited to Wimbledon’s grass.
On the women’s side, Katie Boulter is only just back after three months out with a leg injury but has shown some good early form on the grass.
What about the big international stars?
Serena Williams had not played on the WTA Tour since suffering an ankle injury in the first round of Wimbledon last year. When her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou started working with Simona Halep, the intimation was that Williams was set to retire.
But she made her comeback playing doubles in Eastbourne on Tuesday with Ons Jabeur and is in the main draw of the singles at Wimbledon. Aged 40, her quest is still to equal the record of 24 Grand Slam titles. She is currently one behind Margaret Court and has reached four Grand Slam finals since the birth of her daughter Olympia without sealing a title.
There are question marks about French Open champion Rafael Nadal, who had to endure injections in Paris to negate the pain. That left him without feeling in his right foot in the final.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has shunned further injections for a treatment called radiofrequency ablation, which destroys nerve fibres carrying pain to the brain.
The tournament comes too soon for his great rival and friend Roger Federer, but the third member of tennis’ Big Three, Novak Djokovic, will start as favourite.
The Russia problem
Under guidance from The Government in the lengthy build-up, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) were given two stark choices. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, they could ban players from Russia and Belarus from playing altogether or make them sign a declaration against the war.
Fearing possible reprisals for those players and their families, Wimbledon said it had no alternative but to go ahead with the ban.
The men’s and women’s tours – the ATP and WTA – reacted by removing ranking points from the tournament and all the preceding grasscourt events in the UK.
It led to fears that Wimbledon could become little more than an exhibition tournament and there were those such as Naomi Osaka, who questioned her participation. She is among the big-name withdrawals but cited an Achilles injury rather than the Russian row for that decision.
The ruling means the notable absence of world No1 Daniil Medvedev while the highest-ranked player in the women’s game forced out is No6 Aryna Sabalenka.
One Russian player, doubles specialist Natela Dzalamidze, has recently changed her nationality to Georgia and will play the tournament – she says the decision was made before the ban was announced, but the change was only approved afterwards.
What’s happening with the expansion plans?
There is a growing sense of ill feeling by many residents towards the AELTC over their ambitious expansion plans for the venue.
Proposals have been put forward for 39 additional tennis courts on Wimbledon Park Golf Course, one of which is an 8,000-seater show court.
Opponents have cited covenants between the All England Club and Merton Council stipulating the land could not be built on when the AELTC bought the golf club freehold for £5.2million in 1993.
Conservation groups also point to the fact that the 240-year-old landscape was designed by Capability Brown on land owned by the Spencer family, ancestors of Princess Diana. Chris Baker, director of the Capablity Brown Society, described the revamp as an “act of vandalism”.
Up to 300 trees are expected to be cut down – although the AELTC plans to plant 1,500 new ones – while the lake will be dredged with a new boardwalk built around it as part of a 9.4-hectare public park.
Known as the Estate Master Plan, Wimbledon has defended its expansion saying the aim is to maintain its position as the premier tennis tournament in the world.
What else is new?
Henman Hill, Murray Mound, Raducanu Ridge, or whatever you want to call it, has long been a feature of the Wimbledon fortnight.
And day in, day out, fans unable to get into the show courts will once more congregate on there to watch the action from Centre Court and No1.
This year, a ‘Henman Hill’ is set to be created 3,500 miles away in New York. For the final three days of action – from July 8 to 10 – it will be set up in Brookyln Bridge Park, giving 1,000 New Yorkers at a time the chance to get the quintessential Wimbledon experience.
It marks a quarter of a century since Henmania – Britain’s fascination with former British No1 Tim Henman – began when a new big screen was erected in front of the grassy mound.
