Wimbledon Lookahead: Some players still stuck in 1st round

Associated PressJun 30, 2016, 3:22 AM EDT

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LONDON — While Novak Djokovic – he of the 30-match Grand Slam winning streak – and Roger Federer can relax and enjoy their places in Wimbledon’s third round, there are more than two dozen players still stuck in the opening round.

That includes eight women who enter Thursday without having played a single point in the grass-court tournament thanks to plenty of rain, among them No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky and No. 31 Kristina Mladenovic.

While every man has at least started his first-round match, 12 head into Day 4 needing to complete those contests.

The top American man, 18th-seeded John Isner, has finished only one full set against Marcos Baghdatis, taking it in a tiebreaker. They are scheduled to resume Thursday – weather permitting, of course – with Baghdatis ahead 3-1 in the second.

Mikhail Youzhny and Horacio Zeballos are also in the second set of their first-round match.

And the list goes on and on.

In all, there are 28 players who are hoping to get out of the first round Thursday.

All of the wet weather wreaked so much havoc with the schedule that the first round of men’s doubles matches were reduced from best-of-five sets to best-of-three.

And the worst news of all? The long-range forecast shows there is a chance of rain every day through next Tuesday.

Here is what else to look for at Wimbledon on Thursday:

MURRAY’S TURN: No. 1 Djokovic and No. 3 Federer got to enjoy the protection of the Centre Court roof Wednesday and completed their matches while there was under two hours of play elsewhere on the grounds. No. 2 Andy Murray gets the same treatment Thursday. He’ll be playing his second-round match against 76th-ranked Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan. Murray has lost only one match at any Grand Slam tournament to a player ranked that low, and it was more than a decade ago, against No. 91 Arnaud Clement at the 2005 U.S. Open.

WILLIAMS SISTERS: Serena and Venus Williams are scheduled to play doubles Thursday, part of their reunion tour this season before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In singles, though, six-time Wimbledon champion Serena gets the day off, while five-time champ Venus, who is seeded No. 8, takes on 115th-ranked Maria Sakkari in a second-round match. Sakkari will be trying to become the first Greek woman to reach the third round at a major since Eleni Daniilidou at Wimbledon in 2005.

BOUCHARD VS. KONTA: Two women who closed out rain-interrupted first-round victories Wednesday are back in action when No. 16 Johanna Konta – the first British woman seeded at the All England Club since Jo Durie in 1984 – faces 2014 Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard.

At French Open, Francisco Cerundolo is mad at chair umpire over Holger Rune’s double-bounce

Associated PressJun 5, 2023, 8:49 PM EDT

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

PARIS – Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina was devastated about losing his French Open fourth-round match to Holger Rune of Denmark in a fifth-set tiebreaker Monday. He also was mad at chair umpire Kader Nouni for missing a double-bounce of the ball on a point that was awarded to Rune early in his 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.

They were tied at a set apiece and on serve at 2-1 for the No. 6-seeded Rune early in the third at Court Suzanne Lenglen when the point of contention happened. Cerundolo, who was serving at deuce, hit a forehand that skidded low at the baseline and quickly bounced a second time – which normally would have meant that the point was his.

But Rune went ahead and got his racket on the ball, sending it back over the net. At about the same time, No. 23 seed Cerundolo was saying “sorry” to apologize for the odd way his forehand made the ball skim across the clay. Nouni was not immediately aware of the double-bounce, thought the ball was still in play and called Cerundolo for hindrance for talking during a point. That meant Rune got the point, and when he won the next one, too, he had a service break.

“It was unbelievable, because it was a clear double-bounce. I was mad at the umpire because he has to see it,” Cerundolo said. “It’s his fault.”

In tennis, electronic line-calling is used at many tournaments to make line calls, but replays are not used to check things like double-bounces or whether a point should be lost because a player touches the net, which is not allowed.

And while Cerundolo put the onus on the official, he also thought Rune could have ceded the point because of the double-bounce.

“For sure, I wish he would have done that, because it was a big moment,” Cerundolo said.

Rune, who moved into a matchup against No. 4 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, said he saw a replay after the following point, and “saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened, and he called the score. So I felt sorry.”

But, Rune added: “This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Gael Monfils withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

Associated PressJun 1, 2023, 11:34 AM EDT

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

PARIS — A thrilling five-set victory took a toll on Gael Monfils, whose withdrawal from the French Open handed No. 6 Holger Rune a walkover to the third round.

The 36-year-old Frenchman said he has a strained left wrist and can’t continue.

He battled Sebastian Baez for nearly four hours on Court Philippe Chatrier before beating the Argentine 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in a first-round match that ended at 12:18 a.m. local time.

The victory was Monfils’ first at tour level this year, as the veteran was coming back from heel surgery.

“Actually, physically, I’m quite fine. But I had the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve,” he said. “The doctor say was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely say I should stop.”

Monfils reached the semifinals at the French Open in 2008 and made it to the quarterfinals on three other occasions.