Wimbledon 101
Sport Review #284
Obviously not that special, coming out so late. Ahem.
Anyway, Wimbledon is the GOAT grand slam and one of the great sporting fortnights of the year - all green grass, great crowds, great celebs and great tennis with a lot at stake.
Here’s the Sport Review guide to players to watch and more - excludes the Italian Jannik Sinner, who is world #1 and will likely win it.
Lawful good - Ons Jabeur A magnificent player with all the touch in the world - has lost two Wimbledon finals recently and is a big crowd favourite, Sport Review wants her to win it
Lawful neutral - Iga Swiatek World #1, has only lost four games this year. Very personable of the court, very intense on it, but struggles on the grass
Lawful evil - Novak Djokavic Is the GOAT unfortunately, and tries to be a gracious statesman of the game, but can also be a massive baby dickweed when the mood takes him
Neutral good - Carlos Alcaraz He is so good and an absolute ray of sunshine. Really really enjoyed him taking down Novak last year, and will be thereabouts this year - watch the big old forehand and the bowling ball drop shot
True neutral - Grigor Dimitrov Plays with a one hand backhand and a Wilson Pro Staff, which is The Way Things Should Be Done
Neutral evil - Andrey Rublev I really want him to win something, because he goes 1000% bat shit when things aren’t going his way. Unfortunately, he is out of the tournament already
Chaotic good - Andy Murray He runs and runs and shouts and swears, has two Wimbledon singles titles, won under the most pressure imaginable (plus a US Open). Unfortunately, he is injured and won’t play singles, and got beaten in the doubles, playing alongside his brother Jamie this morning - you can see the post match interview here, it’s highly recommended
Chaotic neutral - Daniil Medvedev A big Sport Review fav, kind of plays like an octopus on ice, but is one of the smartest players out there. He also does a great post-match
Chaotic evil - Stefanos Tsitsipas Just a grumpy grumpy man, who has his grumpy grumpy father in his box. Luckily, he is out already
You can watch it all on TVNZ - only one channel at a time, but. Coverage basically goes from 10pm to 10am, but there’s a handy one hour highlights bizzo every day
There’s a kiwi involved - Lulu Sun is through to the third round and looks the real deal, you can read about her story here.
Wimbledon has one of the best Instagrams in the game - get involved
The merch is truly sick - watch the postage though
Grace Jones is there in a pilots’ helmet and really appreciates the strawberries - that was just a really fun sentence to write
Thanks for reading - Richard
This week's best NZ sport content
Fascinating chat with Simon Porter on becoming New Zealand’s top sport agent - it’s not all hanging around world cup lounges and playing midweek golf (although there’s a fair amount of that) - he’s got strong and very correct opinions on match day experience and how sucking the fun out of rugby is doing us all a massive disservice [Between Two Beers]
Ripping little vignette about the Sunday News from Dylan Cleaver, who was in the middle of it, that will make you miss the glory days of Sunday papers [The Bounce]
Speaking of closing down media - here’s Newshub sports legend Andrew Gourdie on what we’re all going to miss, starting tonight [Newshub]
What’s Yvonne Willering up to now? Suzanne McFadden finds out [Locker Room]
James McConie gives Scott Barrett a tour of the office [Crowd Goes Wild]
Rowan Simpson treats Sport NZ to some outside thinking at a recent conference - do we properly understand all the tools we have now, and are we using them to their full potential? [Top Three]
All those reviews of sporting organisations, programmes and high performance culture have led to the Sports Integrity Commission - Te Kahu Raunui - Dana Johannsen looks at what it’s for and what powers it will have [RNZ]
Video nasty
Playing every tennis court in New York.
Long read
As recommended by The Bounce, Conor Niland’s story of being a low level tennis professional is all airports, waiting around and pressure to survive, with very little human interaction or fun [Guardian]
Recommendation
I miss him so much.