Wimbledon bluffer's guide

Sport Review #330

Jul 03, 2025

Wimbledon is here, one of the greatest sporting fortnights on the calendar. There’s nothing more satisfying than an unblemished neatly lined grass court.

This year’s coverage is on Disney+ (because Disney bought ESPN), so if you can get the kids off Modern Family you are in. It’s amazing, every single game is live and replays are uploaded quickly along with an amazing line up of commentators including John McEnroe, who we didn’t get before. Sky could never.

Games start at 10pm and end around 7 / 8am, so if you’re prepared to not sleep, you will be sweet.

This is pretty decent explainer of how the grand old traditions work:

Wimbledon’s own social media and YouTube are world class, with loads of highlights, interviews and historic footage:

And yip, there are loads of podcasts all doing the same thing with a big pre-tournament preview episode whose predications are all out of date and daily updates. I have settled on Tennis Unfiltered for some gentle brit humour, along with a little of Andy Roddick (podcasts like he plays, loud) and No Challenges Remaining (which doesn’t come out often enough).

You should also get the excellent Wimbledon app.

Clothing wise, Adidas is killing it. The Nike stuff is nice, not that you can get any of this stuff in NZ. But really, how can you mess up white?

And no matter if you’re a ball boy needing a spare shirt, American Psycho or in the market for an $125 bucket hat, the official merch has you covered:

So who’s going to win? Well it’s been a bloodbath for seeded players so far, so I’m just going to say Carlos, again. Keep an eye on my boy Joao Fonseca though, and even Taylor Fritz (I hate to say it). For the women it is Sabalenka’s to lose, it is a shame she will meet Aus Open champ in the semis, not the final if it goes that way.

Thanks for reading - Richard

This week's best NZ sport content

Jeff Wilson on the Development Squad is thoughtful and revealing, with plenty of good stuff on his days playing cricket [Development Squad]

In the winter Takapuna golf course is a boggy, sodden nightmare, so making it a wastewater drain that would help the desperate situation in Wairau Valley on the anniversary day flood would seem to make sense? Oh no [Spinoff]

The moment unfolded in front of the massed bank of Boca fans and Gray wasn’t quite sure how to celebrate. “It’s funny because [at breakfast] we were talking about celebrations but I don’t score many goals,” he said. “So it was little bit unusual.”

Auckland City’s Christian Grey on scoring against Boca Juniors [NZHerald]

All the cosy things that happened at once so the TAB can be the only gambling agency in NZ and pop up pretty much everywhere you watch sport [Spinoff]

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