NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with Washington Post sports reporter Ava Wallace about highlights from the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The world’s top tennis players have been battling it out on the grass courts of Wimbledon for the past two weeks. And today, the women’s final saw Barbora Krejcikova win over Jasmine Paolini. But the drama of the tournament isn’t over yet. Here to talk more about what we have seen and what to expect, we’re joined by Eva Wallace. She’s a sports reporter for The Washington Post and joins me now from England. Welcome.
EVA WALLACE: Hi.
DETROW: I mean, let’s just start with that final before we get into what happened today, set up how big of a deal this was and what the drama was at the beginning of it.
WALLACE: Yeah. The thing was it was a really surprising matchup between two finalists. So you had the seventh-ranked Jasmine Paolini, who was also a surprise finalist at the French Open last month, where she lost to Iga Swiatek, and then Barbora Krejcikova, who won the French Open in 2021 but wasn’t really on anyone’s radar here. She’d only won two matches, two singles matches since the end of the Australian Open in January and before getting to Wimbledon here. So it was pretty incredible to see these two women kind of face off. And it was a really good three-set match. It was very tense at the end. And Krejcikova just won by a little bit.
DETROW: Tell me more about just just the feeling there given these stakes, given the match and how good it was.
WALLACE: Well, first of all, it was a really great day because it was not raining for the first time in a few days here at Wimbledon. It was a nice, breezy, sunny day. Center court was full. And people were really kind of behind Jasmine Paolini. She’s a really engaging player. She always plays with a smile. She really plays with her heart on her sleeve. But Krejcikova is a really accomplished doubles player. She has 10 Grand Slam doubles titles between mixed doubles and women’s doubles. So it was kind of fascinating to see their two different styles of play. Paolini is 5’4″, so she has to do a lot of running to cover the court. And Krejcikova uses those kind of doubles skills that she has to really carve up her groundstrokes. So it was a very, very fun match – lots of slices, lots of beautiful drop shots, lots and lots of running from Paolini.
DETROW: Kind of between dynasties on the women’s side right now. Is there a chance that we’re hearing these two names over and over again in the coming years?
WALLACE: Yeah. That is exactly the question. It was kind of surprising, actually, that Paolini even made it to the final Wimbledon after making it to the French Open. She was the first woman to do that since Serena Williams in 2016. That’s a really tough turnaround because there’s only a couple of weeks between those two tournaments. And it kind of feels like, yeah, we could definitely see her again on hard courts. Or it could be one of those things where, like Krejcikova, she kind of makes a big run here and then we don’t hear from her again for a few years. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens when first the Olympics happen on clay and then everybody goes to hardcourts for the U.S. Open.
DETROW: So that’s the women. That’s today. Let’s look ahead to tomorrow and the men’s final. You have last year’s champion, Carlos Alcaraz, against Novak Djokovic, I mean, arguably the greatest tennis players in the world here. What are we thinking about going into tomorrow?
WALLACE: I’m thinking it’s going to be a long match. Last year was four hours and 42 minutes, so I don’t know if they’re going to quite match that, but it’s definitely going to be a big battle. It’s really interesting because Djokovic had knee surgery on June 5 and so kind of didn’t know until a few days before this tournament if he was even going to play it. But he is going for the all-time record, that’s 25 Grand Slams. That would break his tie with Margaret Court, who won most of her Grand Slam titles before the start of the Open era, when professionals could play in 1968. So he’s really motivated. He’s trying to tie Roger Federer’s record here also of eight Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon won by a man. So he’s very motivated. And then Carlos Alcaraz is looking to win his fourth straight Grand Slam final. And he would be one of only two people to do that. And the other guy is Roger Federer also.
DETROW: Did either of them have any moments that surprised you in the March to the finals? These are two such, like, clear cut, top-of-the-world players. Or was was it smooth sailing or anything that caught your eye?
WALLACE: I think the only thing that surprised me, especially with Djokovic, was actually how smooth it was. I mean, this guy has shown absolutely no evidence that he had a knee surgery a couple months ago. I saw him actually running down a hill, which I don’t do, and I have healthy knees, during this tournament. So he’s feeling pretty good. And he’s definitely kind of – he had started getting accustomed to feeling a little bit of love from the crowd and kind of being the only one from this recent generation of greats still left.
And he is kind of embracing his villainhood again here at Wimbledon. He thought the crowd booed him at an earlier match, and he really ran with it and has kind of fueled it. So I kind of wonder if that motivation is going to fuel him past Alcaraz, because I think on physicality alone, the young guy, the 21-year-old, might have the edge over the 37-year-old.
DETROW: Last question. You got about 30 seconds left. We’re talking about all the big names here. Any big surprises for you in this tournament that are worth highlighting?
WALLACE: I think it’s just been interesting to see how many people are not going to go to the Olympics. A lot of sports reporters here are kind of in that mode, since we’re in London, and a lot of us will be going to Paris for the Games right after this. And it’s been a really big topic of conversation because, again, the surface is switching from grass back to clay, then hard courts before the U.S. Open. So a lot of people have been airing kind of their grievances with that or talking about how excited they are despite the challenge.
DETROW: Yeah. That’s Eva Wallace, sports reporter from The Washington Post, joining us from London. Thank you so much.
WALLACE: Hey, thanks.
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