If you want to believe this is the year an American gets back into a final at Wimbledon — for the first time since Serena and Venus Williams stopped getting there all the time — go ahead. It’s still a long shot, especially on the men’s side, but somewhat less long than it used to be.
Coco Gauff has made the semifinals of the last two Grand Slams. In each case she lost to the eventual champion: Aryna Sabalenka in Australia and Swiatek in France. Her forehand remains occasionally unstable, and the quick grass can accentuate that wobbliness. But Gauff’s game is getting more versatile each month, filled with slices and drop shots, and she’s got a cruise missile in her arsenal when her serve is on. As the No 2 seed, she is guaranteed to avoid her main nemesis, Swiatek, until the final.
Jessica Pegula has also returned from her neck injury layoff in style. She won the Ecotrans Open grass-court title in Berlin and at Wimbledon last year, she was tantalisingly close to making her first Grand Slam semifinal before coughing up a third-set lead to eventual champion Marketa Vondrousova.
Those are likely the two best shots, but don’t count out Danielle Collins, who has cooled off a bit from her hot spring but remains a dangerous No 11 seed.
Keep an eye on Alycia Parks in the draw, too, after she finished off British talent Hannah Klugman in qualifying. She won a WTA 125 on grass the week before, and has a game that should work well on the green stuff, especially if she serves well.
On the men’s side, Tommy Paul raised hopes on Sunday when he won the title at Queen’s Club. Paul, who rose to No 12 in the rankings with the win, didn’t have to beat a top 10 player on the way to the title but he did beat fellow American Sebastian Korda in the semifinals. When healthy and in full flight, Korda is considered one of the best grass-court players in the world — so much so that last year he fell into the trap of believing his own hype. After saying that he felt like a favorite, he promptly lost in the first round.
Elsewhere, Taylor Fritz loves the grass and has the booming, sliding serve to win on it, and one of these days Ben Shelton, who has the boomiest of booming serves, is going to figure the lawns out too. This year is probably too soon for the Floridian, though.
