Wimbledon is over for another year, with the trophies hoisted aloft and the All England Club gates closed.
Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova have the singles titles, beating Novak Djokovic and Jasmine Paolini respectively. British success came from Henry Patten, who partnered Harri Heliovaara to win the men’s doubles, and from Alfie Hewett, in the wheelchair men’s singles. Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend won the women’s doubles and Hsieh Su-Wei and Jan Zielinski won the mixed.
Here, The Athletic tennis team — writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare, and editor James Hansen — reflect on the past fortnight, picking the players, matches, and moments that made the tournament.
Player of the tournament
Futterman: Carlos Alcaraz. To be this good on grass this quickly is scary. To be this good on grass, this year, right after winning Roland Garros? That’s even scarier.
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Eccleshare: Alfie Hewett, who also provided one of the most heartwarming moments. The home favourite was looking to complete the career Grand Slam in the wheelchair singles, having lost twice in the Wimbledon final previously. In 2022, he served four times for the title and couldn’t get over the line.
The moment he clinched victory this year, beating Martin de la Puente in the final, was hugely emotional both for him and for the Court 1 crowd, which included his proud grandfather. Hewett then promptly went and won his sixth Wimbledon wheelchair doubles title, with partner Gordon Reid.
Wimbledon was the only singles Grand Slam title that had eluded Hewett — until 2024 (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
Hansen: Barbora Krejcikova. Is picking a winner boring? Maybe normally, but the Czech went from an undeservedly forgotten Grand Slam singles champion rediscovering her form to being on the edge of one of the most beautiful Wimbledon stories in the space of a few days. She had to beat one of the form players of the year (Danielle Collins) and the last Wimbledon champion (Elena Rybakina) to get to the final, then came back from a miserable second set to meet the legacy of her mentor, Jana Novotna, in the most fitting way possible.
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Favourite player of the tournament
Futterman: Jasmine Paolini. Her run in Paris was so different, especially her semi and final, which were both duds, through no fault of her own. At Wimbledon, she kept fighting her way back into matches like she’d never done on grass before and you felt it in your guts.
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Eccleshare: Relative to expectations, Lulu Sun going all the way through qualifiers and into the quarterfinals as the world No 123 takes some beating. One of the joys of Grand Slams is getting to know new players with cool backstories, and Sun, the New Zealander with a Chinese mum, Croatian dad and German-English stepdad, who spent most of her life in Switzerland before going to university in Texas, was absolutely that player at these championships. Throw in a huge forehand and her throwback grass-court game that included frequent forays to the net and Sun quickly became a favourite with the Wimbledon fans.
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Hansen: Giovanna Mpetshi Perricard, who sat at No 58 in the world on day one of Wimbledon without a spot in the draw, after losing in the final round of qualifying. Then Alejandro Davidovich Fokina withdrew, the 21-year-old Frenchman faced No 20 seed Sebastian Korda, and went on to produce four rounds of high-contrast, electric grass-court tennis. Yes, Mpetshi Perricard’s serve is utterly mesmerising, but his touch, movement and tennis IQ are just as important to his game — and losing to one of the smartest grass returners (and eventual semifinalist) Lorenzo Musetti is no great dismay.
The Frenchman’s serving prowess was a highlight of the Championships (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Match of the tournament
Futterman: Jasmine Paolini and Donna Vekic’s semifinal. Contrasting styles, people, and players, with the outcome a mystery until the final shot.
Eccleshare: The Donna Vekic vs Jasmine Paolini humdinger was the longest women’s semifinal in Wimbledon history and it felt like an instant classic. Dramatic swings in momentum, match points saved in style, and then a tiebreak to finish. Even as it drew to a close, you still had no idea which way it would go.
Hansen: Honourable mentions to two matches involving Lloyd Harris — his first-round against Alex Michelsen that he won on an absurd point in a championship tiebreak, and his loss in another championship tiebreak to Ben Shelton — but no arguing with Matt and Charlie. Tennis can quite often be at its best when the tension on court makes watching so excruciating that you almost don’t want to have your eyes open, and that’s exactly what happened with Paolini and Vekic, who raised their levels at the most nervous moments.
The semifinal was the longest women’s last-four match in Wimbledon history (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Favourite match of the tournament
Futterman: Carlos Alcaraz’s five-setter against Frances Tiafoe. A champion gets pushed to the brink and has to play his best, in the face of (hopefully) the resurrection of a guy that the sport needs back in the worst way, at least in the U.S. Big Foe brings people to tennis that no one else does right now.
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Eccleshare: We headed to Court 1 hoping for drama and though it didn’t fully catch fire, there was still a great deal to enjoy from the Jelena Ostapenko vs Yulia Putintseva fourth-round match. The worst underarm serve you will ever see, even worse Hawk-Eye challenges from both players, and a suitably chilly handshake (even if it was warmer than some of their previous efforts) were among the highlights. Not one for the purists, but absolutely one for the aggro-merchants.
Hansen: The men’s doubles final between Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara and Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell. Ridiculously absorbing, seesawing, and full of points that make amateur players (like me) cringe in recognition because you know you’ve done exactly the same, wrong thing in your own matches before. The two minutes and 50 seconds of highlights can’t possibly do it justice, but what a match:
Best shot of the tournament
Futterman: Lorenzo Musetti’s elegant overhead drop shot during his dismantling of Taylor Fritz. He barely slowed his racket head speed until just before the moment of contact.
Eccleshare: Musetti’s flicked backhand pass on the run against Djokovic was the culmination of a masterful couple of weeks of shotmaking from the inventive Italian.
Hansen: Either Lulu Sun’s no-look pick-up winner…
Or the end of this point from Henry Patten, which is simply ludicrous.
Biggest disappointment of the tournament
Futterman: Andy Murray having surgery and not being able to play singles.
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Eccleshare: A big part of this is a credit to his endurance and powers of recovery, but it’s still pretty remarkable that even at 37 and a few weeks out of surgery, most of the rest of the field still looks so hopeless against Novak Djokovic. Granted he was playing lowly ranked players in the first few rounds (and Jacob Fearnley and Alexei Popyrin gave good accounts of themselves), but Holger Rune, the No 15 seed, should surely have done better than folding so meekly. Given his physical state, the seven-time winner should at least have been tested in his run to the final — and had he been, maybe he’d have been more ready for his meeting with Alcaraz.
Hansen: The continued absurdity surrounding media rights and copyright strikes in tennis, whereby Wimbledon’s official accounts can’t publish highlights before TV rightsholders and tennis players aren’t even allowed to post clips of them competing. Too many of the sport’s media strategies continue to scan as cut off nose/spite face.
Funniest moment of the tournament
Futterman: Judy Murray’s tweet after Emma Raducanu blew off the mixed doubles that she was meant to be playing with Murray’s son.
Eccleshare: Annabel Croft describing Carlos Alcaraz as “such a hot” opponent when interviewing Djokovic on Centre Court after the final was real ‘teacher unwittingly using a double entendre’ vibes. The crowd all enjoyed it, some wolf-whistled, Djokovic grinned, Alcaraz looked suitably sheepish, and Croft, flush with embarrassment, had to backtrack and explain: “He was on fire!”
Hansen: Taylor Townsend’s reaction to winning the women’s doubles title.
This is funny – “unconventional way that we got together”🎾 new #Wimbledon champion Women’s Doubles players #TaylorTownsend and #KateřinaSiniaková “I’m so glad Katerina slid in my dms” 😂🤗🤣 pic.twitter.com/GEDwTOy6M4
— Operation Tinkerbell 🌈📺🐸🦋🦌.🎾 (@ltihfan) July 13, 2024
Most Wimbledon moment of… Wimbledon
Futterman: The Princess of Wales walking into the Royal Box for the men’s final. It was good to see her feeling up for an event. As an American, I don’t really get the whole royals concept, but she’s a huge tennis fan with a good seat. Happy to see her able to use it.
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Eccleshare: The “knowledgeable crowd” description has long been pretty generous, so it wasn’t a big surprise that someone prematurely roared with delight when Alcaraz still had a drive volley to put away to secure the title against Djokovic. Sure enough, he missed it and was broken a couple of points later. The fan in question drew angry glares and tuts from those around them (which was also satisfyingly British). The Wimbledon 2013 final between Djokovic and Murray had a very similar moment on match point — except on that occasion Murray didn’t miss his next shot, Djokovic then did, and all was forgiven.
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Hansen: An overnight deluge preceding Murray and Raducanu’s non-doubles match, soaking the fans who had queued to come to watch them.
Biggest surprise of the tournament
Futterman: The relative ease with which Novak Djokovic disposed of his five opponents when beginning less than four weeks after surgery, with his movement so clearly compromised. Turns out he’s a pretty good player who knows his way around a grass tennis court.
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Eccleshare: For Andy Murray’s farewell Wimbledon interview with Sue Barker, he was joined on Centre Court by two groups of people: Grand Slam winners and fellow Brits. Scanning along the line one saw John McEnroe, yep makes sense, Martina Navratilova, uh-huh, Dan Evans, yep, Cameron Norrie, sure. And then wait a minute… is that… Holger Rune? What are you doing here? Subsequent events got in the way, but there could be a deep dive into what might be tennis’ most unlikely bromance.
Hansen: Most of the drama was off-court or in post-match interviews. Aside from Taylor Fritz’s now-immortalised dismissal of Arthur Rinderknech.
Tell us your picks in the comments as tennis gears up for the Olympics at Roland Garros in Paris…
(Top photo: Rob Newell/Camerasport; Julian Finney/Getty)
