Tattoo-loving underdog aiming to stun Djokovic
Wimbledon semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti will be hoping to stun record-chasing Novak Djokovic on Centre Court on Friday.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti will be hoping to stun record-chasing Novak Djokovic on Centre Court on Friday.
Watch the best shots from Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid’s quarter-final win in the men’s wheelchair doubles at Wimbledon.
Jasmine Paolini produces an epic fightback to beat Donna Vekic and reach the Wimbledon final, where she will face Barbora Krejcikova.
Rafael Nadal fist pumps, roars and injects his familiar intensity into every shot as if it were his last. Rinse, repeat. The scene sums up the past few days for the 22-time major champion, training at full throttle in Sani, on the shores of the Aegean Sea.
After bowing out in the Roland Garros opening round, the former World No. 1 had a clear plan. He would skip Wimbledon to avoid a change of surface that would have been physically demanding and rather, try to find his A-game on clay, before returning to action at the ATP 250 in Bastad and then heading to the Paris Olympic Games.
Following a few days at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in his native Mallorca, Nadal felt in need of more hours on court, for which he invited Argentinian player Tomas Martin Etcheverry, the current No. 31 in the PIF ATP Rankings, and a Top 5 player in clay-court wins this season (19). Where? At the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre in Greece, which opened in 2019. Nadal took his entire team to the resort, where he is working under the watchful eye of Carlos Moya.
[ATP APP]“The place we’re practising in is crazy… and Nadal is going at it, I’d say he’s playing very well,” the Argentine told ATPTour.com. What was it like for the La Plata native to spend a few days with the 92-time tour-level titlist? “I’ve had the chance to ask him things, ask for advice, and he was always very humble, helping, making progress, and he had a lot of time for everyone,” said Etcheverry.
“These days have been a dream for me, a really amazing experience, above all spending time with Rafa, a player I’ve been watching since I started to play tennis, one of the best in history, so it was crazy. It was a privilege and an honour,” enthused Etcheverry, who was there with his team, coach Wally Grinovero and fitness coach Martiniano Orazi.
Nadal will be in action next week at the Nordea Open in Bastad. It will mark the Spaniard’s first appearance at the ATP 250 since he won the event in 2005. Holding a 7-5 season record, Nadal continues his search for competition time and rhythm before the Olympics kick off in the French capital, where he will be playing in singles and partnering Carlos Alcaraz in doubles.
Editor’s Note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Watch highlights as Jasmine Paolini beats Donna Vekic in a thrilling semi-final match on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Can Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten’s red-hot start to their partnership carry them to a Grand Slam title?
The unseeded Finnish-British pair defeated Neal Skupski and Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6(1) on Thursday afternoon to reach the championship match at Wimbledon. Heliovaara and Patten produced a stunning serving performance on No. 1 Court, where they won 95 per cent (36/38) of points behind first serves en route to an 84-minute win.
Since first teaming in April in Marrakech, Heliovaara and Patten have won 28 of the 32 matches they have contested together across all levels. That tally includes ATP Tour title runs in Marrakech and Lyon, and two ATP Challenger Tour titles. After reaching the final at Wimbledon, the pair is up 11 spots to eighth in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.
On their Grand Slam team debut earlier this year, Heliovaara and Patten reached the third round at Roland Garros before being forced to withdraw after the Finn suffered a shoulder injury. They have put that disappointment behind them superbly at the All England Club, where they have dropped just one set across five matches so far.
[ATP APP]Awaiting Heliovaara and Patten in Saturday’s final will be 15th seeds Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, who upset top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-4.
Like Heliovaara and Patten, Purcell and Thompson have enjoyed a stellar 2024 on the doubles court. The Australian duo has won ATP Tour crowns in Dallas, Los Cabos and Houston, and is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings as they chase a spot at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.
Purcell will bring Wimbledon championship-match experience to the court in Saturday’s title clash. The 26-year-old lifted the trophy at SW19 in 2022 alongside another Australian, Matthew Ebden.
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There are some striking similarities to last year in the semi-final lineup at Wimbledon 2024. Carlos Alcaraz will hope the last-four results follow suit.
The third seed and defending champion at the grass-court major takes on Daniil Medvedev on Friday in a repeat of the pair’s 2023 semi-final. Alcaraz dropped just nine games en route to victory against Medvedev last year but remains wary of an opponent who will take to court fresh from defeating World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.
“[Medvedev] is a really great player,” said Alcaraz after his fourth-round triumph against Tommy Paul. “The same semi-final as last year and hopefully I’m going to get the same result. He just beat Jannik Sinner, the best player right now, so I know he is in really good shape.
“I have to play my best. I have to believe in myself and try to keep going if I want to beat him. It is going to be a difficult one, but I’m going to enjoy it.”
Medvedev partly avenged his heavy defeat at Wimbledon a year ago by winning his only Grand Slam meeting with Alcaraz since. He prevailed against the Spaniard in four sets last September at the US Open, and he has clearly identified the key to securing another major victory against his Top 5 rival.
“I have to serve better,” said Medvedev on Tuesday when asked about his plan for the Alcaraz semi-final rematch. “That’s still the most important thing on grass. You serve aces, you serve on the line, you’re less in trouble, and you feel better. That’s where you can put pressure on his serve.
“He’s a tough player. He can hit strong. He can slice. He can dropshot. He can volley. He knows how to play tennis. Just need to be at my best, like kind of how [I played against Sinner] and try to win.”
[ATP APP]In another repeat from 2023, Novak Djokovic takes on an Italian opponent in the other semi-final on Centre Court. Unlike last year, his challenge will not be to overcome the power of Sinner, but instead to deny the court craft of Lorenzo Musetti.
The No. 16 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Musetti outlasted Taylor Fritz on Wednesday to become just the fourth Italian man to reach a Wimbledon semi-final. Friday’s clash with Djokovic will not be a wholly novel experience for the 22-year-old, however.
Musetti has twice faced the Serbian on the Grand Slam stage at Roland Garros, where he took both matches to five sets before falling. The most recent of those defeats took place fewer than six weeks ago at the 2024 edition of the clay major in Paris, where Djokovic clinched victory at 3:08 a.m.
“I think I analysed that match really well and the key moments where I could do better,” said Musetti when asked about the lessons learned from his Roland Garros loss. “I put myself in that position. I think in the past weeks, starting from Stuttgart, I started to feel more continuous on that, on the attitude.”
A first Grand Slam semi-final for @Lorenzo1Musetti 🔥<a href=”https://twitter.com/Wimbledon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Wimbledon | <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wimbledon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/XIJuHCtERd
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 10, 2024
Djokovic will have had a rare three days off to prepare for Friday’s semi-final after his last-eight opponent Alex de Minaur withdrew due to injury. While the way he uses his time off court may have changed over the course of his career, his on-court motivation remains as high as ever. Already a record 24-time major champion, Djokovic is bidding to equal Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon men’s singles titles this year.
“I do enjoy my time with my family, with my kids, for example. I had some really nice time with my daughter yesterday on-site,” said Djokovic, who this fortnight has been motioning to play a violin during his victory celebrations in a nod to his daughter, Tara, who is learning the craft. “I try to mix things up.
“In those off days when I don’t have matches, I try to practise, but also get my mind off tennis a little bit and enjoy the quality time with close ones. But the tension and the pressure and the stress is really high, as high as it always has been.”
History will give Djokovic good reason to feel confident as he prepares for his record-equalling 13th Wimbledon men’s singles semi-final. The 37-year-old leads Musetti 5-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with the Italian’s only triumph coming at the 2023 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. He is also vastly more experienced on the lawns of SW19: Djokovic holds a 96-11 match record at Wimbledon compared to 7-3 for Musetti.
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After nearly two decades, Rafael Nadal is back in Bastad. The Spaniard on Thursday enjoyed his first practice at the Nordea Open, where he will compete next week as a wild card at the ATP 250.
The former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings greeted fans and hit with home #NextGenATP talent Ludvig Fredrik Hede in Sweden. Nadal is a former champion in Bastad, where he triumphed on his most recent appearance in 2005.
✍️ You get an autograph, you get an autograph, everybody gets an autograph💙 pic.twitter.com/hMZq4JWXPY
— Nordea Open (@NordeaOpen) July 11, 2024
The 38-year-old Nadal, who has stated that 2024 may be the final season of his career, will be playing his first competitive match since his first-round Roland Garros defeat to Alexander Zverev on 27 May. He is 7-5 for the season so far, with his best result a fourth-round run on home soil in Madrid.
World No. 6 Andrey Rublev will compete as top seed and defending champion in Bastad. World No. 8 Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie and Tallon Griekspoor also feature in the field.
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Alfie Hewett continues his quest for an elusive Wimbledon men’s wheelchair singles title, despite being hampered by a shoulder injury in his quarter-final win.
There is guaranteed to be a British player in the Wimbledon men’s doubles final after wins for Neal Skupski and Henry Patten with their respective partners.