0:00

Hey everyone

0:06

, john Wertheim here with a quick serve

0:09

podcast from day one at Wimbledon 2024

0:11

, presented by Oslo Sleep

0:14

Buds . I'm John Wertheim , behind court

0:16

14 , where we will be here for the duration

0:20

of the tournament . We'll be checking in with quick hits

0:22

highlighting some top moments of the tournament

0:24

, upset storylines . Andy

0:27

gets back and he will take us for some

0:29

previews later in week two . But day

0:31

one , busy day one . Fresh grass

0:33

, fresh truck , fresh strawberries

0:35

, the air thick with

0:37

possibility . It's day one

0:40

at a major . It's a little like opening day

0:42

in baseball We've got fresh green grass

0:44

, we have excitement . The difference , of course , is that half

0:47

the people that played today will no longer be

0:49

advancing , but a

0:51

lot of big names in the draw and a lot of big names advance

0:54

. So first we'll go through some of the high points of

0:56

today . Carlos Alcaraz , fresh off

0:58

winning the Roland Garros final

1:00

A mere three weeks

1:03

and a day ago , the defending champion . He looked

1:05

quite good . He played Mark Lyall

1:07

, an Estonian kid with an absolutely

1:09

spectacular head of hair YouTube

1:12

and Google Image are your friends

1:14

and Carlos looked good . He

1:17

was a little nervous at first 7-6 in the first set

1:19

, then 7-5 , 6-2 . Got

1:21

easier as the day went on , of course

1:23

, as the defending champ he was able to

1:25

christen center court and was worthy

1:28

of the challenge , looked good all around , not an

1:30

A+ , but certainly a survive in

1:32

advance . Better than that he is into

1:34

round two . He was

1:36

followed by Emma Raducanu

1:38

, who got a surprise opponent

1:40

. When her scheduled opponent pulled out , emma

1:43

Raducanu advanced to the delight of the center

1:45

court crowd . And then it was Yannick Sinner's

1:47

turn . For the first time in his career

1:49

he is the top seed in a major

1:51

, very first line on the draw

1:53

sheet for Yannick Sinner , the new men's

1:56

number one , and he was up

1:58

to the task for the most part . In the inter-Yannick

2:01

match he played Yannick Hanfmann of Germany

2:03

. Sinner won the first two sets pretty handily , dropped

2:05

the third set 6-3 , but

2:08

then responded quite nicely and won

2:10

in four sets . So he will advance

2:12

. This is a

2:14

bit recalling what happened at Roland Garros last

2:16

month , where Alcaraz and Sinner were projected

2:19

to meet in the semifinal , which they did , and

2:21

every time they played it was sort of this barometer

2:23

on who was playing the better tennis . I

2:25

have to say Alcaraz's advantage

2:27

today is he won in straight sets to

2:29

Sinner's four . But Sinner

2:31

up two sets to one , drops a third , wins in four

2:33

. No problems there . Other

2:35

winners today Coco Gauff looked very good

2:37

. Some people picked her to win the tournament

2:40

and she looked worthy of that today 6-1

2:42

, 6-2 , over fellow American , caroline

2:44

Dolehide . Naomi Osaka

2:46

, who , at Roland Garros , was a point

2:49

away from beating Iga Svantec the eventual winner

2:51

comes to grass . Not her

2:53

best surface , by her own admission . She had a tight

2:55

match today , got to 4-all

2:57

in the third set against Diane Perry , a French

2:59

woman with a one-handed backhand Remember one-handed

3:02

backhands , especially on the women's side . Well

3:09

, naomi Osaka was able to withstand one today . Not the

3:11

cleanest match , but she prevails 6-4 in the third . Other scattered winners Jasmine

3:14

Paolini , fresh off reaching the Roland Garros final . She

3:16

won her very first match of her career

3:19

at Wimbledon , but looked very good and very slick

3:21

, smooth , good mover and

3:23

she advances . Daniil Medvedev , sporting

3:26

something resembling a mustache . He looked

3:29

good as well . He won his 230th

3:32

match since 2020

3:35

. Thank you for Opta Ace for that

3:37

stat , but that is more wins than anyone else in

3:40

men's tennis in that period . I think sometimes we forget

3:42

Daniil Medvedev one major

3:44

title in that interim but a lot of

3:47

late final showings . And today

3:49

, on a surface that is not his favorite , he looked very

3:51

good . I think sometimes we lose track of just how

3:54

spectacular a career Daniil Medvedev

3:56

is putting together . Again

3:58

, this is your quick serve podcast

4:00

from Oslo Sleep Buds . I

4:02

was fortunate enough to carry my Oslo

4:05

Sleep Buds on the flight over here and they

4:07

paid great dividends . I actually did some sleeping

4:09

, unlike Andy Roddick . Visit

4:11

oslosleepcom for your orders today

4:13

. Link in the show description Like subscribe

4:16

. Turn on your notifications . Get all the upsets

4:18

, all the updates . Oslo Sleep

4:20

Buds to the rescue . There was some less

4:23

good news . We sort of led with the positive , and

4:26

most of the bad news had to do with injuries

4:28

and withdrawals . None of them were

4:30

more seismic than the word that came around noon

4:32

that Irina Savalenka , who

4:35

was the number three seed notice , I use the

4:37

past tense who won a

4:39

major already this year in Australia

4:41

. A real contender , some people Andy Roddick

4:44

even picked her to win the entire

4:46

event . She announced that sadly , she would

4:48

be withdrawn . She had a shoulder

4:50

injury that caused her to withdraw

4:53

last week for the first time in her career , a mid-match

4:55

retirement . She came here , she practiced

4:57

gingerly . There were sort of reports

5:00

that this was coming . She was very open in her pre-tournament

5:02

press conference and basically said look , I don't

5:05

know if I'm going to be able to compete . We

5:07

tend to hear that a lot . And then athletes are , you

5:09

know , the competitive juices start flowing and they essentially

5:12

said look , as long as there's something more than a non-zero

5:14

chance that I can win this event , it would be foolhardy

5:17

to pull out . We see

5:19

the scenario a lot , but that didn't happen

5:21

. Marina Sabalenka practiced a little bit , had a

5:23

hit today and basically said no mas . And

5:25

it's very serious if

5:27

a player , not just with her ranking

5:30

and status , but with her sort of constitution

5:32

, her competitive instincts , for

5:34

her to pull out that shoulder injury

5:36

has to be quite serious . So

5:39

she did , and the number three seed is now

5:41

not in the draw , ironically

5:43

enough , another player from Belarus

5:45

, victoria Azarenka , another two-time major

5:47

winner . She also pulled

5:50

out the shoulder injury just about an hour

5:52

before she was supposed to face Sloane Stephens

5:54

. So no seismic upsets

5:57

right now , but the big story , at least

5:59

from the unfortunate , regrettable , negative department

6:01

, does seem to be players and these

6:03

injuries . It's a long season

6:05

physically taxing sport . Injuries are part

6:07

of sports , but it's a little bit disconcerting

6:10

when , uh , so many players , uh

6:12

, both men and women , different body parts

6:15

, uh , different circumstances , a lot

6:17

of players are complaining that they are less

6:19

than 100 physically . And today , uh

6:21

, we had three different players pull out shortly

6:24

before their matches . Um Sidebar

6:27

, I noticed that in the Royal Box

6:29

today David Attenborough was here , 98

6:31

years old . He , of course , is the famous television

6:34

personality and scientist

6:36

and just sort of general cultural treasure

6:39

. He was in the Royal Box and I was thinking

6:41

about David Attenborough and what he would have made

6:43

walking around the ground and what he saw

6:46

on center court today , and I think he would have been

6:48

. As someone who studies behaviors

6:51

and environments and anthropology , I suspect

6:53

he would have been rather charmed by the sport

6:55

and it was a nice reminder , I thought , of the

6:57

life's rich pageant that

6:59

tennis provides us with . We

7:02

had stars . We also had players

7:04

who it meant a whole lot to win

7:06

$75,000 just for being in

7:08

the main draw . We had players like

7:10

Lulu Sun who took

7:12

out Queen Wynne who , again somewhat

7:14

anti-rotic , predicted would do quite well . Lulu

7:17

Sun , who used to go by

7:19

Radovich . She was born in New Zealand , she

7:21

played for Switzerland , she played for the University

7:23

of Texas . Ironically enough , she won the decisive

7:25

point when the Longhorns won the NCAA title

7:28

. That was the Peyton Stearns

7:30

team , and here she is playing back for

7:32

New Zealand and takes out

7:34

the number seven seed . It's just

7:36

sort of stories like that that fall between the cracks

7:38

. Marta Kostiuk , the Ukrainian player who

7:40

came out today in a dress she designed

7:42

to resemble her wedding dress

7:44

Again all of these sort

7:47

of stories . We see players of all

7:49

shapes and sizes and backgrounds

7:51

and genders and ages . Again , I kept

7:53

thinking of David Attenborough taking

7:55

in this environment and being rather impressed

7:57

by all the diversity

7:59

. And then , finally , I was struck by Stan

8:01

Bobrenka who , at age 39

8:03

years old 39 , that's older than

8:05

Nadal and Murray and Djokovic

8:07

, who we were all speculating about how much longer

8:09

they're out here Stan Bobrenka age 39

8:12

, got through today and I had

8:14

a chance to interview him after the match and I sort of said

8:16

look , you know , you're 39 years old , you've got a hell

8:18

of a career . You are one Wimbledon away

8:20

from a career slam . And

8:23

he sort of said , yeah , but I'm not going to get it . And

8:25

that gave me pause . Not often you hear

8:27

an athlete say I'm entering an event that I have no expectation

8:30

of winning , and he

8:32

was being dead serious and sort of essentially said look

8:34

, my best days are behind me . I'm going to be sitting there

8:37

watching when Sinner or Alcaraz

8:39

, whoever plays in the final . The same way I was

8:41

a few weeks ago at Roland Garros , and

8:44

Sandbar Brinker , though at age 39 , seems resigned

8:46

to the fact his days of winning majors are

8:49

over . This is not sandbagging . He was being very

8:51

serious and said look , I genuinely don't think I'm going

8:53

to win this event . However , I still

8:55

have such passion for this sport . I still

8:57

have such passion for competing . There's

8:59

no reason for me to quit . I'm taking a measure

9:02

of pride in the fact that , at age 39 , I'm still

9:04

durable . My body's still up for it . I

9:06

love coming here . It

9:11

still feels fresh . Why would I walk away from that ? Stan Barberica , in his next match , plays someone

9:13

else north of age 35 , guayalman Fis

9:16

, who you know . They've had a lot

9:18

of history together . They came up through the ranks

9:20

together . Stan Barberica said look now we

9:22

used to start off and we'd play PlayStation against

9:24

each other . We'd be knucklehead

9:26

teenage buddies , and now we talk about our lives

9:29

and our kids and our

9:31

physical compromises . But those two

9:33

guys age 39 and 37

9:36

, are about to play in the second round of Wimbledon , and

9:38

I think it's a good reminder that

9:40

this is A really a special

9:42

sport . B for all the trouble

9:44

, for all the physical ailments , for all the shoulder

9:46

injuries that cause you to sadly

9:49

and tearfully pull out of events an hour before

9:51

you're supposed to take the court . There are still a lot

9:53

of rewards , and that the rewards extend

9:55

beyond just lifting trophies . And

9:57

here Stan Wawrinka is a three-time major

10:00

champion . He is a few months from

10:02

turning age 40 , and

10:05

he is still out here . Different expectations

10:07

that he had 10 years ago when he was winning

10:09

majors . But it's still worthwhile for

10:11

him to compete . He still has the passion

10:13

, and I found that to be really quite

10:16

poignant . So that match

10:18

is going to take place on Wednesday . On Tuesday

10:20

, novak Djokovic may we think we

10:22

hope , be playing his first

10:24

round match . Andy Murray , at this moment

10:26

, may we think we hope , be playing his

10:29

first round match . Iga Svantec

10:31

will try to win Wimbledon for

10:33

the first time . She'll try to get beyond the quarterfinals

10:36

for the first time . She kicks off her campaign against

10:38

Sonya Kennan . Dozens

10:40

of other matches . Taylor Fritz is in action as well

10:42

. There will likely be some matches from tonight

10:44

, from Monday that may well carry over

10:47

. It's

10:53

already after 8 o'clock pm here , local time . Ben Shelton is just starting the third set , having

10:55

split the first two , so there'll probably be some carryover , but Wimbledon 2024

10:57

is off . We're off to the races

10:59

. We had some nice matches today . We had a bit of

11:01

deflating news with some retirements , so

11:03

it goes in this sport and

11:06

we will be back soon for another

11:08

quick serve sponsored by Oslo

11:10

Sleep Buds . As this wonderful

11:13

tournament progresses , enjoy

11:15

watching everyone . The

11:17

Shameless Tennis Channel plug . We will be on After

11:19

the Matches for six hours on Tennis Channel

11:21

with interviews , with raps . You can see that Stan Povrinka

11:24

interview I referenced . Andy and

11:26

I will be doing our thing periodically throughout

11:28

this event and thanks for

11:30

listening , thanks

11:40

for your tennis fandom , and enjoy the next 13 days of Wimbledon

11:42

2023 .