NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks to Courtney Nguyen, senior writer for WTA Insider, about the home field of Wimbledon, the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, Guest:
We are on our way to the home run of Wimbledon, the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. I spent a lot of last week in London, and I can confirm that there are many bowls of traditional strawberries and cream being whipped up, also that there are big screens up all over the city for fans to see and that there is a lot of great tennis being played. . Courtney Nguyen has her eye on volleys on and off the court. She is a senior writer for WTA Insider. Hey, that.
COURTNEY NGUYEN: Hello. How are you doing?
KELLY: Hi. I am angry. Happy to be with us. OK, so let’s take a quick look at the biggest promotions so far, how the favorites coming into Wimbledon are thriving.
NGUYEN: Well, so far, the favorites are still going pretty easy. The top four seeds on the women’s side are through to the quarter-finals. The top three seeds on the men’s side with Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic also in the quarter-finals. So things are shaping up to be very competitive and marquee at the end of the competition. But the competition has been confusing. And the big man we saw today was Christopher Eubanks from the United States, 27 years old, who broke into the top 100 just a few months ago. He’s in his – his first semi-final at Wimbledon, he beat the world No. 5, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and it’s been a very encouraging story there for him to get through on co -Arthur Ashe’s birthday, I guess, and the third Black American for the quarterfinals. at Wimbledon…
KELLY: Oh, wow.
NGUYEN: …In the open time. So it’s a big story.
KELLY: Now, players from Russia, also players from Belarus, were banned last year after the invasion of Ukraine. They are back this year, although I gather there was some booing after a match involving a Belarusian and Ukrainian player.
NGUYEN: Yeah, there was booing from the crowd this week. It was a round of 16 match between Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. And they have not been shaking hands, the Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian players – largely led by the Ukrainians who have made it clear, behind the scenes and in the locker room, that they do not intend to shake hands. And each Ukrainian player has had an individual reason why they do it. Svitolina has said to her, that she does not want to give the soldiers the optics of this photo of a handshake with Russian and Belarusian players – often she does not have a personal problem with the players themselves, but it is real optics there case And so the players have known about this for a long time. But the fans, they do not get the message, so they have been booing. It doesn’t matter who the player is – sometimes it’s Ukrainian, sometimes it’s Belarusian, sometimes it’s Russian.
KELLY: Yeah.
NGUYEN: …That’s at the very end of the spectrum, which is unfortunate.
KELLY: And what about – in the moment we have left – this 16-year-old Russian, Mirra Andreeva? Am I saying that right?
NGUYEN: Yes, you are.
KELLY: There was a huge controversy just this morning. We walked through it.
NGUYEN: Yes. She is – a young player playing Madison Keys from the United States – Madison Keys coming back from a big deficit to get the win. And near the end of the game she made a scandal for the ball, Mirra Andreeva, and some kind of racket slipped out of her hand and went into the grass at Wimbledon. And they are very protective of their grass at Wimbledon.
KELLY: Yeah.
NGUYEN: She was given a code violation for that. This was her second of the match, so she received a penalty point. A rough way for the 16-year-old’s Wimbledon debut to end, but – a very tough call, but well within the rules to make it.
KELLY: Courtney Nguyen monitors tennis and grass conditions for WTA Insider. Many thanks.
NGUYEN: Thank you.
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