A new year, a new champion?
In keeping with the traditional use for a rosewater dish – to catch the rose petal-infused water when cleaning your hands after eating – the ladies have been keeping it fresh every summer.
Seven different women have lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish at the last seven Wimbledons. Only Elena Rybakina can stop there being another new name holding that trophy this Fortnight.
Rybakina, who in 2022 became the first player from Kazakhstan to land a Grand Slam title, is the only past winner left in the draw; she is also the only former champion to have won a match on the lawns this summer.
Marketa Vondrousova lost in the opening round, the first defending champion to go out that early since Steffi Graf in 1994, while Angelique Kerber, who was victorious in 2018 and who was given a wild card this year, was also eliminated in the first round.
Rybakina plays Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. Victory for wild card Wozniacki, a former Australian Open champion and world No.1, would mean that there would be a new champion on Centre Court next weekend.
Friends reunited
Backstage at the Aorangi Park practice courts, Novak Djokovic was reunited on the grass with his friend Nick Kyrgios.
It was the first time they had been on the same lawn since they were on Centre Court for the 2022 final, a match Djokovic won for a seventh gentlemen’s singles title at the All England Club.
While Kyrgios is doing television work this Fortnight, with hopes he will be physically capable of competing again at some point in the future, Djokovic, who had a knee operation last month, has ambitions of taking this title for a record-equalling eighth time.
The Serb plays Australian Alexei Popyrin in the third round.
Fan favourites
Even before Ons Jabeur lost in two Wimbledon finals, she was a much-loved figure here for the joyful, expressive way she plays lawn tennis.
After those defeats, and speaking openly about the panic attack she had while preparing for last year’s final, the Tunisian has further endeared herself to London’s racket-heads.
Victory for Jabeur this Fortnight would go down very well. In the third round, she plays Elina Svitolina, a semi-finalist last summer.
If the Ukrainian can beat Jabeur and go on to win Wimbledon, that would be a hugely symbolic occasion.
Getting comfortable
“Look out,” Kyrgios has been warning of Cameron Norrie, “this guy is comfy on the grass.”
Norrie, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, is unseeded for this summer’s Championships, but that has hardly held him back as he has made the last 32 without so much as dropping a set, with his latest victory coming against fellow Briton Jack Draper.
But how “comfy” will Norrie be when he plays Alexander Zverev, the World No. 4 from Germany, for a place in the fourth round?
Zverev, who reached last month’s Roland-Garros final, is also yet to lose a set.
Something in your eye?
Playing mixed doubles with Andy Murray promises to bring Emma Raducanu “a lot of life, energy and adrenaline”.
The British pair take on El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and China’s Shuai Zhang in the first round.
If this turns out to be Murray’s last appearance on the Wimbledon grass – after he and elder brother Jamie lost in the opening round of the gentlemen’s doubles on Thursday evening, which was followed by a farewell ceremony on Centre Court - this could be another emotional occasion for all concerned.
