Welcome to your weekly 5 Setter, an express roundup of all things racquet sports with Producer Mike. In this episode:

• The French Open offers revenue sharing

• Djokovic talks retirement

• The WTA’s new gene testing policy

• Cincinnati’s full house

• DC opens hard-court season

• Tiebreak Trivia

Also, in a bonus video this week, JW reports on the French Open’s prize-money proposal—why it’s murkier than the headlines sound and what it means for the US Open and its massively popular mixed doubles tournament. An excerpt runs in Set 1. Here’s the full interview.

Click below to watch today’s 5 Setter on YouTube, and come back here for this week’s bonus stories.

The latest stories that matter right now

Tennis.com Stops the Presses

Sadly, Tennis magazine is fully relegated to history now. Tennis.com has closed its editorial department and now publishes just scores, rankings and tournament information.

When the print edition of Tennis went away in 2022, it lived on digitally at Tennis.com with some of the same venerable writers and editors, such as Peter Bodo, Joel Drucker and Steve Tignor. Tennis Channel owned it at that point, but longtime readers recognized and respected the editorial DNA, even as it lost some of its literary heft.

In June, the articles disappeared from the home page, replaced by scores. The News section is now an archive of stories. Jill Dortheimer, Tennis Channel’s vice president of communications, told Defector this week, “Tennis.com is in the midst of a full rebuild and the first priority is to deliver fast, comprehensive match and tournament schedules, scores, draws and data. We are continuing to improve the experience for all fans, so stay tuned.”

However, Bodo and Tignor confirmed to Defector that they were (unceremoniously) let go. Defector’s story, “Tennis.com Lived and Died by the Internet,” chronicles the evolution of the magazine into a digital product that was before its time—and now out of it.

Ben Shelton Pauses YouTube Series

It was a gloomy week for tennis media. According to Hard Court, Ben Shelton is pausing the production of his YouTube series, The Long Game, after five episodes, citing two sources familiar with the decision. Shelton launched the series in December.

The article notes that other player vlogs have lost steam and analyzes the boomlet’s challenges. It seems that while well-funded. traditionally produced tennis documentaries are thriving, the player vlog has not grown legs.

“What the past several months have undeniably exposed is just how difficult it is to sustain a series built around a single tennis player,” writes Hard Court creator Jessica Schiffer.

Head over to Hard Court for the full story.

Doubles Trouble: ATP Considers Big Cuts

During Wimbledon, the ATP Player Council met with doubles players to discuss proposed 50% cuts to prize money and draw sizes, according to The Athletic.

Under the new terms, ATP tournaments would reduce prize money from 20% of the total purse to 10% and cut draws from 32 teams to 16 teams at Masters 1000s and eight teams at smaller tournaments.

The ATP contends that doubles does not generate enough ticket sales to cover its 20% share of the prize money, and singles players generally agree, whether they go on the record or not. Doubles advocates say it is impossible to tell how much fans value doubles since those tickets are not sold separately; that the tour hasn’t marketed doubles enough to know if it’s truly unpopular; and that early-round matches at big tournaments are often well-attended.

No. 1 Henry Patten spoke out about it at the trophy ceremony at Wimbledon after winning the men’s doubles title with Harri Heliovaara.

🎤 Henry Patten

“I’m a strong believer that we’re here to grow the game. This is a fantastic example of the joy that doubles can bring. We should be growing the sport instead of taking opportunities away.”

This week, Patten talked about the issue on The Changeover podcast, along with Robin Haase, ranked No. 46 in doubles. Haase quizzed the hosts on how much doubles players make compared to singles players, using those ranked No. 100 as an example. The hosts were shocked at how little the No. 100–ranked doubles player has made so far this year (about $21,000), then asked Patten how much he has made as No. 1. It’s $1.4 million. Touché.

The questions of appeal and attendance persist, though. The Tennis Tribe, a doubles-focused media outlet, made its point by posting photos of packed stadiums where people are “not watching doubles.”

Any changes are not expected to be implemented before 2028. Until then, this debate isn’t going anywhere.

Quick Hits

• Victoria Mboko and Hailey Baptiste will not play the US Open as they both recover from summer knee injuries.

• Washington, D.C., withdrawals: Felix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev, Arthur Rinderknech, Arthur Fery and Sebastian Korda.

• Asia Muhammad got married last week (and plans to retire this year).

• Two Armenian players have made the quarterfinals of a WTA event for the first time in history. Elina Avanesyan and Alina Charaeva set the mark at the Hamburg tournament today. Video proof.

• French Open girls’ junior champion Alisa Oktiabreva switched her nationality from Russia to the Czech Republic. Best take goes to Redditor Jasnata: “Chances of winning Wimbledon just increased significantly.” (h/t Tennis World)

• Welcome back, Jack ⬇️

The Weekend Draw

Generali Open

ATP 250, clay
Kitzbühel, Austria

• Friday, July 24: Semifinals

• Saturday, July 25: Final

Estoril Open

ATP 250, clay
Estoril, Portugal

• Friday, July 24: Quarterfinals

• Saturday, July 26: Semifinals

• Sunday, July 27: Final

Prague Open

WTA 250, hard court
Prague, Czech Republic

• Friday, July 24: Quarterfinals

• Saturday, July 26: Semifinals

• Sunday, July 27: Final

Hamburg Ladies Open

WTA 250, clay
Hamburg, Germany

• Friday, July 24: Quarterfinals

• Saturday, July 26: Semifinals

• Sunday, July 27: Final

Q&Andy Recap

Jake Johnson, the star of The Dink, joined Q&Andy this week to tell stories from the set, including Brad Gilbert’s obsession with legs, and takes your questions.

📮Submit a question by emailing askandy@servedmediagroup.com or send it through our website or social media.

Love All Recap

Kim and Blair discuss the WTA’s controversial new rule, the best of Novak Djokovic’s press tour, Kim’s memories of the summer hardcourt swing and her favorite tennis advice.

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Tiebreak Trivia

As of today, Andy Roddick is a movie star … in a pickleball movie (The Dink on Apple TV). But this is not his first time playing himself on screen. What early-2000s teen sitcom cast Andy as a guest star playing himself?

💡Answer: Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 2002.

Tiebreak Trivia Archive

📝 We’ll be back Tuesday with a new episode. In the meantime, join us on Substack during the weekend’s matches.

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

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Context-free soundbite: “This is like playing H-O-R-S-E with Steph Curry and expecting Steph Curry to take you seriously.”

Mary Carillo is far too scarce on our screens these days, so we are thrilled she joined Served to talk shop with Andy and JW. The legendary, award-winning sports journalist—and Roland Garros mixed doubles champion—talked about her upcoming induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, her perspective as a broadcaster, her start in media and that famous parenting screed disguised as a badminton rant at the Olympics.

Coming up this week, actor Jake Johnson joins Q&Andy to talk about The Dink, which hits theaters on Friday.

Watch the New Episode on YouTube

The stories that matter most this week

WTA Tour Mandates Gene Testing

Every WTA Tour player is required to take a test for the SRY gene, according to the tour’s updated Women’s Eligibility Policy effective today. The SRY gene signifies the presence of the Y chromosome. The test is mandatory to maintain WTA eligibility.

The new policy reads: “Eligibility to participate in WTA tournaments will be confirmed through a required, one-time screening process for the SRY gene. Player screening will begin in 2026, following all appropriate confidentiality and data privacy safeguards and concurrent with a comprehensive player engagement program. The WTA recognizes that this is a sensitive and complex issue and is committed to treating all players with dignity and implementing the Policy in a respectful and thoughtful way.”

The previous policy permitted trans athletes to compete if they maintained testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol/L for two years.

Per the Associated Press, “The new policy takes the organization in line with the eligibility policy introduced by the International Olympic Committee in March to align with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the 2028 Games.”

According to Ben Rothenberg at Bounces in a non-paywalled story, no other major women’s sporting league or organization has such a requirement.

There hasn’t been a transgender woman on the WTA Tour since Renee Richards in the 1970s. Richards sued the USTA after it banned her from the women’s draw at the 1977 US Open. The New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor, one of the landmark cases involving transgender athletes.

Tennis Stars at the World Cup Final

Tennis’s global star power took center stage at the World Cup final when Carlos Alcaraz turned out to be one of the most visible celebrity fans. First, he carried out the trophy in a Louis Vuitton case before the game. Then he was a go-to for the camera crew, most meme-ably when one of Spain’s goals was reversed.

It’s like when a tennis player thinks they won the match before realizing it’s a 10-point tiebreak and they have only seven points.

Other players repping tennis at Met Life Stadium included Novak Djokovic, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Rafael Jodar, Francisco Cerundolo and Diego Schwartzman.

MIA: self-professed biggest football fan on the ATP Tour Flavio Cobolli, who mimicked Ronaldo’s celly after his quarterfinal win at Wimbledon. Cobolli was seaside on vacation.

Djokovic on SinCaraz vs. the Big Three

While he was in town for the World Cup, Novak Djokovic appeared on a live taping of LeBron James’s podcast, The Shop, at the sports-centric Fanatics Fest in New York City, where the entertainment ranged from a three-point shooting contest to a dunk tank filled with dipping sauce.

Djokovic shared the stage with James and his business manager, Maverick Carter, and soccer star Folarin Balogun. He compared playing Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to going up against Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

🎤 Novak Djokovic

“We were three of us, we were all different. And now with Alcaraz and Sinner being the dominant force in tennis, these two guys remind me of myself so much. I’m like I’m playing myself from like 10 and 15 years ago.

I want to kick their ass.”

Djokovic also competed in the three-point contest and table tennis with Tom Brady and Justin Bieber.

His New York City weekend included a premiere of his upcoming Amazon Prime documentary, A Wolf in Winter, at the Museum of Modern Art. See the celebrity guest list.

100

Aryna Sabalenka’s weeks at No. 1

In this week’s new rankings, Sabalenka became the 10th player in history to stay in the penthouse for a total of 100 weeks.

She is currently on a 92-week run, passing Monica Select for the sixth-longest consecutive streak at No. 1. She is only the third player in the 2000s to spend a full year at the top, along with Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty.

Sabalenka cooled off on the clay and grass, but she powered through the first three months of the year with a 23–1 record, including the Australian Open final and the Sunshine Double. She has a narrow 257-point lead over No. 2 Elena Rybakina, but No. 3 Jessica Pegula is a distant 2,000 points behind them. Most likely, the year-end No. 1 is a race between Sabalenka and Rybakina, unless Sabalenka, who won the US Open last year, crashes out early in New York.

Quick Hits

• Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first tournament in 16 months at the Gstaad Open and rose to No. 51 in the world. He said it was destiny. (Tennis World)

• Jasmine Paolini withdrew from the tournaments in Washington, D.C., and Toronto with a foot injury.

• The Dink hits theaters on Friday. Andy plays a 1980s villain.

• Karolina Muchova will be out of a few weeks after having an unexpected “small surgery,” per her social media. Her hospital outfit meets the Wimbledon dress code.

• Like mother, like daughter ⬇️

Tournaments in Progress

ATP 250 Generali Open

• Kitzbühel, Austria

• Clay

• Alexander Bublik, Valentin Vacherot, Arthur Rinderknech, Tomas Martin Etcheverry

ATP 250 Estoril Open

• Estoril, Portugal

• Clay

• Andrey Rublev, Luciano Darderi, Alejandro Tabilo, Alexander Blockx

WTA 250 Prague Open

• Prague, Czech Republic

• Hard court

• Marie Bouzkova, Barbora Krejcikova, Sara Bejlek, Nikola Barntukova

WTA 250 Hamburg Ladies Open

• Hamburg, Germany

• Clay

• Oleksandra Oliynykova, Anhelina Kalinina, Panna Udvardy, Anna Bondar

Catch Up on Q&Andy and Love All

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

Check out the Served Merch Shop.

Subscribe to our YouTube page.

Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Welcome to your weekly 5 Setter, an express roundup of all things racquet sports with Techy Sean. In this episode:

Set 1: Wimbledon ratings are out—and they’re up

Set 2: Alcaraz and Rune set return dates

Set 3: The first look at the Djokovic documentary

Set 4: Wedding-palooza

Set 5: The strategy that beat Anna Leigh Waters

Click below to watch today’s 5 Setter on YouTube, and come back here for this week’s bonus stories.

The latest stories that matter right now

The WTA Finals Move to Indian Wells

The biggest news that might have gotten lost in the sauce during Wimbledon was the WTA’s announcement about the future of the WTA Finals. As in, the very near future.

After two years in Saudi Arabia, this year’s tournament will take place in a different desert—Indian Wells in California, the site of the BNP Paribas Open in March, aka “tennis paradise.” This is just for 2026 at the moment. The finals were supposed to take place in Saudi Arabia for the last year on the WTA’s three-year contract, but the tour announced in March that it would relocate this year.

The announcement said the WTA and the Saudi partners had “mutually agreed” to end the relationship early. The Athletic reported that hosting the tournament had “outlived its usefulness” to Saudi Arabia’s goal for its investment into global sports, although the U.S.’s war with Iran might have also contributed to the decision. When it broke out in February, several tennis players were stranded in Qatar after the Doha tournament as they tried to travel to … Indian Wells.

The WTA Finals was last played in California in 2005 after a run at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. On Love All this week, Kim said about 30,000 tickets have been sold. Listen to Kim’s memories of the days playing the event, when her coach would put tickets on random windshields hoping to get butts in seats.

The WTA will continue to look for a new long-term site for 2027 and beyond.

ATP Finals to Stay in Italy, NextGen Leaves Saudi Arabia

The ATP announced this week that the year-end championships will stay in Turin for two more years, making it a total run of seven years. Also, the NextGen Finals for players 20 and under will move to Reggio Calabria in Italy this year, following the end of its three-year contract with Saudi Arabia.

CAS Extends Player’s Suspension

From the “be careful what you wish for” files, former French player Samuel Bensoussan appealed his 23-month suspension for match fixing, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed the terms weren’t appropriate. So it added three years and $12,000.

In its decision, the CAS noted the scale of the match-fixing ring that Bensoussan participated in—“a criminal organisation that corrupted at least 181 players worldwide and involved the manipulation of at least 375 tennis matches.” Three other players were also suspended for their involvement.

Bensoussan, who is 34 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 405 in 2018, will be eligible to return in May 2028—assuming he doesn’t decide to appeal again.

Hollywood Returns to Tennis

In Set 4, Techy Sean reported on real-life love in tennis as four top players got married this week. At the same time, Deadline reported on a new tennis rom-com in the works.

The good news—it’s not a Challengers sequel. The bad news—it’s not the Ali G movie.

This vehicle from Amazon MGM Studios and writer-director Joey Power stars Isabel May as a tennis phenom who falls for a ballboy played by Tyriq Withers at the US Open.

Yes, Withers is 28 and playing a ballboy. Tennis fans noticed the age issue right away, but that part is actually true to life. The US Open doesn’t have an age limit on try-outs for the court crew. Some of them are twice the age of the players. It’s the only Slam that allows adults to try out. Presumably, they are tested on their ability to pick up balls, not players.

15

Women in the Top 15 who have won a Slam or a 1000-level title

Yes, that’s everyone. The top of the WTA rankings is champions-only territory. The story coming out of Wimbledon was the parity on the WTA, after two Slams in a row featured players outside the Top 5 in the finals and two women won their first majors. This stat makes it official.

Quick Hits

• Alex Eala will play in this year’s Asian Games in Japan, September 19 through October 4.

• Rafael Jodar has joined Team Europe for this year’s Laver Cup.

• Best retirement gift in tennis: Stan Wawrinka’s plaid skis courtesy of the Swiss Open this week, commemorating his 2016 French Open shorts. Now that he’s retiring, he can actually use them. (h/t @Tennis Publisher)

• Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas got in some extra practice in Gstaad.

Q&Andy Recap

Fresh from two weeks at Wimbledon, Andy explains the evolution of grass-court tennis strategy.

📮Submit a question by emailing askandy@servedmediagroup.com or send it through our website or social media.

Love All Recap

Kim and Blair break down the latest news, the secrets of Czech coaching, Roger Federer’s upcoming Hall of Fame induction and Kim’s tactical analysis of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek. Plus: Kim’s stories from this year’s Wimbledon Champions Ball.

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Tiebreak Trivia

With tennis continuing to be prominent on the big screen, what is the one tennis movie that has won an Oscar?

💡Answer: King Richard. Will Smith won Best Actor for his portrayal of Richard Williams, Venus and Serena’s father, in the 2021 movie.

Tiebreak Trivia Archive

📝 We’ll be back Tuesday with a new episode. In the meantime, join us on Substack during the weekend’s matches.

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

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Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “He may not have gotten a wild card, but he did not lose to anyone in beer-drinking these two weeks.”

Andy and JW raise a Pimm’s Cup to all the players who left an impression on the tournament, whether or not they left with hardware. To Linda Noskova, no fluke of WTA parity. To Arthur Fery, Top 30 entrant. To Coco Gauff, defined by her run, not her stumble. To Jannik Sinner, now squarely in icon territory. Plus: why Andy is obsessed with wheelchair tennis champ Tokito Oda (here’s the episode he referred to on the show).

Thank you for making the Slams so fun, we don’t want them to end. The US Open draw comes out in 49 days. Check our bonus stories below, and stay tuned for our normal programming this week:

• Love All on Wednesday

• Q&Andy on Thursday

• 5 Setter on Friday

Watch the New Episode on YouTube

The Best of Served at Wimbledon

Your favorite stories from the fortnight

Top video

Our backstory on the viral Roger Federer Royal Box photo was our most popular YouTube clip with nearly half a million views.

Top storyline

Top poll

Top Bracket Challenge results

The Rest of the Wrap-Ups

Want more Wimbledon coverage? We recommend these 10 reads and watches.

• The Wimbledon Champions’ Dinner photo gallery

• The Guardian’s photo gallery

• JW’s 50 Parting Thoughts for Sports Illustrated

• Giles Coran’s Times column on watching Wimbledon with a celebrity superfan, actor Stephen Graham of Adolescence

• The Athletic’s roundtable-style takeaways

• Christopher Clarey’s men’s final deep dive on Tennis & Beyond

• Liza West’s four-part best and worst dressed

• Andrea Petkovic’s analysis and poetry on Finite Jest

• The Independent’s Wimbledon Awards

• Love All’s Kim-formation ⬇️

15

Different Slam winners this year across singles and doubles

Hanlon Walsh of The Tennis Tribe noticed that the majors haven’t produced a repeat winner in singles or doubles this year.

Quick Hits

• The Wimbledon Jacket Era has arrived. Elina Svitolina’s personalized bomber didn’t get enough attention with her first-round exit. See all of the walk-on outerwear here. (NSS Sports)

• Linda Noskova had 150 dresses to choose from for the Champions’ Dinner, courtesy of stylist Elisabeth Piner, the official “dresser” for the last 39 years. Here’s a fun tag-along story.

• The latest tennis–luxury label collab: Slazenger x Flannels. (h/t Hard Court)

• The Arthur Fery ride continued on London morning shows yesterday, revealing what Princess Kate gave him for his birthday on Sunday.

• Andy tested Wilson’s new racket, the Defyer. It did the impossible.

• Marcelo Rios took a flashlit walk through Crandon Park’s stadium, the former site of the Miami Open, where he reached No. 1 in the world in 1998. It looks like a horror movie.

• Congratulations, Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur! *throwing rice* (The Daily Mail)

• This is wild ⬇️

Tournaments in Progress

ATP 250 Swiss Open

• Gstaad, Switzerland

• Clay

• Alexander Bublik, Casper Ruud, Arthur Rinderknech, Valentin Vacherot, Stan Wawrinka

ATP 250 Nordea Open

• Bastad, Sweden

• Clay

• Andrey Rublev, Luciano Darderi, Mariano Navone, Alejandro Tabilo, Grigor Dimitrov

ATP 250 Croatia Open

• Umag, Croatia

• Clay

• Flavio Cobolli, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Matteo Arnaldi

WTA 250 Iasi Open

• Iasi, Romania

• Clay

• Petra Marcinko, Yulia Putintseva, Oleksandra Oliynykova, Paula Badosa, Claire Liu

WTA 250 Athens Open

• Athens, Greece

• Hard court

• Clara Tauson, Ann Li, Barbora Krejcikova, Maria Sakkari, Zheng Qinwen, Alycia Parks

Catch Up on Q&Andy and Love All

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

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Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “I don’t care if you hold 87 times against your cat. It doesn’t make sense.”

The theme of this 149th edition of Wimbledon: resilience. Andy and JW found new reasons to admire Jannik Sinner as he defended his Wimbledon title against Alexander Zverev’s nearly flawless strategy and revealed his sterling character in the media rounds.

This isn’t goodbye. We’ll be back Tuesday with the Wimbledon recap show. Meanwhile, please submit your questions now for our next Q&Andy guest, actor Jake Johnson (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, New Girl, The Dink).

Watch Quick Served Day 14 on YouTube

Winner, Winner: Sinner Repeats

Jannik Sinner [1] def. Alexander Zverev [2] 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4

Alexander Zverev got seven sets closer than ever to a Wimbledon title. But Jannik Sinner got to 87 sooner—87 consecutive service holds against Zverev. Despite the German’s otherworldly serving performance (76% first serve in, average speed 127 mph/206 kph), Sinner managed to produce five break points and edge out the Roland Garros champ, who might have been hampered by a knee injury he sustained by falling on his kneecap in the third set.

🎤 Alexander Zverev

“I overextended my knee again, similar to two years ago. Then I was struggling to push off on the serve a little bit, so my serve speed went down. But everything else was fine. I was moving fine from the baseline.”

Sinner didn’t lose serve in either the semi or the final (the first to do so since Roger Federer in 2003, via OptaAce), and he faced just one break point in each match. In the final, he had 58 winners to 25 errors, compared to Zverev’s 49-to-45 mark.

🎤 Jannik Sinner

“If he serves like this, it is so tough to get into the rally. I had my chances in the third set in the beginning, was love–30, where I made a couple of wrong choices, but that’s tennis because you cannot be perfect for four hours, five hours. Honestly, I just tried to accept the situation and be as present as possible with the right attitude, and I think this today was the biggest key.”

Wheelchair Winners

The three finals today completed a No. 1 sweep of the six wheelchair events.

Tokito Oda [1] defeated Alfie Hewett [2] 6-1, 6-1, winning his 10th Slam at just 20 years old. It’s also his sixth consecutive Slam. He will be going for the Grand Slam at the US Open. Oda’s all-white wheelchair was the best fashion statement of the tournament. He has promised a new design next year.

In quad singles, Niels Vink [1] defeated Sam Schroder 6-1, 6-3 for his fourth consecutive Wimbledon, fifth consecutive Slam and 10th Slam overall. After match point, he pulled a Marta Kostyuk and did a front flip out of his chair.

In women’s doubles, singles champ Yui Kamiji and Zhenzhen Zhu beat the defending champs, Li Xiaohui and Wang Ziying 6-4, 7-5.

Bracket Challenge Winners

Thanks to everyone for playing the Served Bracket Challenge! Congratulations to all the winners!

• ATP Bracket: Adnan and Cktennis (tie)

• WTA Bracket: Numberial

• Combined: Numberial

Served Team Winners

• ATP Bracket: Andy

• WTA Bracket: JW

• Combined: Blair

We’ll do it again at the US Open!

Wimbledon Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Bracket Challenge Calendar Slam

We are keeping track of total Bracket Challenge scores across all four Slams in 2026. With three in the books, here are the new standings.

5

Jannik Sinner’s Slam count

Jannik Sinner had a sampler platter of eye-popping stats today, including his 87 consecutive holds against Alexander Zverev, his 100th Slam win and his perfect streak of service holds in the semi and final. Andy chose to honor this milestone to put it into historical context as Sinner continues to evolve into one of the game’s greats. Listen to Andy’s perspective below.

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Alexander Zverev was trying to become the first man in history to win his first and second Slams back to back. Name a woman who did it.

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Kristina Mladenovic and Guo Hanyu, the No. 10 seeds, won their first Wimbledon title over Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani, the No. 2 seeds, 6-3, 7-5. It is Mladenovic’s 10th Slam overall and Guo’s first.

• JW’s 50 Parting Shots from Wimbledon on Sports Illustrated is the best way to deal with the Slam hangover.

• He also reported on Serena and Venus Williams’s summer schedule.

• Marcelo Arevalo is the first player from El Salvador to win a Wimbledon title (mixed doubles with Jelena Ostapenko).

• Roberto Bautista Agut called it a career this week at the Copa del Rey, the oldest tournament in Spain (an invitational and exhibition). Take a bow.

• Jacob Fearnley and Tatjana Maria won the ATP Challenger/WTA 125 Newport Hall of Fame Open today. Fearnley saved six match points against Adam Walton and had an epic turnaround, 5-7, 7-6, 6-4

• Linda Noskova, the day after. Next up: the Champions Ball. ⬇️

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

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Don’t Miss a Second of Served

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Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “There’s no clock to run out. There’s no stalling. There’s no judge who likes the sequins in your costume.”

Did anyone think of Guillermo Coria when Linda Noskova’s large lead slipped away in the second set? JW did. Listen to his and Andy’s reactions to Noskova’s towering mental performance and maiden Slam, whether runner-up speeches should be optional and a tactical breakdown of the men’s final on Sunday.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 13 on YouTube

Noskova Powers to Glory

Linda Noskova [9] dominated the first set from the baseline and on the serve return, getting two breaks despite Karolina Muchova [10]’s clean serving performance (she missed just five first serves). When Noskova went ahead 5–2 in the second, she tightened up and allowed Muchova to rattle off five games in a row—while watching five championship points slip through her strings—to send the match to a decider.

Noskova took a bathroom break, splashed water on her face and stared into the trophy case.

🎤 Linda Noskova

“I was like, I’m not going to take the small one. I’m taking the big one. I have been so close, this would be probably the heartbreak of my life. I started over.”

The 21-year-old fought off break points in the opening game of the third set to save her serve, then regained her earlier form and went up 5–2 again. This time she didn’t waver on championship point.

“I didn’t even realize that I had a match point. I kept going. That’s what won it for me.”

Karolina Muchova said in her post-match press conference that she went into the match a little tired after her marathon semi with Coco Gauff two days ago, and also nervous. But she left the tournament on a positive note.

🎤 Karolina Muchova

“Credit to Linda. She played really well and made it tough for me. Getting to the final, I would have taken that before the tournament started. This is a setback, but as well a motivation.”

Doubles Speak

The Brits started the day by crowning a homegrown champion—Harry Patten won the men’s doubles title with Finland’s Harri Heliovaara. The top seeds took their second Wimbledon crown by beating Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo 7-6, 7-6.

Centre Court was full for the match, and Patten pointed it out in the trophy ceremony, addressing this week’s news that the ATP is considering cutting back on draw sizes and prize money.

🎤 Henry Patten

“I’m a strong believer that we’re here to grow the game. This is a fantastic example of the joy that doubles can bring. We should be growing the sport instead of taking opportunities away.”

Wheelchair Winners

Women’s singles champion Yui Kamiji [1] sealed her Career Golden Slam emphatically, with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Diede de Groot [2].

Brits Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, the top seeds in men’s doubles, won their seventh Wimbledon title over Tokito Oda and Gustavo Fernandez, the second seeds, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

In quad doubles, No. 1 seeds Guy Sasson and Niels Vink beat Sam Schroder and Jin Woodman 6-2, 6-1.

Perfect Delivery: Friendly Fire

You have to love a player who can crack a joke through the pain of losing a Slam final, as the runner-up did at the trophy ceremony.

🎤 Karolina Muchova

“It’s tough to find any words, but I’ll start with Linda, my ex-friend.”

Men’s doubles runner-up Marcelo Arevalo also took a playful jab at his opponents in the ceremony: “We played them in the Queens final and we wished them luck in Wimbledon. Didn’t mean this much luck.”

His son’s face after the match said as much.

52

Three-set women’s singles matches this year, a new Slam record

That’s nearly half of all the 127 matches played over the last two weeks. Coco Gauff contributed 10% on her own, playing five consecutive three-setters.

The longest match lasted three hours and 25 minutes, courtesy of Marie Bouzkova and Liudmila Samsonova in the third round. Bouzkova won 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, overcoming Samsonova’s 61 winners and saving 17 of 20 break points. It is tied for the fifth-longest women’s match in Wimbledon history.

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Linda Noskova is the first woman to win both a grass-court tuneup and Wimbledon since Maria Sharapova in 2004. Only two other champions in that time even made the final of a tune-up. One was a first-time Slam winner who won one more major before she retired. The other was a multi-Slam champ before winning her first Wimbledon that year, and she is still active. Who are they?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Serenaraz? Williams stirred up chatter about a mixed-doubles pairing with Carlos at Wimbledon. (@alcarazzupdates)

• Daniil Medvedev has split from his coach, Thomas Johansson, per Bolshe! (h/t @SofiaTartakova

• Time magazine has a fun piece on Wimbledon groundskeepers and the “foot draggers” who damage the courts.

• Boys finalist Jordan Lee is drawing comparisons to Spanish football star Lamine Yamal. The braces help. Judge for yourself. (@sportbible)

• Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff at the World Cup in Miami ⬇️

🍿 Day 14 Matches

• 🏆 Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Alexander Zverev [2]

• 🏆 Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani [2] vs. Guo Hanyu/Kristina Mladenovic [10]

• 🏆 Tokito Oda [1] vs. Alfie Hewett [2]

• 🏆 Niels Vink [1] vs. Sam Schroder [2]

• 🏆 Yui Kamiji/Zhenzhen Zhu [1] vs. Li Xiaohui/Wang Ziying [2]

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Newport Hall of Fame Open Finals, July 12

• ATP: Jacob Fearnley vs. Adam Walton

• WTA: Tatjana Maria vs. Katie Volynets

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Context-free soundbite: “How old was Dean Goldfine when he had a bar mitzvah?”

Today’s semi-finals were straightforward, but Andy and JW found a lot to unpack about both matches and what they mean going forward. Plus, they preview the women’s final—and disagree on who will win.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 12 on YouTube

The Rundown

Alexander Zverev def. Arthur Fery 7-6, 6-2, 6-4

Arthur Fery [WC] was supposed to be coming back from vacation in Greece today. Instead, he played the Wimbledon semi-final as the second-lowest-ranked man ever to do so. He started the match with a hold, and when he got broken early, he broke right back and thrilled the crowd with this very Fery get:

But Fery lost focus in the first-set tiebreak, and that was all it took for Alexander Zverev [2] to relax and find his rhythm. Fery never saw another break point and won only five more points on Zverev’s serve through two sets.

🎤 Alexander Zverev

“I know that 99.99% of the stadium was wanting Arthur to win. But it was such an incredible atmosphere, such a fair crowd as well, I enjoyed every second of it.”

Jannik Sinner def. Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4

The seven-time champ was half a step slow, by his own admission, and couldn’t keep up with the world No. 1.

🎤 Novak Djokovic

“It was a good old blowout. He was just much better today. I was not sharp enough, not balanced enough, not reactive enough to play him today.”

Djokovic also credited Sinner’s serve, saying it has become much more difficult to read since he changed his technique a couple of years ago. He said he would like to play one more at Wimbledon, at least.

🎤 Jannik Sinner

“What Novak is still showing, it’s true inspiration, not only for you guys, but for the new generation of players.”

13

Number of men who have made the final of all four Slams in the Open Era

Alexander Zverev joined the exclusive list of ATP players to final all the majors. He had never been past the fourth round of Wimbledon before this year. If he wins the title, he will be the first man in the Open Era to win his first two Slams back to back.

The Distinguished Dozen

Zverev joins a list of Hall of Famers who have made all of the major finals.

• Rod Laver

• Ken Rosewall

• Ivan Lendl

• Stefan Edberg

• Andre Agassi

• Jim Courier

• Roger Federer

• Rafael Nadal

• Novak Djokovic

• Andy Murray

• Jannik Sinner

• Carlos Alcaraz

The list has some glaring omissions, partly because top players didn’t play the Australian Open regularly until the 1990s.

• Guillermo Vilas (Wimbledon)

• Vitas Gerulaitis (Wimbledon)

• Bjorn Borg (Australian Open)

• Jimmy Connors (French Open)

• John McEnroe (Australian Open)

• Boris Becker (French Open)

• Pete Sampras (French Open)

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Where is Producer Mike from?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Cruz Hewitt, son of 2022 Wimbledon champ Lleyton Hewitt, is into the boys’ final.

• Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jiri Lehecka both announced coaching changes.

• Arthur Fery will be ranked No. 36 in the world on Monday, close to a US Open seeding. He is 138 points back from No. 32 and is defending 115 points before the tournament.

• Grace Jones, Lesley Manville and Keira Knightley were among the A-listers at Wimbledon today. See what they wore. (Hello!)

• Why players are eating venison at Wimbledon. (The Guardian)

• Speaking of celebrities, see who hard-launched their relationships at Wimbledon. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Andre Agassi on his favorite Wimbledon look (h/t Chucker Lexi) ⬇️

🍿 Day 13 Matches

• 🏆 Noskova [9] vs. Karolina Muchova [10]

• 🏆 Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten [1] vs. Mate Pavic/Marcelo Arevalo [6]

• 🏆 Alfie Hewett/Gordon Reid [1] vs. Tokito Oda/Gustavo Fernandez

• 🏆 Yui Kamiji [1] vs. Diede de Groot [2]

• 🏆 Guy Sasson/Niels Vink [1] vs. Sam Schroder vs. Jim Woodman [2]

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

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Context-free soundbite: “Two cocktails and a show.”

Andy had a light day for ESPN, so he went out to dinner, had a couple of drinks, then came back to the Served clubhouse to tape the show with a glass of wine. He holds his liquor well, though. The semifinal analysis with JW is as richly nuanced as always.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 11 on YouTube

The Rundown

Karolina Muchova [10] def. Coco Gauff [7], 6-2, 1-6, 7-6

The two semifinalists had won only three matches on grass between them in the last three years, and both players were winless at Wimbledon in 2024 and 2025. Yet they produced a barn-burner of a third set after lopsided first and second sets, ending in an instant-classic 12–10 match tiebreak. Both women held and fought off a match point. Gauff’s was a gimme at 9–8—she had a sitter midcourt forehand, which is being compared to a penalty kick, and dumped it into the net while attempting a drop shot, which became the main talking point of the recaps. (Here’s the whole tiebreak, condensed.)

But Gauff isn’t crushed about the shot or the match. “The bounce caught me off guard,” she said. Overall, she was irrepressibly happy in her press conference, reflecting more on her tournament than that one point.

🎤 Coco Gauff

“I didn’t think it would be this year I would make the semis, so it’s not a painful story. It sucks to be on the losing end, but even walking off the court, I was like, That was a lot of fun.”

Linda Noskova [9] def. Marta Kostyuk [12] 6-4, 6-4

Noskova has won 11 of 12 matches on grass this season, and she looked like it today in her first major semifinal, breaking serve at the end of each set. At 21 years old, she is the youngest women’s finalist at Wimbledon since Eugenie Bouchard in 2014. Like Karolina Muchova, Noskova has saved a match point en route to the final. Hers was in the second round versus Sorana Cirstea.

Ostapenko Completes Slam Triple Crown

Jelena Ostapenko and Marcelo Arevalo captured the mixed doubles title today, beating Storm Hunter and Marc Polmans 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. A mixed doubles title was the missing piece of Ostapenko’s Slam crown. She has now won a singles title (French Open 2017), women’s doubles title (US Open 2024) and mixed doubles title.

Bracket Challenge Update

We have a winner! Congratulations to Numberial for taking both the WTA and Combined Brackets. Numberial didn’t pick either women’s finalist, but nailed seven of the eight quarterfinalists. Regardless of what happens in the remaining men’s and women’s matches, Numberial can’t be caught.

The ATP Bracket is still up for grabs among most of the Top 10.

Blair is the big winner on the Served team. She edged Andy in the ATP Bracket by four points and can’t be caught there or in the Combined standings. JW dominated the WTA Bracket by nailing the Noskova–Kostyuk semi.

Perfect Delivery

A reporter asked Karolina Muchova about Coco Gauff’s match point, when she appeared to have an easy drop shot to seal the win. “Did anything pass through your head, like. ‘OK, it’s over?’” he said.

🎤 Karolina Muchova

“I thought I would get there, actually.”

Indeed, Muchova had already taken off from the baseline when the ball hit the net. With her speed, reaching the drop shot was realistic. The reporter followed up by asking if Gauff’s shot selection surprised her, and Muchova just repeated herself. “I think I would get to that drop shot,” she said.

That’s the difference between champions and the rest of us. Observers assumed the match was over. Muchova assumed it wasn’t.

4 of 8

Czech women’s finalists in the last four years

Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova will play the first all-Czech final at Wimbledon, which is a little surprising because Czech women have dominated on grass, producing half the finalists since 2022. Barbora Krejcikova and Marketa Vondrousova are the others, and both won the title.

Don’t ask any of the Czech women for an explanation for their success on grass, though. Reporters have asked ad nauseam, and the players don’t have an answer. Muchova today said she is tired of the question. Noskova took a stab: “We are very creative, I would say, so grass allows us to kind of use any side of tennis.”

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Both women’s finalists fought off a match point on their way to championship Saturday. The last time it happened at a major was in 2018. Which tournament was it, and who were the female finalists?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the Canadian Open in Montreal, which starts August 1. He didn’t play last year and wasn’t defending any points. The biggest impact is on Jannik Sinner’s chance to sweep all of the Masters 1000s this year. (La Marca)

• Alexander Zverev will become world No. 2 if he wins his semifinal Friday. Who is Andy taking?

• Wimbledon flip-flopped the men’s semifinals to make sure Arthur Fery’s match won’t overlap the Spain vs. Belgium World Cup game on the BBC. It might benefit Jannik Sinner. (The Independent)

• Rafa, the Netflix special, has received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series

• Henman Hill, Murray Mount, Arthur’s … Seat? It’s an extinct volcano in Scotland. (The Guardian)

• The Wimbledon pharmacy has been selling out of blister pads because so many women are showing up in stilettos. Unforced error, ladies.

• The Big Think spotlights the Wimbledon grass in its Strange Maps series to examine how tennis has changed over the last 50 years. It’s a familiar topic to die-hard fans, but if you’re new to the sport, it’s fascinating.

• Blair breaks down the Royal Box rules ⬇️

🍿 Day 12 Matches

• Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Novak Djokovic [7]

• Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Arthur Fery [WC]

• Hanyu Guo/Kristina Mladenovic [14] vs. Jiang Xinyu/Xu Yifan

• Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani [2] vs. Shuko Aoyama/Liang En-shuo [13]

• Tokito Oda [1] vs. Martin de la Puente [3]

• Alfie Hewett [2] vs. Gustavo Fernandez [4]

• Yui Kamiji [1] vs. Wang Ziying [4]

• Diede de Groot [2] vs. Li Xiaohui [3]

• Niels Vink [1] vs. Guy Sasson

🗓️ Full order of pla

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

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Context-free soundbite: “He was hitting backhands like 50 Cent was throwing out Opening Day pitches.”

The Wimbledon semifinals are set, and Andy and JW preview the matchups and provide the behind-the-scenes intel from Day 10 at SW19. They saw the Queen of England photobomb Arthur Fery and heard from Roger Federer about that viral photo from the Royal Box yesterday.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 10 on YouTube

The Rundown

Fery Punches His Ticket. No one has pinched Arthur Fery [WC] yet. Flavio Cobolli [9] didn’t come close today, losing 7-6, 7-5, 6-0. Cobolli misfired off the ground a lot, and Fery continued to play his brand of solid, all-court, soft-hands tennis with confidence, winning 22 of 29 points at the net. “I felt a bit more confident playing someone I had played before on a big stage,” Fery said, referring to his win over Cobolli in the first round of the Australian Open this year. When Cobolli was asked about that match two days ago, he said, “I was sick. It didn’t count.” The excuse didn’t age well.

If Fery’s run is starting to feel like destiny, consider this: his birthday falls on championship Sunday.

• Fery is the fourth wild card in history to make the semifinals of a Slam.

• He is the second-lowest-ranked semifinalist ever at Wimbledon. Goran Ivanisevic was ranked 11 spots lower when he won the title in 2001.

• He had six Tour-level wins before Wimbledon. He has five here.

• Fery is up to No. 36 in the live rankings and will jump to 26 if he beats Alexander Zverev on Friday.

• He will be the new British No. 1 on Monday.

• As he has progressed through the draw, he has tried to mimic Emma Raducanu’s attitude at the 2021 US Open. (The Times)

Zverev, Unbroken. Taylor Fritz [6]’s knee pain returned early in his match against Alexander Zverev [2], but it might not have mattered. The German’s serve was untouchable in his businesslike 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win. He landed 77% of his first serves, backed up his second serve at a 75% clip (to Fritz’s 33%) and never faced a break point. Fritz had more aces (17 to 14) and winners (31 to 29), but too many errors (28 to 15). Zverev, who is into his first Wimbledon semifinal, said the match was more challenging than it appeared.

🎤 Alexander Zverev

“Nothing on a tennis court is easy. Maybe if I played my 5-year-old daughter. It’s in the back of your mind when you haven’t beaten an opponent in two years.”

Czech Mark. Linda Noskova [9] is the latest in a long line of Czech women to make a name for herself at Wimbledon. The 21-year-old is following in the footsteps of Martina Navratilova, Petra Kvitova, Barbora Krejcikova and Barbora Strycova as a Wimbledon semifinalist. By beating Elise Mertens [25] 6-3, 7-5, she became the youngest first-time semifinalist at Wimbledon since Kvitova in 2010. Noskova won both the singles and doubles titles in Berlin two weeks ago, and her big-hitting variety is lethally sharp going into the last four.

Power Play. Marta Kostyuk [12]’s first match on Centre Court lasted just over an hour. She was pushed to deuce only once and didn’t face a break point in her 6-3, 6-2 win over Jasmine Paolini [13]. The 24-year-old is 20-for-21 since mid-April and is one win from becoming the first Ukrainian player to make a major final.

4

First-time women’s Wimbledon semifinalists, a first in the Open Era

Coco Gauff, Linda Noskova, Karolina Muchova and Marta Kostyuk have the same amount of experience at this stage of Wimbledon—none. The same is true of two of the men’s semifinalists, Alexander Zverev and Arthur Fery. Three players are going to reach their first Wimbledon final this year.

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Arthur Fery played three years for Stanford University, which was represented in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 Wimbledon men’s finals. By who?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Grigor Dimitrov posted a love letter to Wimbledon on Instagram. If you were pulling for him, he felt it.

• One of John McEnroe’s smashed Wilson Pro Staffs is on the auction block. We cannot be more serious. (The Independent)

• The Royal Box lived up to its name today. Here’s the aristocratic roll call. (The Independent)

• Ben Shelton, Jessica Pegula, Jack Draper and Zheng Qinwen have accepted wild cards into the Mubadala DC Open at the end of July. This field is ridiculous.

• The votes are in for Served’s Caption This photo contest on Instagram ⬇️

🍿 Day 11 Matches

• Coco Gauff [7] vs. Karolina Muchova [10]

• Linda Noskova [9] vs. Marta Kostyuk [12]

• Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten [1] vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic/Thanasi Kokkanakis

• Mate Pavic/Marcelo Arevalo [6] vs. Tim Putz/Kevin Krawietz [7]

• Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend [1] vs. Kristina Mladenovic/Guo Hanyu

• Ingrid Neel/Giuliana Olmos vs. Xu Yifan/Jiang Xinyu

• 🏆 Mixed Doubles: Jelena Ostapenko/Marcelo Arevalo [2] vs. Storm Hunter/Marc Polmans

• Tokito Oda [1] vs. Takuya Miki

• Alfie Hewett/Gordon Reid [1] vs. Stephane Houdet/Zhenxu Ji

• Diede de Groot [1] vs. Aniek Van Koot

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

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Context-free soundbite: “He may not know what Beavis and Butt-Head is, but he knows his punctuation.”

Andy saw the epic Novak Djokovic five-hour quarterfinal from Centre Court’s media bunker and was still in fresh awe when he processed the marathon with Producer Mike afterward. Somehow, he found the words for it, and the mental space to dissect the rest of the day’s matches.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 9 on YouTube

The Rundown

Semi-Surprised. Coco Gauff [7] hadn’t won a grass-court match in two years coming into Wimbledon, and now she’s into her first semifinal here. “How?” she said to her team in disbelief after match point. The answer: By holding one of the best records in three-set matches in the Slams. Gauff wins 67% of them overall, third-best among active players, but in the Slams, she is even more clutch, winning 77% of deciders. Today she did it with spot-on serving, aggression and accuracy down the stretch, while Pegula retreated.

🎤 Jessica Pegula

“[Coco is] the best in the world at that, how well she competes and makes you beat her no matter the score or the moment. It’s her best attribute and why she’s a major champion.”

Eight Is Enough. Felix Auger-Aliassime [3] had lost serve only once through four rounds. Novak Djokovic [7] broke him twice, enough to eke out the match 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 and make his eighth consecutive Wimbledon semifinal, breaking a tie with Roger Federer for the most ever. He has played only two match tiebreaks at Wimbledon, versus FAA today and Federer, and those two share a birthday–August 8 (8/8). Today’s win keeps Djokovic in pursuit of a record-tying eighth Wimbledon title, as well as his 25th Slam for the outright record. The infinity symbol is rightfully looming large over Djokovic’s quest for immortality this fortnight.

The Natural. You’d think Karolina Muchova [10] was born to play on grass, but it’s just the opposite. She is allergic to lawns. She gets through the matches with pills, sprays and eyedrops, on top of a serve and slice made for the surface. She hasn’t dropped a set yet, and she made it look easy against Naomi Osaka [14] to get her second consecutive win over a Slam champ. The match wasn’t as competitive as the 7-5, 6-4 scoreline suggests. Osaka said afterward that she was tired after playing every day for the last two weeks. Muchova has now made the semis of every Slam.

Sinner’s Circle. The defending champ’s 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff was no-nonsense and straightforward. Struff won 80% of his first-serve points but only put 50% in play, and Sinner managed nine break points, converting three. Sinner has now won 12 straight matches at Wimbledon and spent 11 hours, 22 minutes on court this tournament, compared to Djokovic’s 16 hours, 32 minutes. But they have two days off before their semifinal. They will be ready for battle.

5 hours, 15 minutes

Time of Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal win, the longest Wimbledon quarterfinal in history

Djokovic has been at the top of the game so long, it seems like he has done everything 10 times. But when it comes to five-hour matches, he had played just four before today.

The longest was the 2012 Australian Open final against Rafael Nadal at 5 hours, 53 minutes. Today’s match is tied for the second-longest Slam match of Djokovic’s career and his longest at Wimbledon. The other one was also against Nadal, this time in 2018, but it stretched across two days.

In the press conference, Djokovic was asked how his level compares with Lionel Messi’s, who is also 39 years old.

🎤 Novak Djokovic

“It would be nice to play 90 minutes like him.”

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

At 22 years old, Coco Gauff is the youngest person to make the quarterfinals of all four Slams since 2007. Who did it then?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Tokito Oda [1] pimped his ride and showed up in a glossy all-white wheelchair. It even has pinstripes. Damn.

• Her Court, a new art exhibit at the Wimbledon Museum, highlights the little-known role that the tournament played in the women’s suffrage movement, which adopted the colors purple, green and white. Works for sale.

• Tennis is lauded as the leader in prize-money equality and maternity leave policy for female athletes in the World Economic Forum’s new report on the gender gap in sports.

• Surprise quarterfinalist Arthur Fery [WC] has the same world ranking as Maja Chwalinska did when she entered Roland Garros–No. 114. Annabel Croft has a tennis crush on him. (The Times)

• Fery isn’t the only British hope. Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool [3] are still alive in their men’s doubles title defense.

• Andrew Castle, the BBC’s longtime Wimbledon lead and an icon at SW19, is upset about how his tenure there is ending. This is a great profile by Simon Briggs. (The Telegraph)

• Victoria Mboko will not defend her Canadian Open title as she recovers from the knee injury that kept her out of Wimbledon.

🍿 Day 10 Matches

• Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Taylor Fritz [6]

• Linda Noskova [9] vs. Elise Mertens [25]

• Flavio Cobolli [9] vs. Arthur Fery [WC]

• Marta Kostyuk [12] vs. Jasmine Paolini [13]

• Julian Cash/Lloyd Glasspool [3] vs. Mate Pavic/Marcelo Arevalo [6]

• Alfie Hewett/Gordon Reid [1] vs. Tom Egberink/Maarten Ter Hofte

• Gustavo Fernandez/Tokito Oda vs. Sergei Lysov/Andrew Penney

• Niels Vink [1] vs. Gregory Slade

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

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Don’t Miss a Second of Served

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Wimbledon 2026

Quick Served Day 10

Semifinalist Arthur Fery played three years for Stanford University, which was represented in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 Wimbledon men’s finals. By who?

💡Answer: Roscoe Tanner in 1979 and John McEnroe in 1980 and 1981.

Quick Served Day 9

At 22 years old, Coco Gauff is the youngest WTA player since 2007 to make the quarterfinals of all four Slams. Who did it then?

💡Answer: Maria Sharapova at 20 years old.

Quick Served Day 8

On this date (July 6), an epic Wimbledon match caused a power surge across the U.K. once it finally ended near nightfall and millions of Brits turned on their lights and kettles at the same time. Which match captivated the public this much?

💡Answer: Rafael Nadal def. Roger Federer, 2008 final.

Quick Served Day 7

If Jessica Pegula wins Wimbledon, she will become the oldest WTA player to win her first major since the current all-time record-holder. Who is it? Hints: It happened this millennium, and she beat a compatriot.

💡Answer: Flavia Pennetta was 31 years old when she won her maiden Slam at the 2015 US Open, defeating Roberta Vinci.

Quick Served Day 6

On July 4, 1947, Jack Kramer became the first man to win Wimbledon wearing what article of clothing that is common today?

💡Answer: Kramer wore shorts instead of flannel trousers.

Quick Served Day 5

Who did Roger Federer beat for his record 105th win at SW19? Hint: He is still in the draw.

💡Answer: Lorenzo Sonego.

Quick Served Day 4

How many Wimbledon junior champions remain in the men’s and women’s draws?

💡Answer: 9

• Men: Grigor Dimitrov, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Marton Fucsovics, Shintaro Mochizuki

• Women: Belinda Bencic, Claire Liu, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Snigur, Iga Swiatek

Quick Served Day 3

On this day in 2019, 15-year-old Coco Gauff beat Venus Williams in the first round, making her the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon since another American teenager. Who was it?

💡Answer: Jennifer Capriati. She was 14 years and 89 days when she beat Canada’s Helen Kelesi in 1990.

Quick Served Day 2

At 41 years and 94 days, Stan Wawrinka is the third-oldest man to play a Wimbledon match in this century. Who are the two older players?

💡Answer: Ivo Karlovic and Feliciano Lopez.

Quick Served Day 1

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won his first ATP title on Saturday in Mallorca, Spain, and he lost another title in the process: the richest player without a trophy. How much prize money had he won before he broke through?

💡Answer: $11.7 million. Now Jaume Munar leads the list with $7.3 million. (h/t Sportico)

5 Setter

June 19, 2026

In Set 5, Producer Mike talked about the changes to Tennis.com we noticed this week and asked: Who was the first person—or people—on Tennis magazine’s cover?

💡Answer: Marty Riessen and Clark Graebner, two amateur players. The magazine was launched in Chicago in May 1965 and focused on local and regional coverage. Read about the history here.

June 12, 2026

In honor of Serena Williams’s return to the doubles court, we asked: Who is the only player besides Venus to win Slam titles with her?

💡Answer: Max Mirnyi. He and Serena won mixed doubles at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, when Serena was 16. Miyrni is now in Aryna Sabalenka’s entourage.

Roland Garros 2026

Quick Served Day 14

How many major singles titles are in this picture?

💡Answer: 26—20 for Roger Federer, five for Martina Hingis and one for Gabriela Sabatini.

Quick Served Day 13

Rafael Nadal won 112 matches at Roland Garros. How many did he win in straight sets?

💡Answer: 90, 80% of his total victories.

Quick Served Day 12

Maja Chwalinska is the third Polish woman to reach a major final in the Open Era. Besides Iga Swiatek, who is the other?

💡Answer: Agnieszka Radwanska (2012 Wimbledon, lost to Serena Williams).

Quick Served Day 11

Jakub Menšík, Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi have reached their first major semifinal this year at Roland Garros. The last Slam to feature three rookie male semifinalists was the 2022 US Open. Who were they?

💡Answer: Carlos Alcaraz, Karen Khachanov and Frances Tiafoe.

Quick Served Day 10

Jakub Menšík and João Fonseca were the fifth-youngest quarterfinal pairing in Roland Garros history. Which American former champ was part of the two youngest pairings?

💡Answer: Andre Agassi, in 1988 (vs. Guillermo Perez Roldan, combined age 36) and 1990 (vs. Michael Chang, combined age 38).

Quick Served Day 9

At 44, Serena would not be the oldest woman to win a main-draw WTA match, should her comeback prove successful in singles. Who holds the record?

💡Answer: Martina Navratilova. She was 47 when she won her first-round match at Wimbledon in 2004.

Quick Served Day 8

Roland Garros will crown new men’s and women’s champions for the first time since 2016. Who won the titles that year?

💡Answer: Novak Djokovic and Garbiñe Muguruza.

Quick Served Day 7

One man left in the draw had three ATP wins this year coming into Roland Garros. Who is it?

💡Answer: Zachary Svajda.

Quick Served Day 6

Which woman has the most aces through two rounds? Hint: She has made the semis before.

💡Answer: Maria Sakkari (14). Aryna Sabalenka had just two. That’s clay for you.

Quick Served Day 5

One player can still complete a career Slam at Roland Garros this year. It’s in doubles, and the player is out of the singles draw. Who is it? (H/T to Hanlon Walsh/The Tennis Tribe)

💡Answer: Elise Mertens.

Quick Served Day 4

On this day 33 years ago, two-time Roland Garros champ Sergi Bruguera dropped the elusive triple bagel on a French opponent. Who was it? Hint: His surname is ironic in this context.

💡Answer: Thierry Champion was on the losing end of the 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 drubbing in 1993. He was commended for finishing the match and not retiring. (h/t @BastienFachan)

Quick Served Day 3

On Day 3, Roland Garros honored the 70th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s historic title in 1956, the first Slam ever won by a Black player. What other professional sport did Gibson play?

💡Answer: Golf. She competed in 171 LPGA events between 1963 and 1977, after her tennis career ended, but did not win a title.

Quick Served Day 2

Stan Wawrinka was one of three men to beat Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at a Slam during their careers. Who are the other two, both retired?

💡Answer: Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Quick Served Day 1

Novak Djokovic’s only two first-round losses at Slams came at the same tournament. Which one? (Bonus trivia: One of those two opponents went on to win the title and is currently coaching a Top 20 player. Who is it?)

💡Answer: The Australian Open. Djokovic lost in the first round in 2005 and 2006 Bonus trivia: Marat Safin beat him in 2005 and won the title. He now coaches Andrey Rublev.

5 Setter

May 15, 2026

In Set 1, Producer Mike shouted out Jannik Sinner for breaking Novak Djokovic’s record for the most consecutive Masters 1000 match wins, and asked who Djokovic was playing when his 31-match streak ended in the 2011 Cincinnati final.

💡Answer: Andy Murray. Djokovic retired from the final with a right shoulder injury. Winning 57 matches already that season had taken a toll on his body by mid-August. He bounced back to win the US Open.

May 8, 2026

In today’s episode, Producer Mike explained the latest on the University of Arkansas tennis program drama. Arkansas belongs to the SEC (the NCAA’s powerhouse Southeastern Conference, for the 40 percent of our audience outside of the United States). The SEC has produced many storied college tennis programs. Which SEC school has won the most NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships?

💡Answer: The University of Georgia. The Bulldogs have won six national titles (one with John Isner in 2007). But that’s just in the SEC. The overall record belongs to the University of Southern California, with 21 rings.

May 1, 2026

In today’s episode, Producer Mike discussed both the ATP NextGen Finals returning to Italy and the NCAA Division I Championships starting today, and asked: How many of the eight players in the 2025 NextGen Finals played NCAA tennis?

💡Answer: 3. Learner Tien (USC), Rafael Jodar (Virginia) and Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford).

Context-free soundbite: “That guy is built like a brick shithouse. He is… stable.”

Workhorses are held in high regard on Served, and Andy and JW heap praise on a few of the sport’s best who are headed to the Wimbledon quarterfinals—Taylor Fritz, Elise Mertens and Marta Kostyuk, to name a few. In the process, Techy Sean gets recruited to have his septum pierced like Linda Noskova if she wins the title.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 8 on YouTube

The Rundown

Fery Tale. British wild card Arthur Fery spoke for everyone when he turned to his box after beating Grigor Dimitrov in five sets on Centre Court, dropped his racquet and mouthed, “What the bleep?” The 23-year-old ranked No. 114 in the world was the only Brit standing by Day 5 and has pulled off two five-set comebacks since then to give the hosts a home hope to cheer for in the quarterfinals. Fery’s throwback, net-crashing game compensates for the lack of power from his 5'9 frame and is made for grass. Taylor Fritz saw Fery’s potential in 2024, when they practiced together before the ATP Finals. “He was cooking me pretty good for the week. I’ve known since then that he can play,” Fritz said in his own press conference after beating Alexander Bublik [10] in straight sets. Up next: Flavio Cobolli [9], whom Fery beat at this year’s Australian Open, though, as Fery noted to the press, Cobolli was under the weather that day.

Staying Power. Don’t worry, everyone, Flavio Cobolli [9] found a place to sleep. After his 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 win over Alex de Minaur [5], Cobolli told the Court 1 crowd that his team’s luggage was packed up at their rental house while they looked for a new one to move to. Now he can peacefully resume his daily routine of pear gelato and pasta until he plays Arthur Fery. We can’t wait—Cobolli is a bit of a live wire, and Wimbledon needs some disruption. Root for the underdog, sure. But keep an eye on the guy across the net having way too much fun. Sinuuu!

Belgium’s Big Win. Not the World Cup. Elise Mertens [25] backed up her upset of Elena Rybakina [2] by beating Marie Bouzkova [21] to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. She is the last All England Lawn Tennis Club member left in the women’s draw, thanks to her two doubles titles here. We love it when the 30-year-old gives us a reason to plug her good heart. She rehabilitates pets in her backyard. She ships her old kits to kids in Africa. She launched an ethical jewelry line to benefit conservation in the Congo. Mertens will meet Linda Noskova [9] in the quarters.

Say Cheese. Ousting the beloved Alexandra Eala [22] risks turning a crowd against you, but who can begrudge Jasmine Paolini [13] this win? The 2024 finalist has spent this season leaving the court in tears of frustration and withdrawing from doubles with a foot injury, which is why it is a relief to see that megawatt smile again. She beat Eala 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to return to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, backing up her second serve with 65% of points won against an opponent who came in red-hot with 14 wins on grass. The cherry on top: Paolini’s idol, Roger Federer, watching from the stands, plus a selfie with him afterward. She will play Marta Kostyuk [12] next.

Perfect Delivery: Clocked It

In mixed doubles, Laura Siegemund, who has a reputation for slow play, was called for back-to-back time violations late in the match tiebreak, lost a first serve and double-faulted. Siegemund and her partner, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, complained that opponent Jelena Ostapenko was tossing the ball “18 times” without repercussion. When Vasselin continued griping after he and Siegemund lost, Ostapenko chimed in.

🎤 Jelena Ostapenko

“Finally, someone’s not afraid to call that when she’s taking, like, two minutes between serves. And everyone knows this.”

Watch the saga in this X thread.

2007

The last year that no unseeded woman made the quarterfinals

For the first time in 19 years, all of the women’s quarterfinalists are seeded. The last time this happened was in 2007, when Venus Williams became the lowest seed at the time (No. 23) to ever lift the Venus Rosewater Dish.

This year, the chalky stat sits in contrast with the draw’s open feeling. Without the top three seeds (and oddsmakers’ pre-tournament favorites), it’s easy to see any of the remaining players winning three more matches. The betting favorite now is Naomi Osaka, followed by Jessica Pegula. In the Served Bracket Challenge, Pegula was the second-favorite pick from the beginning with 1,177 Chuckers taking her to win the title behind 1,363 nods for Elena Rybakina.

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

On this date, an epic Wimbledon match caused a power surge across the U.K. once it finally ended near nightfall and millions of people turned on their lights and kettles at the same time. Which match captivated the public this much?

Go to Tiebreak Trivia Answers

Quick Hits

• Players have grifted 450 tournament towels so far. At £40 a pop, that’s £18,000 worth of breakage. (The Times)

• Rafael Nadal, diplomat: He weighed in on the players’ prize money fight. (TNT Sports)

• Nice move, Tennis Tribe. In response to the fresh kerfluffle over the value of doubles, the publication posted photos of full stadiums “not watching doubles.” Share yours.

• Racquet-clap for the tournament’s new immersive technology for vision-impaired fans. It uses Hawk-Eye’s ball- and player-tracking data to create a “real-time 3D soundscape, allowing blind and low-vision fans to hear the ball’s speed and trajectory.” Get it on the BBC’s iPlayer.

• Naomi Osaka ditched her team after losing in Rome, felt terrible about it and changed her attitude. It’s clicking. (BBC Sport)

• JW’s traditional midterm grades are up on Sports Illustrated.

• Caption this to win Served merch ⬇️

🍿 Day 9 Matches

• Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Jan-Lennard Struff

• Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Jiri Lehecka [13] - to finish, Zverev leads 6-4, 7-5, 3-3

• Felix Auger-Aliassime [3] vs. Novak Djokovic [7]

• Jessica Pegula [4] vs. Coco Gauff [7]

• Karolina Muchova [10] vs. Naomi Osaka [14]

• Tokito Oda [1] vs. Gordon Reid

• Diede de Groot [2] vs. Zhenzhen Zhu

• Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend [1] vs. Asia Muhammad/Franny Stollar [16]

• Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten [1] vs. Guido Andreozzi/Manuel Guinard [8]

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

New Merch! The Served Dad Hat

Get Your Served Dad Hat, $40

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

Check out the Served Merch Shop.

Subscribe to our YouTube page.

Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “The old choppy magoo in the middle of the court and defend wasn’t going to work. She volleyed like a wizard in the third set.”

Struffy? Evidently we’re going with that nickname for Jan-Lennard Struff, one of eight fourth-round winners Andy, JW and Producer Mike discuss as Wimbledon reaches the halfway point and is guaranteed a first-time women’s champion. Novak Djokovic had a chippy, ugly win, Felix Auger-Aliassime showed some rare aggro, Aryna Sabalenka is out of the tournament and hungover by now, and Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff both reached their first quarterfinal here.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 7 on YouTube

The Rundown

Perk Up. Coco Gauff [7] and Naomi Osaka [14] are new members of Wimbledon’s Final Eight Club. This was news to Osaka in the press conference. A reporter clued her in that she now gets two credentials and guest passes for life. “For free?” said the woman with $25 million in prize money.

Mean Streaks. Osaka ended more than top seed Aryna Sabalenka’s title hopes. She stopped two of the most insane streaks in tennis: Sabalenka’s six years without losing a Slam match in straight sets and her run of 21 consecutive tiebreaks at the majors. Osaka ended two of her own—going for 0–13 against Top 10 players off hard court and her “one-sided beef” with Chris Eubanks.

🎤 Naomi Osaka

“He got to the quarters [at Wimbledon] way before me and I was upset for the longest time, and I’m glad to finally join him.”

Serving Notice. Jessica Pegula [4] has been working on serving more aggressively since last fall, and it’s paying off. She’s getting more free points with it, nearly doubling her number of aces per set and increasing her first-serve-winning percentage by 4% this year. But in the first set against Iva Jovic [16] today, Pegula looked up at the stats displayed and saw she was landing only 38% of her first serves.

🎤 Jessica Pegula

“I cannot end the match on that. I don’t care what happens. I’ve got to change that stat immediately. You’ve been breaking the whole match, you’re not playing that bad, just focus on the serve, win some extra points there, and play a bit more aggressively, too.”

Pure Theater. Felix Auger-Aliassime [3] is the last player you associate with drama, but it found him today. With FAA serving for the match at 5-4, 15-40, in the fourth set, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina [22] took a medical timeout for an ankle injury. FAA later called the rule allowing an opponent to—effectively, if not intentionally—ice a server “disgraceful.” Davidovich Fokina got treatment and wound up breaking FAA (the first time the Canadian was broken in the tournament). He also won the set. FAA won in five; otherwise, the handshake might have been more tense than it already was. Andy breaks it all down in the episode.

Luckily, FAA has a fonder memory of the match, and not just the win. He called the point below the best one of his life, never mind that he lost it.

🎤 Felix Auger-Aliassime

“I’m actually laughing as I’m running to the ball. I felt my face relaxing and laughing because the crowd was on their feet as the point was still going on, and in my head I was thinking, This is too good. And then I missed the open shot. I think that’s the definition of enjoying the moment.”

Bracket Challenge Update

Andy changed his women’s pick in the redraw just in time to avoid the Aryna Sabalenka bandwagon crash. Here are Team Served’s redraws.

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Wrong Idea

A reporter in Aryna Sabalenka’s press conference asked whether it feels worse to lose a match that was on your racket or to get outplayed and overpowered, like she did today against Naomi Osaka.

🎤 Aryna Sabalenka

“Both suck. I prefer winning.”

She added that she planned to deal with the disappointment by getting “completely drunk” and forgetting about tennis, then getting back to work. We’ve all been there.

36

Jan-Lennard Struff’s age as the oldest man to reach his first major quarterfinal in the Open Era

It almost didn’t happen. Struff was down two sets to love against Hubert Hurkacz. “Something about staying on the court long enough, weird shit happens,” Andy said in the episode. Struff also had five-set wins in the first two rounds.

Hurkacz retired with Struff leading 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 4-2.

🎤 Jan-Lennard Struff

“It’s just incredible. Thirty-six years old. Fourth round [for the] first time. Quarter-finals of a Grand Slam [for the] first time. You should never give up.”

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

If Jessica Pegula wins Wimbledon, she will become the oldest WTA player to win her first major. Who currently has the record? Hints: It happened this millennium, and she beat a compatriot.

💡 The answer will be in Day 8’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 6 answer: In 1947, Jack Kramer was the first player to win a major wearing shorts instead of flannel trousers.

Quick Hits

• Roger Federer will be in the Royal Box tomorrow.

• Holger Rune is switching racquets from Babolat to Wilson. We hope that means he’s coming back soon.

• Reilly Opelka took another swipe at doubles on social media as news of potential cuts circulated this week. Henry Patten, co-No. 1, bit back. (Clay Magazine)

• Serena Williams’s coach, Rennae Stubbs, talked to the AP about what went wrong (and right ) in her singles match and why she didn’t have more prep. Stubbs expects Williams to keep playing.

• Novak Djokovic extended his Open Era record of major quarterfinals to 66 today. That’s 80% of the Slams he has played.

• Coco Gauff has now reached the quarterfinals of all four Slams.

🍿 Day 7 Matches

• Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Jiri Lehecka [13]

• Alex de Minaur [5] vs. Flavio Cobolli [9]

• Taylor Fritz [6] vs. Alexander Bublik [10]

• Linda Noskova [9] vs. Madison Keys [26]

• Marta Kostyuk [12] vs. Ashlyn Krueger [Q]

• Jasmine Paolini [13] vs. Alexandra Eala [29]

• Marie Bouzkova [21] vs. Elise Mertens [25]

• Grigor Dimitrov [WC] vs. Arthur Fery [WC]

• Anna Danilina/Aleksandra Krunic [3] vs. Ingrid Neel/Giuliana Olmos

• Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori [4] vs. Austin Krajicek/Nikola Mektic [14]

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

New Merch! The Served Dad Hat

Get Your Served Dad Hat, $40

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

Check out the Served Merch Shop.

Subscribe to our YouTube page.

Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “He had 48 aces. Forty-eight aces. Forty. Eight. Aces.”

Andy, JW and Producer Mike dig into the Day 6 fireworks, tournament-altering upsets and feel-good results from Alex Eala, Madison Keys, Taylor Fritz and Grigor Dimitrov, plus Frances Tiafoe’s gutting defeat to Alexander Bublik.

The team’s Bracket Challenge Redraws will be updated on the site on Sunday.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 6 on YouTube

The Rundown

Rewriting the Wrong. One year after Grigor Dimitrov [WC]’s Wimbledon ended in anguish—retiring against Jannik Sinner from two sets up with a torn pec—he returned to Centre Court and got his redemption. The 35-year-old wild card, ranked No. 146, played one of the finest matches of his career to outlast Matteo Berrettini in a thrilling rollercoaster of a match, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3. Next is an unlikely all-wild-card face-off against Britain’s Arthur Fery [WC], who probably never expected to be in the fourth round, much less as the higher-ranked player (he’s No. 114 in the world). Speaking of…

Bloody Good. The Arthur Fery ride continues. The last Brit standing climbed out of a double-break hole in the fourth set, then rallied from 4-1 down in the fifth to stun Zizou Bergs 2-6, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6. The 23-year-old stopped three times for treatment on a persistent nosebleed. His reward: surely a Centre Court debut against Dimitrov on Monday. For a guy who grew up five minutes away from Wimbledon, it’s going to be one of the best days of his life. Read more about Fery in The Guardian.

Grass Roots. As we always say, winning begets winning. Two women who carried grass-court form into SW19 proved it today, cashing in their confidence and momentum for spots in the Round of 16. Qualifier Ashlyn Krueger, who leads the WTA in grass wins this year (15-1 with a WTA 125 title), had slid from No. 29 to No. 102 after early-career hype, but she knocked out Queen’s Club champion Donna Vekic [31] in the first round and hasn’t stopped. She plays Marta Kostyuk [12] next. Alexandra Eala [25]’s stunner over Iga Swiatek [3], meanwhile, was less of a shock to anyone watching the grass season last month. Eala arrived in London with 10 wins and a WTA 125 title.

Bageled, Not Broken. For Jasmine Paolini, 2026 has been a sad, slow slide out of the Top 10 with injuries and cracked confidence. So when the 2024 finalist got bageled in the first round by Robin Montgomery, fresh off a grass-court title, it looked like more of the same. Instead, Paolini flipped it, holding Montgomery off 0-6, 6-4, 7-5 and becoming the first seed to survive a 6-0 opening set at Wimbledon in 40 years. With her 6-1, 6-2 win today over Maria Sakkari, Paolini has won three consecutive matches for the first time this year and has a good draw to go farther. She plays 21-year-old Alexandra Eala, lower-seeded and far less tested at this stage.

Bracket Challenge Update

Most Chuckers are in the same leaky boat in the women’s draw, with all the favorites to make the bottom half’s semifinal eliminated. It helps if you scored some of the 519 bonus points available through three rounds. Here’s where they were found.

Unseeded Upsets

Third Round (120 points, 30 each)

• Jan-Lennard Struff def. Daniil Medvedev [8]

• Hubert Hurkacz def. Tommy Paul [21]

• Shintaro Mochizuki [Q] def. Rafael Jodar [23]

• Roman Safiullin [Q] def. Joao Fonseca [24]

Second Round (160 points, 20 each)

• Grigor Dimitrov [WC] def. Jakub Mensik [15]

• Marton Fucsovics def. Learner Tien [16]

• Matteo Berrettini def. Arthur Fils [20]

• Jan-Lennard Struff def. Brandon Nakashima [28]

• Jenson Brooksby def. Ignacio Buse [31]

• Barbora Krejcikova def. Mirra Andreeva [5]

• Liudmila Samsonova def. Diana Shnaider [15]

• Nikola Bartunkova def. Katerina Siniakova [32]

First Round (170 points, 10 each)

• Otto Virtanen [Q] def. Ben Shelton [5]

• Hubert Hurkacz def. Casper Ruud [11]

• Roman Safiullin [Q] def. Andrey Rublev [12]

• Ethan Quinn def. Luciano Darderi [14]

• Jaume Munar def. Francisco Cerundolo [18]

• Michael Zheng [Q] def. Cameron Norrie [26]

• Zizou Bergs def. Ugo Humbert [27]

• Lorenzo Sonego def. Tomas Martin Etcheverry [29]

• Kamil Majchrzak def. Alejandro Tabilo [30]

• Quentin Halys [Q] def. Matteo Arnaldi [32]

• Daria Snigur def. Elina Svitolina [8]

• Mananchaya Sawangkwae [Q] def. Maja Chwalinska [20]

• Janice Tjen def. Leylah Fernandez [22]

• Ashlyn Krueger [Q] def. Donna Vekic [31]

• Maria Sakkari def. Clara Tauson [24]

• Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Anastasia Potapova [27]

• Zeynep Sonmez def. Ann Li [28]

Seed Differentials

• 26 points—Alexandra Eala [29] def. Iga Swiatek [3]

• 23 points—Elise Mertens [25] def. Elena Rybakina [2]

• 20 points—Madison Keys [26] def. Amanda Anisimova [6]

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Cute Story

After stunning defending champion Iga Swiatek on Centre Court to become the first Filipino player ever to reach the second week of a Slam, an emotional Alexandra Eala did what she does best, other than hitting a tennis ball—charmed the crowd.

🎤 Alexandra Eala

“This achievement may seem small, but for someone who grew up in the Philippines—and I went to train with my brother and my grandfather every day after school with my ruffled socks and my light-up shoes and chubby cheeks—to her this is everything.”

Retailers, take note: Ruffled socks and light-up sneakers are about to sell out across the Philippines, where watch parties reportedly emptied living rooms and offices today. Eala’s matches are becoming stop-everything holidays in her home country, something she talked about when she came on Served in March.

10

Number of women’s champs at Wimbledon without a repeat, a first ever for the tournament

Iga Swiatek’s loss continues a streak of nine years without a title defense. The last person to back up her Wimbledon title was Serena Williams in 2016. Never in Wimbledon’s 149 years has a decade passed without a back-to-back champion.

Swiatek struggled with the rhythm of the match.

🎤 Iga Swiatek

“Even though [Alex Eala’s serve] is super slow and people think it’s easy to return that, it’s quite the opposite. For sure, something to work on. Shit happens.”

“She played great, she used her chances and she went for it. In the tiebreak, when it was tight, I slowed down a bit and she was brave enough to play a bit faster.”

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

On July 4, 1947, Jack Kramer became the first man to win Wimbledon wearing what article of clothing that is common today?

💡 The answer will be in Day 7’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 5 answer: Lorenzo Sonego was the last person Roger Federer beat at Wimbledon. Sonego lost today to Taylor Fritz.

Quick Hits

• See every outfit Princess Kate has ever worn to Wimbledon. Does anyone look better in canary yellow? (Tatler)

• The Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, starts Sunday, July 5, with qualifying. Love All’s Blair Henley will commentate matches and interview players on court. Alex Michelsen, Caty McNally, Jenson Brooksby and Tatjana Maria headline the only grass-court tournament in the U.S.

• Carlos Alcaraz tops Sportico’s list of highest-paid tennis players over the last year. It’s paywalled, fittingly.

• Andrea Petkovic uses your taste in literature and liquor to answer “which Slam tournament are you?” on her Substack, Finite Jest. It’s like tennis astrology.

• Today was Wimbledon’s traditional tribute to sporting legends in the Royal Box. The Bryan Brothers were among the VIPs.

🍿 Day 7 Matches

• Aryna Sabalenka [1] vs. Naomi Osaka [14]

• Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Shintaro Mochizuki [Q]

• Felix Auger-Aliassime [3] vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina [22]

• Jessica Pegula [4] vs. Iva Jovic [16]

• Coco Gauff [7] vs. Belinda Bencic [11]

• Novak Djokovic [7] vs. Roman Safiullin [Q]

• Karolina Muchova [10] vs. Barbora Krejcikova

• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Jan-Lennard Struff

• Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai [4] vs. Hsieh Su-Wei/Wang Xinyu

• Sara Errani/Andrea Vavassori [1] vs. Marc Polmans/Storm Hunter

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

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Don’t Miss a Second of Served

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Context-free soundbite: “We’ve got tennis Anthropic over here.”

In the new Quick Served, Andy and JW provide the insider’s perspective on who’s looking like a contender heading into Week 2, fanboy out on Karolina Muchova and preview the heavyweight matches on deck this weekend.

📖 JW recommended the late Howard Fendrich’s article on Jenson Brooksby’s autism. Here it is.

✏️ Redraw time! The Bracket Challenge Redraw Show comes out tomorrow. Complete yours by Sunday morning.

Make sure to follow Served on socials for updates throughout the day, and join us for daily live chat on Substack.

Watch Quick Served Day 5 on YouTube

The Rundown

Happy Fourth. Jessica Pegula [4] hasn’t dropped a set, gliding into the fourth round and looking more and more like the favorite in her quarter. Next comes a test of her signature specialty: beating fellow Americans. Since 2023, Pegula is a staggering 34-3 against her compatriots. Her Sunday opponent is 18-year-old Iva Jovic [16], an Australian Open quarterfinalist this year whom Pegula has already beaten twice in 2026—and affectionately dubbed a “mini-me” for her tenacious game.

Back From the Brink. Roman Safiullin dismantled 19-year-old João Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, then dissolved into tears at the microphone in the heartwarming moment of the day. The Russian shut down his 2025 season with an injury after the US Open, tumbled out of the Top 100 and arrived in London without a single tour-level win in 2026. He grinded through qualifying and three straight five-setters (the last round of qualifying and two in the main draw) to reach the second week. “Half a year ago, I didn’t know if I’d come back,” he said in the on-court interview. He’s now into the Top 100 again and the last 16 here. Even with Novak Djokovic waiting in the next round, he shouldn’t be overwhelmed—he made the quarterfinals in 2023. But does he have the legs? He has played double the tennis Djokovic has, 22 sets to 11.

The GOAT Is Eating. Novak Djokovic [7] boogied into the fourth round with a four-set win over Arthur Rinderknech [25] and broke out the viral Kayeye dance for his kids afterward. He has been in full cut-up mode this fortnight, having pranked a ballgirl earlier in the week, challenged Rory McIlroy to a game with the Masters green jacket on the line and suggested he and Roger Federer play to break their tie for a record 105 Wimbledon matches. But as loose as Djokovic looks, he’s also eating on court, rolling through the draw and stalking more history at the place he loves the most. The only grass he really wants to taste, of course, is the blade he plucks from Centre Court whenever he wins the title.

Bracket Busters

• Jan-Lennard Struff def. Daniil Medvedev [8] 7-6, 7-6, 7-5

• Hubert Hurkacz def. Tommy Paul [21] 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2

• Shintaro Mochizuki [Q] def. Rafael Jodar [23] 1-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4

• Roman Safiullin [Q] def. João Fonseca [24] 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Fit Check

After Coco Gauff beat Claire Liu in three sets, she unintentionally flexed about her conditioning at the ESPN desk, prompted by Andy’s question about how she recovers from long matches. She seemed confused.

🎤 Coco Gauff

“I don’t think I have ever gotten tired on court.”

On second thought, she remembered one time when she was gassed. She was 14 and cramped against Timea Bacsinszky in a WTA 125 tournament. Eight years without hitting a wall—no wonder she is third all-time in three-set winning percentage at the Slams.

Andy’s point was that Gauff’s confidence in her fitness is the untold story behind her reputation as a world-class defender. He asked ESPN to find out how much Gauff runs in her matches compared to Sabalenka. Check out the episode for the answer.

Jump to Andy's Thoughts on Coco

105

Career Wimbledon match wins for Novak Djokovic, tying Roger Federer’s record for most all-time among the men

Djokovic is one win away from breaking another of Federer’s many records. These are the marks he has overtaken so far.

Federer’s Safe Spots

Thanks to his dominance from 2004 through 2007, Federer should remain in the record books for these accomplishments that are probably out of Djokovic’s reach, at least for sole ownership.

Djokovic still trails the all-time leader, Martina Navratilova, who won 120 singles matches at Wimbledon. Andy went full nerd talking about her achievements.

Jump to Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

Speaking of Roger Federer’s Wimbledon resume, who did he beat for his record 105th win at SW19? Hint: He is still in the draw.

💡 The answer will be in Day 6’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 4 answer: Day 5 began with nine Wimbledon junior champions in the singles draws.

• Men: Grigor Dimitrov, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Marton Fucsovics, Shintaro Mochizuki

• Women: Belinda Bencic, Claire Liu, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Snigur, Iga Swiatek

Quick Hits

• Jack Sock attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding, according to USA Today. The connection? He’s from Kansas City.

• Ivan Ljubicic lived as a war refugee inside a tennis club in Italy as a teenager. Craig Shapiro interviewed the former world No. 3, who now oversees player development in France.

• Shintaro Mochizuki, the qualifier who upset Rafael Jodar and will face Jannik Sinner in the fourth round, won the boys’ title in 2019 and got to practice with Roger Federer. He still remembers Rog’s advice. (Punto de Break)

• Felix Auger-Aliassime has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

• On Tennis Channel, JW reported that Wimbledon cut off the players’ supply of free tickets until they reversed course on their prize-money protest.

• Andy Murray made the case that lighter rackets and stiff polyester strings are causing serious arm injuries, such as those sidelining Carlos Alcaraz and Jack Draper. Sounds plausible. (Tennis 365)

• Hey, Chelsea Handler and Megan Gailey, what time does a Wimbledon champ go to bed? Tenn-ish. ⬇️

🍿 Day 6 Matches

• Elena Rybakina [2] vs. Elise Mertens [25]

• Iga Swiatek [3] vs. Alexandra Eala

• Alex de Minaur [5] vs. Zachary Svajda

• Amanda Anisimova [6] vs. Madison Keys [26]

• Alexander Bublik [10] vs. Frances Tiafoe [17]

• Marta Kostyuk [12] vs. Emma Navarro [23]

• Matteo Berrettini vs. Grigor Dimitrov

• Zizou Bergs vs. Arthur Fery [WC]

• Serena Williams/Venus Williams [WC] vs. Camila Osorio/Solana Sierra

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

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Don’t Miss a Second of Served

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Context-free soundbite: “All of the stress and emotion from last year was just trying to fall out of his face.”

The second round wrapped up low on surprise, until Andy sat down to film today’s Quick Served next to not JW or Producer Mike, but Techy Sean, Wimbledon neophyte. Surprise! He had just done a Jack the Ripper tour, so this episode is the true-crime crossover you’ve been waiting for.

Over on Served’s socials, Love All’s Kimformation clips are giving Chuckers an extra dose of Wimbledon insight. Check it out!

Watch Quick Served Day 4 on YouTube

The Rundown

The list of contenders only got longer as the second round came to a close. The established champions and favorites are looking solid, and Andy is bullish on plenty of players with a high number next to the names. Linda Noskova, Emma Navarro, Madison Keys and Alexander Zverev joined Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe and João Fonseca in the stable of dark horses today.

Fery Ride. Wimbledon started with 21 Brits in the singles draws, and only one remains standing—23-year-old wild card Arthur Fery. Playing Ben Shelton’s vanquisher Otto Virtanen, Fery didn’t even notice that Princess Kate was in the audience on the intimate Court 18. Fery, ranked No. 114, is a local lad who grew up five minutes from Wimbledon and gets to sleep in his own bed during the tournament. Playing NCAA tennis for three years at Stanford University, he reached No. 1 in the country. In the first round, Fery put earplugs in to drown out his opponent’s running complaints to the umpire. He won’t need them against Zizou Bergs on Saturday. The cheers will be loud enough.

A Is for Aces. Amanda Anisimova, last year’s finalist, was pushed to the brink against Sofia Kenin today. In the match tiebreak, Anisimova hit seven unreturned serves to finish with 20 aces—her most ever—in the 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 win. Hat-tip to the Redditor who pointed out that Anisimova redeemed herself after leaving Roland Garros on a messy match tiebreak ridden with errors and double faults. She gets Keys on the Fourth of July.

Eala Gets Revenge. Coming into the match with the most grass wins this year (11), Alexandra Eala lost the first set to Maya Joint, who picked up where she left off against Serena Williams Tuesday and took the first set 6-3. Then Eala turned into a relentless machine of consistency and wore down Joint with pressure and aggressive returns. With the 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win, Eala avenged her tough loss to Joint in the Eastbourne final last year, 12–10 in the match tiebreak, and became the first Filipina to reach the third round of a Slam. She plays Iga Swiatek next.

3mma Returns. Last January, Emma Navarro joked that she loves going the distance. “Me ❤️ three sets,” she wrote on an Australian Open camera lens after winning her fourth decider in a row to reach the quarterfinals. In the last couple of months, Navarro has bounced back from a health-related slide down the rankings to No. 39. She has won 14 mathces in the last six weeks, including a 500 title on clay and a win over Swiatek on grass. Both of her wins this week went three sets. She plays Marta Kostyuk [12] on Saturday.

Bracket Busters

• Grigor Dimitrov def. Jakub Menšík 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

• Luidmila Samsonova def. Diana Shnaider [15] 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

• Matteo Berrettini def. Arthur Fils [20] 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Hot Ticket

Matteo Berrettini and Grigor Dimitrov set up a third-round match with their respective wins today. Asked about it in his on-court interview, the Bulgarian said the quiet part out loud.

🎤 Grigor Dimitrov

“If nothing else, it’s going to be a pretty match.”

So pretty his backhand will be jealous. So hot Jannik Sinner better stay away. So blindingly attractive … you get the picture. Hey, he said it himself.

Looks aside, both of their storylines are easy to root for, and one of these sentimental favorites will make the fourth round. Too bad it can’t be both.

Jump to Andy's Thoughts on Their Stories

26

Consecutive Slam third rounds for Iga Swiatek

With her win today over Karolina Pliskova today, Swiatek became the third woman to make the third round of 26 consecutive majors. She passed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (25) and trails Martina Navratilova (35) and Conchita Martinez (30).

Swiatek’s consistency extends back to the 2019 US Open, when she lost to Anastasia Sevastova in the second round. She is the only WTA player to make the Round of 32 at every major this decade and now has at least 20 wins at each Slam.

Andy's Take on the Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

How many Wimbledon junior champions remain in the men’s and women’s draws?

💡 The answer will be in Day 5’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 3 answer: Jennifer Capriati is the youngest player to win a main-draw match at Wimbledon. She was 14 years and 89 days when she beat Canada’s Helen Kelesi in 1990.

Quick Hits

• Venus and Serena Williams are expected to play their first doubles match on Saturday, anchoring an American-heavy Fourth of July lineup.

• The Rafael Nadal law of upsets was in full effect today. The Athletic explains.

• Learner Tien is so American-guy-coded ⬇️

🍿 Day 5 Matches

• Aryna Sabalenka [1] vs. Jelena Ostapenko

• Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Jenson Brooksby

• Novak Djokovic [7] vs. Arthur Rinderkneck [25]

• Coco Gauff [7] vs. Claire Liu [Q]

• Daniil Medvedev [8] vs. Jan-Lennard Struff

• Naomi Osaka [14] vs. Daria Kasatkina

• Iva Jovic [16] vs Ekaterina Alexandrova [18]

• Tommy Paul [21] vs. Hubert Hurkacz

• Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten [1] vs. Mac Kiger/Patrik Thrac

• Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani [2] vs. Alexa Guarachi/Alicja Rosolska

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

New Merch! The Served Dad Hat

Get Your Served Dad Hat, $40

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

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Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “I only had one choice, which was to heckle.”

Andy called Jannik Sinner’s second-round match on ESPN and delivers a deep dive on the defending champ’s form in today’s episode. He and JW also discuss why Novak Djokovic looks like a tournament favorite, Barbora Krejcikova’s massive upset of Mirra Andreeva and Tommy Paul’s momentum. Plus, the World Cup brings out Andy’s Cockney accent.

Watch Quick Served Day 3 on YouTube

The Rundown

Call Me Coco. No. 56 Solana Sierra led Coco Gauff 7–4 in the match tiebreak before Gauff won six straight points, sealing the comeback with an ace and a howl. She said later that she had “reminded myself who I am,” a frequent tip from her team. She reminded everyone with the shot below at 7–7 in the breaker, an athletic winner only she can produce.

The Crying Game. A lot of players have watered the Wimbledon lawns in Week 1, weeping in either triumph or disaster. Iga Swiatek, Taylor Townsend, Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov all broke down for one reason or another. Today it was Mirra Andreeva. The 19-year-old’s emotions spilled over toward the end of her three-set loss to Barbora Krejcikova and again in the press conference. When the 2024 champion sealed the upset over the No. 5 seed, Andreeva chucked her racket from mid-court to her chair after match point and yelled to her box, “I’m quitting.” She backed off in the press conference, saying, “Well, of course I’m going to need a couple days. Then I’m going to be back to practice for hard courts.”

Emotions also ran high on Nick Kyrgios’s court toward the end of his doubles loss with Alexander Bublik as he contemplated retirement. “I just feel body-wise and everything, probably I’d be hard to see myself coming back here again and competing,” he said afterward. “It’s heartbreaking.” He also swore at the umpire, like old times.

Qualifiers on Fire. Is Mananchaya Sawangkaew the new Maja Chwalinska? Qualifier, tongue-twister of a name, dropping bagels on quality players? Poetically, the woman who took out Chwalinska in Round 1 (albeit when Chwalinska hurt herself on match point) advanced another round, 7-5, 6-0 over Alycia Parks. On the men’s side, American Michael Zheng backed up his upset of No. 29 seed Cameron Norrie with a win over Nicolas Mejia 6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 6-4—and the incredible dive volley below. It’s the NCAA champion’s first time making the third round of a Slam.

Bracket Busters

• Marton Fucsovics def. Learner Tien [16] 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3

• Barbora Krejcikova def. Mirra Andreeva [5] 4-6, 7-5, 6-4

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Ghost Story

Great Britain’s Dan Evans headed into retirement today after his doubles loss, and while the country’s Lawn Tennis Association remained quiet about the end of his 20-year career, he didn’t.

🎤 Dan Evans

“Are they working this week? I have not seen any of them. Serious. No one spoke to me this week. No one has congratulated me on my career this week.”

Let us do the honors. Congratulations on a stellar career, Dan Evans. You got to No. 21 in the world, beat Novak Djokovic and won Davis Cup and two ATP titles. We’ll miss your grit and your candor.

Evans had more to say about being denied a singles wild card into Wimbledon and an proper send-off in person. (The LTA posted a tribute to Evans online.)

21

Consecutive Slam tiebreaks won by Aryna Sabalenka, an Open Era record

Sabalenka hasn’t lost a tiebreak at a Slam in three years. She extended the streak today with a 6-1, 7-6 win over McCartney Kessler.

Afterward, she explained the mindset behind the dominance.

🎤 Aryna Sabalenka

“I trust my shots on the tiebreak and I think that really makes a big difference. And also … the way you start is most likely the way it’s going to go because every point makes a difference at the beginning especially. So I feel like trusting my shots and staying aggressive really helps me to get this incredible stat.”

Andy's Take on the Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

On this day in 2019, 15-year-old Coco Gauff beat Venus Williams in the first round, making her the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon since another American teenager. Who was it?

💡 The answer will be in Day 4’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 2 answer: Both Ivo Karlovic and Feliciano Lopez were older than Stan Wawrinka when they played Slam matches this century. Wawrinka became the third-oldest man to play a major in the 2000s at 41 years and 94 days.

Quick Hits

• Andy Murray, contemporary art collector and historic preservationist. Here’s a tour of his and Kim Sears’s renovation of Cromlix, a luxury hotel in Scotland. (Harper’s Bazaar)

• Maja Chwalinska wears Chanel on the cover of Vogue Polska and talks about humility in the article. (h/t Hard Court)

• The opposite of the queue: two tickets for half a million pounds.

• The WTA Finals are moving from Saudi Arabia to Indian Wells this year. Bounces has a free story.

• Italian media outlet Spazio Tennis reported that the ATP Tour is considering slashing doubles draws and prize money in half. In a paywalled story, Bounces says, “If the proposed ideas go through, the waves that crash into the doubles specialists could have tsunami force.”

• Golf royalty took over Centre Court today. Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Justin Rose and Thomas Bjørn watched the day’s action from Princess Kate’s seats. More celebrity sightings. (ESPN)

• Thanks for the Bracket Challenge shout-out, Rally Report. And great story on the GLTA. (h/t Chucker Adrian Margaret Brune)

• Dad joke of the tournament ⬇️

🍿 Day 4 Matches

• Elena Rybakina [2] vs. Caty McNally

• Iga Swiatek [3] vs. Karolina Pliskova

• Taylor Fritz [6] vs. Patrick Kypson

• Amanda Anisimova [6] vs. Sofia Kenin

• Jakub Mensik [15] vs. Grigor Dimitrov

• Frances Tiafoe [17] vs. Jan Choinski

• Arthur Fils [20] vs. Matteo Berrettini

• Alexandra Eala [29] vs. Maya Joint

• Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend [1] vs. Clara Tauson/Chan Hao-Ching

• Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos [2] vs. Robert Galloway/John Peers

🗓️ Full order of play

💬 Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

New Merch! The Served Dad Hat

Get Your Served Dad Hat, $40

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

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Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “He looked like Don Johnson.”

And just like that, half of the Wimbledon field is out—Ben Shelton shockingly included. Andy and JW met up at the Served clubhouse to recap Day 2, from Shelton’s puzzling crash to Iga Swiatek’s tears to Serena Williams’s emotional performance.

Stateside, Blair dug up seven facts you may not know about Wimbledon, including the name behind the longest-running sponsorship in sports.

Watch Quick Served Day 2 on YouTube

The Rundown

Serena Williams lost but took Maya Joint the distance—or was it the other way around? Who was the favorite in the marquee match of Week 1? In the Bracket Challenge, 55 of you picked Williams to win the entire tournament. Williams loves superheroes, and she has convinced some fans that she is one. But even GOATs are mortal.

Joint did not play like someone on an 11-match losing streak, and Williams did not play like someone fresh out of retirement. The GOAT wasn’t her old self, but neither did she cut the image of an aged athlete out of her depth—at least, for most of the night.

Trailing a set and a break, Williams saved a match point and stretched it to a decider. She went up an early break before fading around the two-hour mark. On ESPN’s wrap-up show, Andy speculated that she lost her legs a bit and her serve cooled off. Joint held her nerve to close out the match 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. This was the Maya Joint who won two titles last year as a teenager and got to No. 28 in the world.

We will see Williams in doubles later this week. After that? Caroline Wozniacki, her good friend, expects her to play singles at the US Open—and to be in better form than she was today.

Williams did not attend a post-match press conference.

🎤 Maya Joint

“When we were in that hallway before we walk out onto Centre Court, that was the craziest moment of my life. Just watching all the greats and legends do that, for me to do that as well was just insane.”

Bracket Busters

Worried about your bracket after Ben Shelton’s and Elina Svitolina’s shock losses? A lot of Chuckers had them going deep, so like Jannik Sinner’s early exit at Roland Garros, the upsets won’t be as catastrophic as you might think.

• Otto Virtanen def. Ben Shelton [4] 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6

• Daria Snigur def. Elina Svitolina [8] 7-5, 6-2

• Jaume Munar def. Francisco Cerundolo [18] 6-1, 6-4, 6-3

• Maria Sakkari def. Clara Tauson [24] 6-3, 6-3

• Ashlyn Krueger def. Donna Vekic [31] 3-6, 7-6, 6-4

• Tyra Grant def. Katie Boulter 6-4, 6-2

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

Perfect Delivery: Towel Boy

This edition isn’t just verbal. After winning their four-set, four-hour battle, Matteo Berrettini chased Stan Wawrinka off the court to hand him a retirement gift–the tournament towel Wawrinka left behind on court.

🎤 Matteo Berrettini

“I wanted to give him the last towel that he played here [with]. It’s a great memory for everybody. I wouldn’t have minded to keep it, but he wanted it.”

7

Number of Slams Serena Williams won before Maya Joint was born

It’s hard to wrap our heads around what Williams did today by gamely competing against a player less than half her age. Her trophy case was already full before Joint existed. Forget the physical aspect of Williams’s comeback–this stat speaks to her passion for tennis, something that’s impossible to measure but easy to recognize. Today we didn’t witness greatness. We witnessed love, and it meant everything.

Andy's Take on the Stat of the Day

Tiebreak Trivia

At 41 years and 94 days, Stan Wawrinka is the third-oldest man to play a Wimbledon match in this century. Who are the two older players?

💡 The answer will be in Day 3’s Quick Served newsletter.

Day 1 answer: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had won over $11.7 million when he captured his first ATP Tour title on Saturday, making him the richest active player without a title. Now Jaume Munar leads the list with $7.3 million. (h/t Sportico)

Quick Hits

• Novak Djokovic crashed Aryna Sabalenka’s press conference and graded her intensity. “Too flat. Lighten up.”

• In his own press conference, Djokovic advocated for shorter matches outside of Slams to appeal to younger fans and their shrinking attention spans. “We must dare to innovate.”

• Both Queen’s Club champions, Donna Vekic and Francisco Cerundolo, lost today.

• Wild card Arthur Fery was one of four British players to make it out of the first round. The secret? Earplugs.

• Corentin Moutet’s racquet-breaking technique leaves something to be desired. Say this: He didn’t give up.

• Elena Rybakina reached 300 tour-level match wins today.

• Men’s doubles starts tomorrow, and women’s doubles kicks off Thursday.

• Taylor Fritz and Hugo Boss upped their game ⬇️

🍿 Day 3 Matches

• Jannik Sinner [1] vs. Nuno Borges

• Aryna Sabalenka [1] vs. McCartney Kessler

• Mirra Andreeva [5] vs. Barbora Krejcikova

• Novak Djokovic [7] vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas

• Iva Jovic [16] vs. Tatjana Maria

• Frances Tiafoe [17] vs. Terence Atmane (to finish; Tiafoe leads 7-6, 6-1, 4-6)

• Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori [4] vs. Ben Jones/Joshua Paris [WC]

Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

Catch Up on Served’s Wimbledon Shows

Subscribe to Served's YouTube Channel

Subscribe to Love All's YouTube Channel

New Merch! The Served Dad Hat

Get Your Served Dad Hat, $40

Don’t Miss a Second of Served

Connect with us on socials.

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Submit a question for Q&Andy.

Join our Substack community.

Chat with Chuckers on Reddit.

Context-free soundbite: “Three buttons fly off. From my pants.”

Welcome to Quick Served Day 1 from Wimbledon and Served’s new London clubhouse. Andy and Producer Mike met up after their respective workdays at SW19 and exchanged notes, from Andy’s wardrobe malfunction you didn’t see on ESPN to all the tennis that stressed and impressed.

Make sure to follow Served’s social channels for Producer Mike and Techy Sean’s adventures in Wimbledon Village and the queue. And join us for daily live chats on Substack.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

The Rundown

With David Beckham watching from Centre Court’s Royal Box, Bad Bunny from Novak Djokovic’s player’s box and Andy from the ESPN studio desk, Wimbledon put Day 1 in the books with just a polite amount of drama. Jannik Sinner bled through his shoe (he said he lost a nail) as he fought back from a two-set-to-one deficit versus Miomir Kecmanovic, and Djokovic dropped a set to Wu Yibing. All other contenders cruised—Tommy Paul in just 73 minutes.

For the Brits, it was all heartbreak. The hosts lost the Jack Draper/Andy Murray dream team to injury (Draper’s left arm, still) less than 24 hours after Emma Raducanu withdrew. Those who played for the Union Jack today went 0–10, led by Cameron Norrie’s loss to Michael Zheng, the reigning NCAA champion. Jack Pinnington Jones was trailing Brandon Nakashima by two sets when their match was suspended until tomorrow. No. 60 Katie Boulter is the highest-ranked homegrown player left.

Both Denis Shapovalov and Maya Chwalinska fell prey to the court itself. Shapovalov slid into a wall and hurt his shoulder too badly to continue. Chwalinska rolled her ankle up match point. She wouldn’t retire out of respect for the tournament, but left a limping loser to qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew. She and Lanlana Tararudee made history as the first Thai players to win main-draw Slam matches on the same day.

Zheng had the win of the day, repeating his feat from Melbourne this year, where he qualified and upset a top player (Sebastian Korda) in five. But Kecmanovic won the highlight reel, below. Yes, that’s the Serb, not Producer Mike.

Bracket Challenge Busters

• Hubert Hurkacz def. Casper Ruud [11] 6-4, 6-2, 7-6

• Roman Safiullin [Q] def. Andrey Rublev [12] 6-4, 6-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (14-12)

• Ethan Quinn def. Luciano Darderi [14] 7-6, 7-5, 6-2

• Mananchaya Sawangkaew [Q] def. Maya Chwalinska [20] 2-6, 7-5, 6-2

• Janice Tjen [Q] def. Leylah Fernandez [22] 6-1, 7-6

• Michael Zheng [Q] def. Cameron Norrie [26] 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6

• Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Anastasia Potapova [27] 6-2, 6-3

• Zeynep Sonmez def. Ann Li [28] 7-5, 1-6, 6-4

Served Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

7–12

Sinner’s five-set record at Slams

Jannik Sinner’s five-set victory today was his first at a Slam since the 2024 Australian Open, when he beat Daniil Medvedev for the title. Since then, he had lost four straight (to Medvedev, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz). The sub-.500 percentage is the rare blemish on the No. 1’s resume.

After the match, Sinner said he felt well-prepared to defend his title despite skipping the grass-court tune-ups to train.

🎤 Jannik Sinner

“If you play a tournament before here, maybe it’s not going the way you would like to, you come here with some doubts. If you don’t play any tournament, you don’t have these doubts, you just go and play.”

Tiebreak Trivia

Alejandro Davidovic Fokina won his first ATP title on Saturday in Mallorca, Spain, and he lost another title in the process: the richest player without a trophy. How much prize money had he won before he broke through in Mallorca?

💡 The answers will be in Day 2’s Quick Served newsletter.

Quick Hits

• Naomi Osaka’s walk-on outfit, an all-white kimono by Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi, is a tribute to the character O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill. “I like to be like a video game character sometimes. I don’t want to be myself when I’m playing,” she said.

• Slightly less dramatic, Novak Djokovic entered Centre Court wearing a custom Lacoste blazer with a message stitched inside: “A hero is not the one who strikes, but the one who endures injustice and forgives.” Nice piping, too. (Sports Illustrated)

• Venus Williams talked to British Vogue about her leadership role fighting for equal prize money at Wimbledon, the last hold-out among the majors.

• The top players have called off their media protest over prize money after “constructive” meetings last weekend. Boycott boycotted. (BBC Sport)

🍿 Day 2 Matches

• Serena Williams [WC] vs. Maya Joint

• Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Alexander Blockx

• Iga Swiatek [3] vs. Taylor Townsend [Q]

• Ben Shelton [4] vs. Otto Virtanen [Q]

• Alexander Bublik [10] vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis

• Jasmine Paolini [13] vs. Robyn Montgomery [Q]

• Diana Shnaider [15] vs. Eva Lys

• Frances Tiafoe [17] vs. Terence Atmane

• Emma Navarro [23] vs. Paula Badosa

• Clara Tauson [25] vs. Maria Sakkari

• Matteo Berrettini vs. Stan Wawrinka [WC]

Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!

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