Sorted Special: Wimbledon
Long read: Welcome to your special bonus issue of Sorted Digital online magazine. Your regular edition for the month of July will be published, as usual, next week.
Sorted Digital Editor, Val Fraser writes: I’m delighted to welcome seasoned journalist, Alastair McIver, as Guest Writer of this Wimbledon Special bonus issue of Sorted Digital online magazine. Alastair is a much admired and longstanding friend of Sorted Magazine and I’m very envious of his seemingly effortless flowing prose! He has travelled the world as a tennis journalist, was Editor of Tennis World Magazine for nearly two decades, the author of Tennis Gallery and his writing has featured in many national and international publications. He has interviewed numerous tennis royalty in his time, including Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Virginia Wade, Tim Henman and tennis enthusiast Sir Cliff Richard.
I discovered that while Alastair has rubbed shoulders with the great and the good as a professional tennis journalist, he’s also a humble man of faith, with a heart for the suffering. He told Sorted Digital: “While working as an advocate for survivors of injustice in the nomadic regions of Asia I was deeply troubled by what I saw and heard about. Listening to the abuses suffered by kidnapped brides changed me forever. I vowed to use whatever skills I’ve learned to draw attention to these suffering people.” Alastair has boldly drawn on these real life experiences to craft a gutsy fiction novel which will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat! The Daily News has garnered much praise and many five star reviews, among them, British author and missionary Simon Guillebaud who said: “Great story, gripping stuff, a real page-turner!” I couldn’t agree more!
Serving up a treat
Alastair McIver whets the Wimbledon appetite
If there is one annual sporting event which is guaranteed to set the pulses racing and demands the nation’s attention, it’s surely Wimbledon. Whether you are a club player, a spectator or simply an interested bystander, The Championships, one of the crown jewels in the British sporting calendar, are unmissable.
From the moment the first ball on Centre Court is struck, the nation is gripped. Game on. And this year will not disappoint. If you are fortunate to have a ticket or two for Centre or No 1 Court, the green, green grass of Wimbledon will draw you in for a spectacular, five star tennis feast.
If you aren’t fortunate enough to have tickets, or are abroad, fear not.
Wall to wall TV coverage will bring Centre Court right into your living rooms. And let’s be honest, which one of us in the UK would deny that we’ve eaten our suppers on our laps so as not to miss one of those legendary early evening Centre Court battles year on year?
If you are on the US west coast, you might be watching live before going to work or on the school run, pouring maple syrup over your blueberry muffins, washing them down with some strong, filtered coffee. Good Morning America.
Last year, twenty six million American tennis fans tuned in. The United States was just one of the more than 200 territories (regions) worldwide which showed The Championships on television.
It’s all a far cry from the BBC’s inaugural first, black and white broadcast in 1937, which capitalised on the interest generated by Britain’s Fred Perry, who won the Wimbledon singles title three years in a row, the last one in 1936! Those of you who enter the grounds via the Somerset Road entrance this year can’t miss the magnificent statue of Perry, which was unveiled in 1984.
That was then. This is now, and who could have foreseen the enormous global growth of Wimbledon all these years on?
Today’s visitors can watch, assuming rain doesn’t stop play, world class tennis on eighteen courts, and those who are fortunate to have tickets for Centre or No 1 Court are guaranteed their tennis fix. Both courts have retractable roofs, No 1 Court’s roof coming into operation in 2019, a decade after Centre Court opened its roof for the first time.
This year, if you have been paying attention, tennis fans will have a bonus, a new men’s rivalry to savour. Two Europeans, no less, Jannick Sinner, Italy’s first ever World No 1, and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. It’s timely, given the recent departure of the big three, Federer, Nadal and Murray.
Thirty eight year old Novak Djokovic, of course, is still very much in the mix, but there are new faces on the block. And where better than Wimbledon to showcase them?
Who will win? Why, the fans of course. Anyone who witnessed the epic final of the French Open in Paris earlier this month could not deny a rivalry that is here to stay.
So there is much for the half a million tennis fans to look forward to; and I haven’t even mentioned the nation’s favourite gin based fruit cup. Or strawberries, for that matter. They are both worth a mention, if only to bump up your seasonal pub quiz knowledge.
150,000 glasses of Pimms will be consumed this year, we are told. And 28,000 kilos of English strawberries.
In addition, punters will consume 300,000 cups of tea and coffee; 250,000 bottles of water; 190,000 sandwiches;135,000 ice creams;100,000 pints of draught beer and lager; 30,000 portions of fish and chips and 23,000 bananas. Add 17,000 bottles of champagne into the mix and you have a veritable selection of gastronomic delights to make your day memorable. What will you choose, I wonder?
One major change that fans will notice this year is the absence of linesmen and women on all match courts. Yes, there will still be an umpire adjudicating from the chair, but the line decisions will be made electronically.
If all of this progress and change seems a little bit overwhelming, fear not. There is always good news. In this AI world of technological change, retractable rooves and electronic line calls, there will always be the players. Real flesh and blood. And there will always be strawberries … and cream. Enjoy.
Is there life after Andy Murray?
Alastair McIver asks the question
This year’s Wimbledon Championships will look a little different. No linesmen/women on court. No 1pm or 2pm starts, respectively, for the men’s and women’s singles finals. They will both now begin at 4pm.
And, shock horror, no Andy Murray!
Britain has produced some great players over the years, not least Fred Perry, the last player to win Wimbledon before, you guessed it, Andy Murray thrilled the nation in 2013 with his first Wimbledon title (a year after wining the US Open). A second Wimbledon title followed, three years later and, of course, either side of those Slam victories, he won two Olympic golds. That, I would suggest, is a legacy.
Several Brits came close to winning in the intervening years between Perry and Murray but none could get over the line.
Murray’s ‘predecessor’, Tim Henman, reached the Wimbledon semis on no fewer than four occasions, but we have to go back to the early 1970s to match that performance, Sheffield left hander, Roger Taylor losing out twice in the semis, firstly to Australian great Ken Rosewall in 1970 and then to the Czech player Jan Kodes, who went on to win the title in 1973.
So with Wimbledon upon us, the question is, can another Brit follow in Murray’s footsteps?
Jack Draper, 23, and 29 year old Cameron Norrie, a semi finalist in 2022, are our best hopes. While Draper has not progressed past the second round on his two visits to The Championships, he has had an incredible 2025 and at time of writing, is ranked No 4 in the world!
He began the year by reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open (only to be forced to withdraw through injury). He followed this up by reaching the final in Qatar in March, before winning his first ATP 1000 title in Indian Wells, a victory which saw him enter the World’s top 10, at No 7.
European clay beckoned and he continued his good form with a fourth round showing at the Foro Italico, Rome and then was a semi-finalist in Madrid. The French Open was, in his own words, a “missed opportunity” after he was defeated by World No 62 Alexander Bublik in four sets in the fourth round. But his earlier form meant that he retained his ranking, something that will see him seeded to reach at least the quarter finals at Wimbledon.
Norrie, on the other hand showed in Paris that he can beat the best, downing Daniil Medvedev in the first round, but then in the fourth, he lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic. He reached the final in Genoa in May (losing to Djokovic again) and enters Wimbledon ranked 60 in the world.
Djokovic is 38 now and hungry for more titles and realistically (sorry British tennis fans) it is more likely that the winner will come from him and one of Jannick Sinner and the current holder, Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Djokovic in last year’s final. But don’t rule the Serbian out for one more title on a surface which has seen him successful on no fewer than seven occasions.
Of his rivals, Alcaraz, from Spain, and Italy’s Sinner, both 22, have met twelve times on the ATP Tour, with Alcaraz winning eight of those meetings, including in Rome and that fantastic French Open final in Paris a few weeks ago. That said, Sinner has won the only other Grand Slam to date this year, the Australian Open in January and it is worth noting that he has won their only meeting on grass. And, despite his defeat in Paris, he did defeat Djokovic in straight sets in the semis in Paris, and heads into the summer grass court season as the World’s No 1 player!
World No 5, the German Alexander Zverev, was defeated in Paris in June by Djokovic while world No 6, the American Taylor Fritz, headed out of Roland Garros after a disappointing first round loss.
Clay isn’t grass, of course, and the big serving, 6’5” American will be looking to take two steps forward from his appearance in the quarters last year. Zverev has yet to get past the fourth round, so it’s hard to see this year’s champion coming out of anyone outside the big three, Alcaraz, Sinner, or Djokovic.
Which still begs the question, is their life after Andy Murray?
The answer, of course, is yes. No player is bigger than the tournaments they win. Wimbledon included.
And of course, eras move on, players step up, and rivalries emerge. Alcaraz and Sinner are this season’s rivalry, and probably will be for a decade to come.
Our Emma – too much too soon, or another Grand Slam winner in waiting?
Alastair McIver asks the question on everyone’s lips
The women’s game this year throws together an interesting mix of Grand Slam champions and rivalries.
Several seasoned champions will be looking to knock current World No 1, Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, the two time Australian Open winner and current US Open champion, off her perch.
Top of the pile will be American Coco Gauff, who, just a few weeks ago, came from a set down to defeat Sabalenka in the French Open final, thereby winning her second career Grand Slam title.
Former French Open champion, and defending Wimbledon champion, the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova, 29 will also be determined to defend her Wimbledon title following her victory last summer over the Italian, Jasmine Paolini, in three sets.
Paolini will also be one to watch, not least as she defeated Gauff as recently as May in the Italian Open final.
And we haven’t even mentioned Australian Open champion, the American, Madison Keys, or two of her top ten compatriots, Jessica Peluga, and Emma Navarro, who reached the final and semi-final respectively of the 2024 US Open.
Four Americans in the top 10 is impressive, but don’t forget the Chinese. Zheng Qinwen has not set the world alight with career Grand Slam success, but finds herself ranked No 5 in the world after a good run in Rome in May, where she defeated Sabalenka to reach the final, only to lose narrowly in the semis to Coco Gauff.
And then there is a teenager. Yes, the teenage sensation who is Russian, Mirra Andreeva, who, at just 17 years of age, reached the French Open quarter finals in June, a performance, coming after three other WTA Tour wins, which cemented her ranking in the world’s top ten, at 6.
And finally, who would rule out five times Grand Slam champion, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, 24? The Pole is currently ranked five in the world, one place behind Paolini.
Are you keeping up?
Women’s tennis has an abundance of top talent and experience. No one player is dominating. This year’s Ladies Championships, coming on the back of the newly reinstated WTA 500 series event at Queen’s Club, promises to be one of the most captivating tennis spectacles in many years.
In all honesty, I should be including Emma Raducanu in that group of contenders for this year’s Championships. But that, I am sad to say, would be foolhardy. Apart from the annual pressure of being a Brit in the media spotlight for the whole of the summer tennis season, there are the expectations. And, sadly, no one is holding their breath that Raducanu can come anywhere close to matching her incredible success in New York in 2021, when she came through qualifying and the main draw to win a fairytale first Grand Slam title. From that moment on, her trajectory has been downwards. The question is, will she be forever wounded by her success?
So what’s gone wrong?
Everyone has a view, but the facts speak for themselves. In a nutshell, her failing career since her success at Flushing Meadows can be categorised in three words: endorsements, coaches and injuries.
In the glowing aftermath of her New York success, no one could blame her or her agent for maximising her income from endorsements. Indeed, some of the world’s top household name brands were queuing up to sign her up. And they did. The problem was, that endorsements quickly became the distraction that a tennis career in waiting didn’t need.
And now, in 2025, four years on, she sits on a pile of money but a career bereft of titles.
Former Grand Slam great Chris Evert believes that she has to go back to basics: “She’s not there yet,” she told Tennis 365. “She’s got to build, go back to the drawing board and build-up slowly. Maybe she had to swallow her pride a little because she’s not up there yet. The endorsements came in, the coaches were coming in and out, and still her expectations are right up there now.”
Ah, the coaches. All nine of them, or is it ten? A few Brits, a Canadian, and even a Russian, former World No 20 Dmitry Tursunov in 2022. But he only lasted four months, citing too many ‘red flags’ for him to continue.
Fast forward to March this year, and a trial with the Slovakian, Vladimir Platenik. That lasted just two weeks. More recent reports suggest that she is with former British tennis player, 54 year old Mark Petchey.
And then there are injuries. All players suffer injuries, but her game has been plagued by a series of them, year on year, some of them resulting in surgeries. No one needs a list but suffice to say that she has had her fair share of tournament withdrawals.
Add to that the pressures that her record against the World’s top eight players up to the end of May this year; 11 losses out of 12 matches, 10 in straight sets, and it would probably be fair to say that Emma Raducanu will not be winning Wimbledon this year.
Enduring Love
Alastair McIver takes a walk down memory lane
It is hard to imagine how a tournament that debuted 137 years ago as a men’s only event, with 22 entrants, and whose final was observed by just 200 spectators, could possibly have grown into such a global phenomenon. But it has.
The times they are a changing. And if any major sporting event can claim to have kept up with them, it’s surely Wimbledon. Bob Dylan would concur, I am sure.
To chart the growth, we have to take ourselves back to 1877 and a four acre plot of meadow land off Worple Road. The All England Croquet Club, founded in 1868, leased the land so that tennis, its new focus introduced into the Club in 1875, could hold a tournament.
Local favourite, 27-year-old Spencer Gore walked on to court with his opponent, William Marshall, an architect by profession. Forty-six minutes later, Gore, who went to Harrow School and also played first class cricket for Surrey, had written himself into the history books as the first Wimbledon champion, following his 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Marshall.
How could they, or indeed, the 200 folk in attendance that day, have possibly known what they were birthing? Perhaps Marshall’s friend, Charles Darwin, an expert on biological evolution, saw it coming, if indeed he was in the crowd. We will never know. What we do know is that, since that summer’s day in 1877, much has changed. Take prize money.
The winners of this year’s singles title, whether male or female, will pocket £3 million. For his efforts, Gore received the princely sum of twelve guineas.
What about attendance?
This year, more than half a million tennis fans are expected to head down Church Road to the All England Club, The Championships’ location since its move there from Worple Road, in 1922.
Half a million sounds a lot. Certainly, to Gore and his generation, it would be unimaginable. But even that number is a fraction of those who will watch online, on television, or listen in on radio, around the globe.
“What on earth is television?” I hear Mr Marshall ask.
“Ah. Wait and see,” responds Mr Darwin.
Last year, the BBC reported that at its peak, 3.2 million viewers tuned in to watch Carlos Alcaraz defend his singles title.
The Ladies’ Singles Final, where the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova triumphed over the Italian Jasmine Paolini, was (at its peak) watched by two million fans.
How could Gore, Marshall or even Darwin have possibly anticipated such a national reach, let alone a global one?
Radio and television were for the future and beyond. It is Wimbledon’s alertness to change that has seen it stay up to speed, and even sprint ahead of its rivals in the global race for Grand Slam supremacy.
And it’s not only the media which has marked a change. The erection of a retractable roof on Centre Court in 2006, followed up in 2019 with a similar structure on Court No 1, was a remarkable engineering feat which guarantees tennis on Wimbledon’s two primary courts.
Spencer Gore would be turning in his grave, in admiration, I am sure.
Then there are the other major adjustments to the game that would surely have raised a bushy 19th century eyebrow.
Tie breaks? “No such thing” suggests Spencer.
Graphite rackets? “Ridiculous.”
Hawk-Eye? “You cannot be serious.”
Equal prize money for women? “You’re having a laugh!”
“There wasn’t even a lady’s singles tournament in my day,” Spencer Gore reminds us.
That would take seven more years to come into being. 1884.
The debut victor in that year was Harrow born Maud Watson, who defeated her sister, Lilian, in the final, 6-8, 6-3, 6-3. Maud was to defend her title a year later. Quite a feat, but made easier by the fact that Wimbledon in those days was a British only event with less than 20 competitors! Today, the men’s and women’s draw welcomes players from over 55 countries!
What a difference a century or more makes.
I wonder, with all of the glitz and glamour, how many of today’s champions look over their shoulders to acknowledge their predecessors, and the back story, that is forever Wimbledon?
Alastair McIver (pictured above) is a tennis journalist, former Editor of Tennis World magazine and contributor to Tennis Threads magazine.
Alastair is the author of The Daily News. Order/pre-order Alastair’s books and read more about his writing life here: About A sequel No one hears you scream - but silence will be heard will be published in July. Pre-order here. The Daily News is available from Waterstones and Amazon.
Closing thoughts
By Val Fraser
I’ve been itching to experiment with a Sorted Special issue for months and it’s finally here! I understand very little about the tennis world but Alastair is extremely knowledgeable and has been very patient with me. It’s been great fun working with him, kicking ideas around and putting this issue together. Thanks Alastair!
Next week, our regularly scheduled issue of Sorted Digital will be published as usual. As always, I hope to see you in the comments, where myself and the whole team will be able to see your messages.
God bless, Val Fraser :)