I filled out most of my women's draw on a plane yesterday. Not to London, sadly, but on a well-deserved vacation nonetheless. I went through this practice knowing that it might have turned out the way my French Open draw turned out.
I didn't get to finish the draws until Monday morning and in the spirit of full disclosure, I was already watching Wimbledon, rooting for Monica Niculescu to make it more of a match against Aryna Sabalenka (she kinda did). So it would have been easy to pretend that I had perfectly predicted the first-round winners, but I am an honest woman. And I'll own what I really thought was going to happen even though my version of reality had already been imploded.
But here we are. What can I say? I keep forgetting that Sloane Stephens likes to lure us into underestimation and then she shows up at Slams and beats a former Wimbledon champion.
And then there was the men's draw.
What can I say? I'll always show my work, even if it's a little wonky.
Let's talk about what's left, then. Like Frances Tiafoe. Does he actually have a shot here? Or did Stefanos Tsitsipas have a bad day? It seems a little odd to me to that the French Open runner-up never bothered to change his game much when Tiafoe's obvious play was attacking the net. And Tsitsipas just ... let him. Will others do that? It's possible, because the high seed left in that draw is Roberto Bautista Agut. I'm just saying.
So what can Tiafoe get away with here?
Same applies to Sloane, I guess, but I'm even more curious about Sabalenka. The only reason I picked Maria Sakkari for an upset in the fourth round was because Sabalenka has these great run-ups to majors and then probably the nerves get her. She can totally beat Sakkari -- Sabalenka's game is pretty overpowering -- but the stage might get her. Heck, it almost got her in the second set of her first-round match. But if she's going to have a breakthrough, it feels as if the best place might be on a surface where shorter rallies are more the norm.
So, now I'm all caught up, back to sneaking tennis scores while poolside with the kids. Things could be worse.
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