Wimbledon wrap for the Aussies
The 2024 Wimbledon tournament has now been played and it was a good result for Alex de Minaur in the Gentlemen’s singles and for Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson in the Gentlemen’s doubles.
All three would be a bit disappointed and how the tournament ended for them. de Minaur unfortunately was forced to withdraw from his highly anticipated quarterfinal match against Novak Djokovic with a hip injury.
For Purcell and Thompson, they let slip three championship points against Finland’s Harri Heliovaara and Britain’s Henry Patten.
The Aussie pair losing 6-7(7), 7-6(8), 7-6(9) despite not facing a break point all match.
“Plain and simple, it just sucks,” Thompson said. “You know, we had match points, one point away from being a Wimbledon doubles champion.”
For the other Australian men it was only Alexei Popyrin that went beyond the second round, he lost to Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the third round.
Aleksander Vukic went down 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2 to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. Also losing in the second round was Jordan Thompson to Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Thanasi Kokkinakis was another to suffer and injury on the grass. He slipped during a round two match against France’s Lucas Pouille. He was forced to retire with the score at 2-6, 7-5, 5-2.
Another Australian that reached the second round was Adam Walton. He would lose to Argentina’s Francisco Comesana. It was a heartbreaking five set loss the Walton. The final score was 7-5, 1-6, 6-7(12), 6-1, 7-6(8).
In the Ladies’ singles we saw just one victory for the Australian contingent.
Daria Saville winning her first round match against Peyton Stearns of the USA. The Aussie taking the match 6-4, 6-2.
In round two against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk it was Saville that looked well in control after breaking to love for a 5-2 lead in the second set, after taking the first set 6-4.
Kostyuk was having a hard time landing her first serves but she managed to start finding her range after taking a bit of pace off of the serve.
The Ukrainian slowly edged her way back into the match and saved a match point with Saville serving at 6-5 and Ad in the second set. 13 points would follow in that game before Kostyuk broke back to go to a tiebreaker.
From there Kostyuk was in control and took the match 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.
Ajla Tomljanovic was easily beaten by Jelena Ostapenko and qualifier Olivia Gadecki lost her opening round match to USA’s Robin Montgomery 6-4, 6-4.