Monday June 14th
A transitional week between Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but also a giant leap for Barbora Krejcikova, who gained 18 places in the WTA rankings by being the surprise winner of the French Open and now stands 15th in the world. The progamme following: Halle, Queens’, Birmingham, Berlin... all on grass, obviously. During this period, in space, Thomas Pesquet, who had arrived at the end of April on board the ISS, prepared for his first two extra-vehicular missions. The life of an astronaut, not bad after all.
Tuesday June 15th
34 year’s old, a plastic hip, but still with fire in his belly: Andy Murray still up and running, producing at Queen’s his first win on grass since 2018 by chrushing Benoit Paire in two sets. At the same time, Cristiano Ronaldo decides to make the most telling gesture in the last 20 years in the campaign against fizzy drinks by making a point of moving aside the bottles of Coca Cola placed under his nose during a press conference. The company, which has spent 35 million dollars to be one of the Euro football sponsors, must have been delighted.
Wednesday June 16th
A bad time for sponsors. Still with the Euros, it was the turn of Paul Pogba who went for another bottle, this time a non alcohol beer which was removed from the cameras’s field of vision. On the other hand, no revolutionary act at Halle, but a slap in the face defeat for Roger Federer, beaten by the talented Felix Auger-Aliassime. Frustrated, the Swiss pleaded guilty: "This was not a great attitude on my part. I was disappointed by my behaviour on court, the way things were happening. It is not someething of which I am proud." Kevin Durant can, on his part, be proud of advancing to the NBA play-offs with his team, the New York Nets.
Thursday June 17th
How to remain at the top of the tree longterm? By pacing oneself. After the early exit of Federer at Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal decides to withdraw from Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics. No reason for the Spaniard to miss out on the U.S. Open, especially since it has been announced that the American tournament will have no resrictions on the number of spectators to be admitted. Full stands at Flushing Meadows, everybody looking forward to that, especially Ugo Humbert, who win over Alexander Zverev in Halle.
Friday June 18th
After Nadal, Naomi Osaka also withdraws from Wimbledon in order to concentrate on preparing for the Olympic Games. Dominic Thiem has chosen a different path by withdrawing from the Olympic tournament. Everyone is creating their own agenda whilst Alize Cornet celebrates in Berlin, blowing away Garbine Muguruza. Pow!
Saturday June 19th
Whilst resting, Novak Djokovic takes advantage of his break to deliver a small put down of Rafael Nadal and confirms his ambitions for the rest of the season: "I want to be at my best level at Wimbledon, for the U.S Open and the Olympic games. The calendar is really tight . There are only 10 to 15 days btween Wimbledon and the JO, it is not ideal but it is not the first time I find myself in this situation. I am happy with my method of recovery." Before taking up his raquet again the Serb celebrates the birthday of his wife, Jelena, with a rather kitsch photo of a candle. For a present, the Djoker might consider this diamond of 1098 carats found in Botswana, the third biggest ever discovered in the world.
Sunday June 20th
A wonderful blaze of sun for French tennis: after several weeks in the doldrums, Ugo Humbert blossoms again by beating Andrey Rublev in the final of the tournament at Halle. Imagine him reproducing his sensational form at Wimbledon to put back a smile on the faces of sports’ fans, grieving for the death of @Philousport, one of the irreplaceable Twitter figures to whom we dedicate this week’s tennis news. Other headlines: Matteo Berrettini at Queen’s, Liudmila Samsonova in Berlin and Ons Jabeur in Birmingham who delivers the first WTA title in the history of Tunisian tennis. Yeah, that’s all folks!
