Day 1 at The Championships is one of the most special days of the tennis year, with play commencing at the sport’s most historic tournament, on the nearly-pristine green grass of The All-England Club.

As tradition dictates, the defending gentlemen’s singles champion opens Centre Court play on Day 1 of the fortnight.  And for the first time, that man is Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated four-time defending champion Novak Djokovic a year ago in five sets, and is coming off his third Major title just three weeks ago in Paris.

Monday’s schedule also includes 2024’s other Major winner in men’s singles, Jannik Sinner, as the top seed finds himself in the same half of the draw as third-seeded Alcaraz.  In addition, Daniil Medvedev, a semifinalist here a year ago, also plays his first round match on Day 1, as will 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini.

WTA play on Monday is headlined by two other reigning Major champions: Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka.  Another pair of Slam champs, Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens, will square off in the opening round on Day 1.  Plus, the 2021 US Open champion, Britain’s Emma Raducanu, takes on Ekaterina Alexandrova, who is one of only four players to defeat World No.1 Iga Swiatek during the first six months of 2024.  And four-time Major champ Naomi Osaka will play her first match at Wimbledon since 2019.

Throughout the tournament, this preview will analyze the day’s four most prominent matches, while highlighting the other notable matches on the schedule.  Monday’s play begins at 11:00am local time.

Matteo Arnaldi vs. Frances Tiafoe (29) – 11:00am on Court 15

This is the most intriguing first-on match of the day.  Tiafoe was a US Open quarterfinalist less than two years ago, and reached the quarters of that same event last summer.  But since leaving New York, where he was upset by fellow American Ben Shelton, Frances has not been the same player.  He is just 13-15 on the year, and arrives at SW19 having not won consecutive matches in three months.

Arnaldi is a 23-year-old Italian who recently achieved a career-high ranking of No.34, and in Paris advanced to the second week of a Major for the second time out of the last three Slams  He upset Andrey Rublev in the third round of Roland Garros, the third top 10 win of his young career.  However, Matteo is only 1-2 lifetime on grass at tour level.

Though In their first career meeting, an upset would be far from shocking.  Arnaldi’s complete lack of experience on this surface is rivaled by Tiafoe’s complete lack of confidence.  And Matteo possesses a formidable forehand with a short backswing, an asset on the fast-playing lawns of Wimbledon.

Matteo Berrettini vs. Marton Fucsovics – Second on Court 12

Another Italian Matteo headlines another of Monday’s most interesting contests, and this Matteo went all the way to the championship match of this tournament just three years ago.  Berrettini loves playing on grass: four of his eight career ATP titles have come on this surface.  But the perpetual issue in the 28-year-old’s career is staying healthy.  The big man’s body has failed him multiple times in recent years, and he’s played only 14 tour-level matches since suffering a gruesome ankle injury at last year’s US Open.

The best Slam result of Fucsovics’ career came at this same event in the same year Berrettini reached the final.  Marton was a quarterfinalist in 2021, thanks to upsets over three top 20 seeds (Sinner, Schwartzman, Rublev).  But the Hungarian veteran is just 11-9 at ATP level this season, and did not play a grass court warmup event.

By contrast, Berrettini played two, highlighted by a run to the final of Stuttgart.  And even though Fucsovics claimed their only prior ATP encounter, that came over five years ago, prior to the Italian discovering his best tennis.  This is another case where I favor the Italian player named Matteo to advance.

Ekaterina Alexandrova (22) vs. Emma Raducanu (WC) – Second on Centre Court

Centre Court’s closest match of the day will likely be this one.  Just within the past week in Eastbourne, Raducanu has played perhaps her best tennis since winning the US Open in 2021.  She clobbered Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-0, before earning the first top 10 victory of her career over another American, Jessica Pegula.  Emma even saved a match point before prevailing over Jess.

A year ago at this tournament, Alexandrova advanced to the second week of a Major for the first time.  She also won back-to-back grass court titles in 2022 and 2023, both in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.  And earlier this season in Miami, which plays at a similar court speed to that of Wimbledon, Ekaterina reached the semifinals, with wins over both Swiatek and Pegula.

Raducanu and Alexandrova have never played before, and Emma will certainly benefit from an overwhelming amount of crowd support.  However, that also comes with a lot of pressure and expectation, especially after such strong wins just a few days prior.  I give Alexandrova the slight edge on Monday.

Victoria Azarenka (16) vs. Sloane Stephens – Last on No.2 Court

These are two hard court Major champions who have not advanced to the quarterfinals of this event in about a decade.  Azarenka is a two-time semifinalist here, but hasn’t gone that far in 12 years.  Stephens’ sole quarterfinal appearance occurred in 2015.

During 2024, Vika has been the better player.  She is 24-11, and recently reached the semifinals of Berlin on this surface.  Stephens is just 18-16, and went just 1-2 on grass in June. 

Their rivalry dates back to a contentious semifinal at the 2013 Australian Open, when Azarenka took a nearly 10-minute medical timeout late in the match, and was subsequently accused of doing so for the purpose of disrupting Stephens’s momentum.  Overall Vika is 5-4 against Sloane, and while they have never played on grass, recent form dictates Azarenka be considered the favorite.

Other Notable Matches on Monday:

Carlos Alcaraz (3) vs. Mark Lajal (Q) – After winning his third Major in Paris, Alcaraz spent some time partying in Ibiza, then lost his second match at Queens Club in straight sets to Great Britain’s Jack Draper.  Lajal is a 21-year-old Estonian qualifier making his Major debut, and took to Instagram on Friday to boldly proclaim that Carlitos would be losing in the first round of Wimbledon.

Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Daniil Medvedev (3) – Medvedev is 28-9 in 2024, but is yet to reach a semifinal this year on clay or grass.  Kovacevic is a 25-year-old American who is just 1-3 in the main draw of Slams. 

Gael Monfils vs. Adrian Mannarino (22) – This past week in Mallorca, Monfils advanced to the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Alejandro Tabilo in a third-set tiebreak.  Mannarino is a meager 8-17 on the season, and arrives on a three-match losing streak on grass.  In this battle of veteran Frenchmen, Gael leads their head-to-head 5-2, though they are 1-1 at SW19.

Emina Bektas vs. Aryna Sabalenka (3) – Sabalenka comes into this fortnight at less than 100%, as she pulled out of Berlin last week with a shoulder injury, which she told the media this week is still bothering her.  Bektas is a 31-year-old American looking for her first victory at a Major.

Naomi Osaka (WC) vs. Diane Parry – Osaka is only 4-3 lifetime at The Championships, and is 15-12 on the year, after going 2-2 on grass between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Berlin.  Parry is a 21-year-old from France who debuted inside the top 50 earlier this season, and is coming off a semifinal run on grass in Nottingham. 

Caroline Dolehide vs. Coco Gauff (2) – Gauff is now 32-10 this year, and was a grass court semifinalist in Berlin.  It was a first-round loss at this tournament a year ago to fellow American Sofia Kenin that prompted Coco to make changes to her team, which helped propel her to her first Major title just two months later in New York.  Dolehide is another fellow American who was a surprise finalist at last fall’s WTA 1000 event in Guadalajara, where she herself defeated Kenin in the semifinals.  Coco has taken both of their prior matches in straight sets.

Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Yannick Hanfmann – Sinner is a superb 38-3 on the season, and just won his first grass court title last week in Halle.  Unlike the last Major, Jannik arrives at this one fully healthy, which means trouble for the field.  In the first round of the 2023 US Open, he comfortably defeated Hanfmann in straights.

Paula Badosa vs. Karolina Muchova – This is only Muchova’s second tournament since last year’s US Open due to a wrist injury, and she withdrew midway through her first event back this past week in Eastbourne.  Badosa is another player whose career has been derailed by injury, as she missed the last half of last season, and is just 13-12 since returning.  They have split their two previous matchups, though Muchova’s victory came three years ago at this event.

Monday’s full Order of Play is here.

The fallout over the decision to schedule only men’s matches in the evening sessions at this year’s French Open has been defended by tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

In a deal with Amazon Prime, the Grand Slam schedules one match to take place at 7pm on their premier Philippe Chatrier court every day until the quarter-finals. This year was the first time that no women’s matches were played in the slot since the deal was established in 2021. Overall, there have been 43 night sessions in the tournament’s history with 39 of them being awarded to the men’s draw.

Recently the WTA issued a statement to Reuters news agency calling for there to be more balance in the scheduling. A spokesperson said ‘fans want to see the excitement and thrill of women’s tennis on the biggest stages and in the premium time slots.’ However, it has now been claimed that the governing body was involved in the allocation of matches in the tournament. 

Mauresmo, who is a former world No.1 and previously coached Andy Murray, said there was never any ‘push’ for women’s matches to be held in this spot which some players don’t want due to its time. 

“When we do the scheduling, the WTA is in the room as well as the ATP, the Grand Slam supervisor, TV, we are all together,” Mauresmo said on Sunday.
“I did not see any push also to have the women’s match in the evening. I think it’s a very complicated decision. 
“It’s not easy having one match (at night) but again I never say it’s gonna be never (to having women’s matches).”

Elaborating further on the topic, Mauresmo argues that men’s matches usually last longer due to their best-of-five format. Making these more valuable for fans attending in terms of duration. The idea of playing two matches at night has been dismissed because it would ‘create other problems’ such as extremely late finishes. Novak Djokovic didn’t end his third round match until after 3am.

“It’s not a matter of how interesting the matches can be or could be. For us, it’s a matter of the length of the matches.”She said.
“In terms of the people that are coming to watch the match, the 15,000 people that are coming. It’s complicated for us to think that maybe it’s going to be very, very short. So we try our best, and it’s not easy.”

This year’s Olympic tennis tournament will be held at Roland Garros. That event will also have a night session but two matches will take place as they will all be best-of-three sets. 

More than 650,000 spectators came to the French Open over the past three weeks. A review of the event will start in a couple of weeks.

The championship matches in men’s singles and women’s doubles will be played on Sunday.

19 years ago, a young Spaniard named Rafael Nadal started a legendary relationship with Roland Garros, winning his first of a record-breaking 14 titles at this event.  Now in the same year that Nadal seemingly bid farewell to the French Open, another young Spaniard looks to begin his own Parisian legacy.  On Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz plays for his third Major title, and his first on the surface he grew up on.

Four years ago, Sascha Zverev reached his only other Major final, in an empty stadium during the 2020 US Open.  Despite holding a two-set lead, Zverev lost that championship match to Dominic Thiem in a fifth-set tiebreak, after some extremely nervous play.  On Sunday, a confident and self-described more mature version of Sascha returns to the last round of a Major, this time in a sold out stadium, and looking for a different result.

Also on Day 15, in the women’s doubles championship match at 11:30am local time, it will be Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini (11) vs. Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova (5).  After losing the women’s singles final on Saturday, Paolini vies for Grand Slam glory alongside Errani, who is a five-time Major champion in women’s doubles.  Between singles and doubles, Gauff is 0-3 in Slam finals, which includes a runner-up appearance here two years ago in both disciplines.  Siniakova owns seven Major titles in women’s doubles, all of which came with Barbora Krejcikova.

Sascha Zverev (4) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (3) – Not Before 2:30pm on Court Philippe-Chatrier

Alcaraz has only played 29 matches this year, with a record of 24-5, as he missed several big events due to a right arm injury.  That included absences at two of the ATP’s biggest European clay court events, Monte Carlo and Rome.  Yet despite the injury and lack of match play, Carlitos has advanced to his third Major final with the loss of just three sets, two of which came against Jannik Sinner in Friday’s semifinals. 

By contrast, Zverev has been the healthiest of the top seven ATP players during this clay court season.  He is 34-9 in 2024, and comes into this match on a 12-match winning streak, after taking the Masters 1000 title in Rome three weeks ago.  Sascha endured a complicated path to this championship match, which included a pair of five-setters.  And he surely values his bodily health after the awful ankle injury he suffered in the semifinals of this event two years ago.  He would love to continue creating more positive memories on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Zverev holds a narrow 5-4 edge in their head-to-head, though on clay, Alcaraz leads 2-1.  However, Sascha’s sole victory on clay came in their only previous meeting at this event, in the 2022 quarterfinals.  And the German is 2-1 against the Spaniard at Majors.

Alcaraz has a definitive edge in speed as well as on the forehand side, while Zverev will look to use his serve to dictate play, and possesses a more formidable backhand.  But the biggest difference between these two is how they play in big matches.  Carlitos is 7-1 in finals at Majors and Masters 1000 tournaments, with his only loss coming in an epic championship match last summer in Cincinnati against Novak Djokovic.  Sascha is just 6-6 in finals at those same levels, and his record of 2-6 in Major semifinals speaks to how passively he often plays in big matches.

And if the match goes the distance, that is a distinct advantage for Alcaraz, who is 10-1 lifetime in five-setters.  While Zverev’s mark of 23-11 is actually pretty strong, many of those wins came against players ranked outside the top 100, and in matches where Sascha arguably should have won without going five.

Plus, trying to accomplish the sport’s biggest feat, winning a Major title, when you have not only never done so before, but actually choked when you were so close to doing so, is a lot to overcome.  While I don’t expect Zverev to play as nervously in his second Major final as his first, Alcaraz remains the freer swinger at crucial moments.  Carlitos should be favored to win his third Major title on Sunday in Paris.

Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.