Naomi Osaka’s winning return to Wimbledon after five years has left her with mixed emotions. 

After being absent from the tournament since 2019 due to a variety of reasons ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to maternity leave, she was given a testing welcome-back match on Monday. Taking on France’s Diane Parry, Osaka battled to a roller-coaster 6-1, 1-6, 6-4, victory where she had to come back from a break down twice in the decider. 

“It felt really fun and really stressful at the same time,” Osaka said about her experience of playing on Court Two.
“It was just really fun. It felt like an arena. The match I think was a little up-and-down, but I think overall it was something that I can take a lot away from.”

The Japanese player is regarded as one of the most high-profile names in women’s tennis with a quartet of major titles to her name. However, she is yet to make her mark at Wimbledon. She has won just five matches at the tournament so far in her career which is the fewest among any player to have held the WTA No.1 ranking since the system was introduced in 1975. 

Although nobody can rule Osaka out due to her natural talent and powerful ball striking that has caused difficulty for many of her peers over the years.

“I think my serve wasn’t the greatest today. I feel like I definitely should have had a higher percentage,” she reflected on her latest performance.
“Ironically I felt like I returned pretty well. There were certain games where the score didn’t show that, but I felt like I was continuously putting pressure on her. That’s why she double-faulted on the match point.
“I’m glad about that because it’s something that I’ve been working on for a while. To have it, I guess, manifest during the grass season is a really good result for me.”

Osaka now has her second round match to prepare for but before that is another important occasion – her daughter’s first birthday.

“She had a really big celebration a week or so ago. That’s one of the things that I didn’t want to miss. That’s kind of why I didn’t play Eastbourne because I didn’t want to miss my daughter’s first birthday party.” Osaka explained.
“She’s going to have a cake and stuff here, but not like a crazy, big event.”

Daniil Medvedev enters Wimbledon with a fresh burst of confidence following his run at the tournament 12 months ago. 

Having previously never gone beyond the fourth round, he battled through to the semi-finals before getting stopped in his tracks by Carlos Alcaraz, who went on to win the title. A formidable hardcourt player on the Tour, his success on other surfaces is smaller. Just one out of his 20 ATP titles was won on the grass.  

Medvedev began his latest campaign at The All England Club with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, win over America’s Aleksandar Kovacevic. He has won 230 matches since the start of 2020 which is more than any other player on the ATP Tour. The Russian appears to be in solid form but what did he learn about his from the tournament last year?

“I always felt kind of not bad, but sometimes you get Hurkacz or someone else, and it’s a big serve, and you can lose some tiebreaks,” Medvedev commented on his grasscourt game.
“Last year I managed to go step-by-step till the semifinals. Against Carlos, I had to do much better. I lost easy, to be honest.
“I think this for sure gives me confidence for this year knowing that I can take this step by step, then against the best players I need to be better. I’m ready to do it.”

One area Medvedev has been working on concerns his consistency during matches. During his pre-Wimbledon preparation, he only played two Tour-level matches in Halle, losing in the second round to China’s Zhang Zhizhen.

“When I come on grass the first week, my forehand, especially with my big swing, I would hit it too late. Not a good rhythm.” He explained.
“I was working a lot on everything, movement. Different muscle work, a lot of physical work. 
“A lot of serving for sure and a lot of repetition of just hitting the ball and trying to find the rhythm.”

The work seems to be paying off for the world No.5 judging by his latest match statistics. In his first round match, he won 79% of his first service points and hit nearly two times more winners than unforced errors (33 against 17).

Medvedev’s next challenge will be against Alexandre Müller, who is currently ranked 102nd in the world and is yet to win back-to-back matches at a major event.

Two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has pulled out of Wimbledon after recently casting doubt on her participation in the tournament. 

The world No.3 has withdrawn from the tournament due to a shoulder injury, according to an official statement from the AELTC. Sabalenka would have been a title contender in the tournament after reaching the quarter-finals or better at the last seven Grand Slam tournaments. 

“I’m heartbroken to tell you all that I won’t be able to play the Championships this year,” Sabalenka said in a statement posted on social media.
“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating. I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things worse. 
“This tournament means so much to me and I promise I’ll be back stronger.”

Over the weekend, the 26-year-old admitted to reporters that she was ‘not 100 percent fit’ and was struggling with a shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from her match against Anna Kalinskaya at the Berlin Open in Germany. She later added that there was a ‘chance’ that she wouldn’t be playing. 

“It’s teres major,” she said of her physical issue. “I call it just shoulder injury. It’s really a specific injury, and it’s really a rare one. Probably I’m just the second or the third tennis player who injured that muscle. [It’s] a very frustrating one. The most annoying thing is that I can do anything. I can practice, I can hit my groundstrokes. I’m struggling with serving. That’s really annoying.
“You don’t feel like you’re injured. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain. We did an MRI, we did everything. We did a lot of rehab, a lot of treatments.”

Sabalenka has now missed Wimbledon in three out of the past five years. However, the tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to COVID-19 and in 2022 she was unable to play because of the decision to ban Russian and Belarussian players. 

She will be replaced in the draw by lucky loser Erika Andrea, who will play Emma Betkas in the first round on Monday.