The Wimbledon mixed doubles draw was released on Wednesday revealing several fun teams including Victoria Azarenka and Jamie Murray, Ashleigh Barty and Thanasi Kokkinakis, and Elina Svitolina and Nicolas Mahut,
Azarenka, who lost her singles second round to Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday, is excited about teaming up with Murray, who is the defending mixed doubles champion at Wimbledon, having won alongside Martina Hingis last year. The reason behind Azarenka’s excitement is not necessarily about Murray’s doubles skills though.
“Well, I’m very much looking forward to have English people on our side and being hopefully a crowd favourite for the first time in England,” Azarenka said with a laugh.
“Jamie is an amazing player. To see how much he progressed over the years and making a big name for himself, it’s really cool. So I’m excited to play with him. I think it’s going to be our first time. My memory is gone,” she adds with a smile.
“But he actually asked me. I was thinking about doubles or mixed doubles or something to play, and he reached out to my coach and I said yes.”
Roger Federer pulls off Uniqlo surprise on Centre Court – Wimbledon diary
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Over in the small interview rooms, Bernard Tomic was talking to the press after his first round win over fellow lucky loser Hubert Hurkacz.
The Aussie has not been in a chatty mood as of late but we did manage to squeeze a few answers from him on Monday.
Tomic, who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon as a qualifier when he was just 18 years old back in 2011, has slipped to 184 in the rankings.
Last year at Wimbledon, Tomic left us with a bombshell of a press conference in which he said he was bored, admitted to gamesmanship, confessed he didn’t have enough respect for the sport, added that he felt “super old”, then said winning trophies doesn’t satisfy him anymore.
While his honesty was admirable, his confessions were quite shocking.
Asked if he felt like he was in a different place now compared to then, Tomic said: “I’m always the same, man, wherever I am.”
Tomic has been playing well this grass season, and can be a real threat against Kei Nishikori in their second round on Thursday. He’s a dangerous floater in the draw many would like to avoid but he’s not thinking too far ahead – in fact, he says he’s not thinking at all.
Asked what would make Wimbledon a successful tournament for him, the 25-year-old said: “I’m not sure, I just play every match, I don’t think anymore. I never really thought, about winning titles, like I said just playing, it’s just tennis.”
Well as long as it’s working for him, no need to start thinking now, right?
PAGING DR. BUZARNESCU
By now, many people are familiar with Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu, who rose from outside the top-500 at the start of 2017, to her current career-high ranking of No. 28 in stunning speed. Many also know that during her time away from tennis dealing with injuries, she completed a PHD in Sports Science.
The 30-year-old, who is into the Wimbledon third round, says several players joke with her in the locker room and call her ‘doctor’ – although she wouldn’t reveal names – and that the physios on tour are always keen to learn from her and want to know more about her degree.
As umpires at Wimbledon refer to players as Miss, or Mrs, before saying their surnames, would Buzarnescu like to be referred to as ‘doctor’ during her matches?
“I think ‘Miss’ is fine. That’s something that is outside tennis, what I did. Of course it’s something about tennis in sports science but just it stays out,” she said.
That’s a shame because ‘Game, Dr. Buzarnescu’ has quite a nice ring to it!
