Live from Wimbledon Day 1 - Sinner survives scare

Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, live from Wimbledon, and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. Thank you very much for the applause from the very modest, but wonderful crowd on day one of the championships here at SW19. What a breathless first day it has been. I'm trying to exhale, but it's kind of all so much, and so overwhelming, and so brilliant. I'm Catherine Whitaker, this is Matt Roberts, this is David Law. We have accidentally all worn white tonight. Yes, so you'll be able to see the bugs dive from us during this live show. You'll be able to see exactly how real our struggle with bugs is, although they don't go for Matt. He's too pure. Anyway, we're all pure tonight. Here we all are, two white human beings away from a Backstreet Boys video, and it's very appropriate. Wimbledon whites. What a, honestly, what a first day it has been. I already had an absolutely breathless agenda for today's show. And then of course, of course I should have allowed room for Novak Djokovic drama because this is, this is the Novak Djokovic that exists now in the tennis world, right? This like, how naive I was a few hours ago to think that it would be anything but this from Novak Djokovic and from Wu Yubing, who I have become a huge fan of tonight. Novak Djokovic, just moments ago, getting the better of Wu, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in three hours and 12 dramatic minutes on Centre Court. David, how much real trouble do you think Djokovic was in tonight? I don't think he was in really big trouble, but I think he wasn't far away from it becoming a bit of a crisis. I think he just kept it sufficiently at arm's length when it was most important, so that he was never really pushed onto the ropes and kept there, you know, and that would have been a fifth set. And he said himself in his post-match on court interview with Lee Mackenzie there that really he should have lost the fourth set in his eyes because his opponent had break points and there was a smash that Wu missed. It was one of those rallies where his incredibly live arm, Wu, just opened up the court for him. They're going toe to toe. He's going toe to toe with the greatest baseline player we've seen in men's tennis. And he was getting the better of him, but he couldn't decide whether to hit a top spin forehand with power or to try and hurtle forwards and hit it as a smash, which he did. The ball fell a bit too low and he hits under spin on it and knocks it out, floats up a little bit and hits the air. But even though that all seemed very close on the scoreboard, it was in a set. He's two sets to one up. And it is, Catherine, what you've said. It's the sort of match we've been seeing in play for years. Holger Rooner, the one where in very similar circumstances late at night, and on this occasion, the crowd are chanting woo! You know, and back then, it was Roon for Holger Rooner. And he was mistaking some of that for... Matt thinks it's Bruce. Right, okay. That's what he likes to tell himself. It is in my heart. And I mean, look, Djokovic, last time got really pissed off, frankly, because he thought people were booing. And maybe some of them were, but there was a lot of the opponent. This time, I don't think he quite got there. He got irritated a bit at certain points, but I don't feel like he ever thought he was gonna lose. I think he was a bit anxious at the level that Wu was playing. And hold on, if he keeps this up, I am gonna be in trouble. But he's got so much experience that if he puts people in a position on a Grand Slam stage, eventually they will falter. That's what pretty much always happens with this level of player, as good as Wu was.
Yeah, I found the fourth set to be a kind of do you trust history, in which case you're probably thinking Djokovic is gonna get this done in four, somehow, some way. Or do you go with what your eyes are showing you? And actually, I think what they were showing, certainly for me, was Djokovic was in trouble in that fourth set. His legs were going, he was stretching out his back. And as David said, Wu had break points at 2-1, then he had triple break point at 3-2. Djokovic was clinging on in that moment. And I don't know if he was in, I agree with David, I don't know if he was in real danger of like losing this match tonight, but I think he was in danger of having to come back tomorrow, potentially, and finish it off, even if he'd lost that fourth set, you know. And that messes up, that would have messed up his rhythm already in this tournament. And we know that he's in a situation where he needs to be as efficient as possible, and he's finding that hard right now. It's all a push, it's all a struggle. Jeus Sette Matt, one of my favorite Twitter accounts, had the stat that for the first time in his career, Novak Djokovic has lost at least one set in seven consecutive Grand Slam matches now. Like he's struggling to get wins in straight sets, and that's kind of what he needs most right now. More than ever. Exactly. He's struggling more than ever to get the efficient wins, but he needs him more than ever because he's super human. It's unreal that he's doing this at 39 years of age, but he is 39 years of age. And look, a lot of it was about Wu's level today. He was superb. Absolutely brilliant. That fast arm, hitting lines, quite a nasty slice backhand as well. I'll say. Really, really impressed with him tonight. It's one of those sliced backhands that's not just sort of, oh, I'm playing on grass. I feel like I should do a slice. This is sort of... Which we're going to see from Sitsipast in the next round. This is going to keep me in the rally and not do any damage, but also not hurt me either. It was knifed and vicious. And I think Djokovic had a lot of respect for that shot this evening. And I don't think there's many sliced backhands out there that Djokovic has all that much respect for. I think there aren't that many players that he thinks are going to be that good for that long. I think that's what was getting him a little bit anxious. But he trusted the history, I think. But I felt that I was watching sort of flashy Djokovic over the other side of the net. It was a similar type of game. Just, you look at the ranking, you think 102 in the world. How on earth is a player who can play like this 102 in the world? But he's had the most awful time with injury, illness, things just derailing him in. I think the first time we saw him play and really noticed him was three years ago in Dallas. He won the title, beat big names. Became the first Chinese man to win an ATP title that week. And then pretty much, that's near the top of his Wikipedia entry for 2023 And there's nothing else pretty much after it because, I mean, he's basically never been able to complete a full season before. Yeah, it was in 2023 when he had some heart issues. He actually collapsed in a match here at Wimbledon against Francis Tiafoe when his heart rate spiked up to 187 beats per minute. I think it happened again to him in Washington later that summer. And then shortly after he had surgery on his left foot, he's had lower back issues. But he's been around 50 in the world after that Dallas title, but he dropped way down. He was around way, way down, 500 or so in the world. And yeah, just back in the last year, he started winning a lot more matches, got back into the top 200 And this year he's gone from about 180 in the world, and he just broke the top 100 week or so ago again. So he's really jumped this season. He's been doing a lot of winning on the Challenger Tour. And yeah, just able to play consistently. He's played the slams, he's won matches, and it makes all the difference. And yeah, I'd love for him to keep climbing the rankings, because I think there's such a good player in there. Yeah, the US Open Junior Champion a lot of years ago now. But yeah, who saw this coming from Wu? Matt Roberts saw this coming. Put him in his fantasy team at the start of the year. You've been very humble not to mention that, but for a couple of hours earlier, there was sort of murmurs going around the press room, like, who is this guy, like, how is he doing this? And Matt was like, Wu's really good. How do you not all know how good Wu Yibing is? Yeah, the less said about my other fantasy picks, the better. So maybe I should have shouted from the rooftops about Wu. I will be seeking out his matches from now on. I will be making a point of doing that. On Novak Djokovic and the efficiency point here, you know how struck I was by that Roland Garros press conference, where it felt like he just knew that even though he had won the match in the second round, he had spent too much time out there on the court, time that he didn't have to spare. Is it different because this is grass and it's Wimbledon, or has he potentially expended energy and effort there that he simply can't afford to anymore at 39 years of age? He did look very stiff towards the end of the match. Now, he hasn't played a match in a few weeks. Maybe that's understandable and it wouldn't, as he plays himself into the tournament, it wouldn't happen. But he looked his age by the end of that match. I would have been worried for him in a fifth set. I think he just got away with it. I think maybe further down the line, we'll look back at this one and think what if he'd got it done in straight sets? Because he actually started this match incredibly efficiently and well. He only made two unforced errors in the opening set. He was looking very clean. But I think the big difference to Paris is the time. It's just over three hours rather than over four hours. That is quite a difference. But also, it wasn't in the heat of the day. And he didn't have the sun beating down on him. And it wasn't on clay. And the rallies weren't really physical. And they're taking loads out of his legs. He was feeling it, definitely. But I got the sense that he's just hung on there to be able to not derail his tournament. And he had a bit of a look in his eye at the end of the match that was more about, okay, more to come, rather than...