Wimbledon 2021: Wildcards for Murray, Alacaraz and Venus
The Wimbledon Championships are casting their shadows ahead. The first recipients of the wildcards to be awarded were announced on Wednesday. Among them are Andy Murray and Venus Williams, two former winners.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jun 18, 2021, 04:51 pm
It's great that the English tennis association LTA makes so little of the money it earns from the tournament at Wimbledon. Nice for non-British players, of course, the offspring on the island can of course only be wished well. However, since there is a lack of the very large swarm of urgent specialists - not like in France, Australia or the USA, for example - a few are left over for foreign guests when the wildcards are awarded.
And no one deserves one more than Venus Williams, five-time champion on the Sacred Lawn in London. The now 40-year-old US icon is now only 103rd in the WTA world rankings, but has her starting place after the wildcard was announced by the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Five more go to British players, the last two are not awarded at all - the next best players in the WTA charts move up.
Carlos Alcaraz won the competition for men. The young Spaniard is allowed to play in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time, plus three Brits with Liam Broady, Jay Clarke and 19-year-old Jack Draper. The latter beat Jannik Snner at the start of the ATP Tour 500 tournament in the Queen's Club in London. And after the success against Alexander Bublik there is in the quarterfinals.
Oh, yes: A spot in the 128 grid is of course reserved for Andy Murray. But that goes without saying. The two-time champion lost in the second round of Queen's against Matteo Berrettini on Thursday. And yet expressed his love for tennis. Three wildcards are still open and will probably be given out spontaneously.