We are just a few weeks away from the third Grand Slam of the season, Wimbledon. The British summer spectacle sees tennis fans descend upon the All England Lawn Tennis Club, hoping to see a flurry of British stars as they enjoy their strawberries and cream.
The optimism never wanes from the British crowd to see one of their own crowned as the Wimbledon champion. In the Open Era, only three Brits have won a singles title in SW19: Ann Haydon-Jones (1969), Virginia Wade (1977) and Andy Murray (2013, 2016). Despite this rarity of such occasions, the home crowd turn up hoping that this will be the year when another Briton could go down in folklore.
There is something fundamentally British about the excitement for Wimbledon, it will never stop. This year, however, it seems like there is more cause for excitement than usual. We are witnessing many home players hitting form at the right time.
At the Nottingham Open we saw history made as, for the first time ever, four British players made it to the quarter-finals of a WTA event. Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart, Jodie Burrage and Heather Watson all progressed to the last eight of the tournament. Another unique achievement followed as Boulter, Burrage and Watson progressed to the semi-finals. The last time three Brits made the last four of the same event was back in 1975.
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Boulter recently dethroned Emma Raducanu as the British number one and she took another step in the right direction as she claimed her first WTA title in her native East Midlands. She defeated compatriot Burrage in straight sets in the final. It was the first WTA final for both Brits and it has certainly added to the country's excitement for Wimbledon.
Boulter will be looking to surpass her best performance at Wimbledon when she made it to the third round in 2022. She is looking strong on court and this triumph followed her reaching the semi-finals at Surbiton last week.
With her form continuing in Nottingham, she is building some impressive momentum ahead of her Wimbledon return, as are her compatriots. Dart and Burrage have been just as exciting of late, while Watson is continuing to prove that she isn’t done just yet.
Each of them may not have any real pedigree as yet on the Grand Slam stage but you need only look at Raducanu’s 2021 US Open triumph to see that anything is possible in this wonderful sport. It is really pleasing to see all these players starting the grass season so brightly.
Murray himself has been rolling back the years in recent weeks too. He triumphed in the Surbiton Trophy to secure his first grass-court title in seven years, before winning a successive tournament in Nottingham at 36 years of age. This will certainly raise peoples' eyebrows as for many years they have pondered the question 'is Murray back?' This seems like a more appropriate time to ask that question because he is playing well and backing it up with silverware.
The Scot is trying to get himself seeded for another crack atWimbledon. Murray is currently ranked 38th the world and he will need to be in the top 32 to be seeded. For several years people have wondered if Murray is in shape for one last dance on this dazzling stage.
After all, he has missed two of the last four tournaments at Wimbledon and in the last two years bowed out in the third and second round respectively. But we can’t ignore his latest successes in what has been an excellent start to the grass-court season.
He may not be able to move like the player he was before his hip surgery, but he certainly makes up for it in his experience and ability to adapt to each opponent he faces or surface he plays on. It is certainly difficult to not be feeling positive about his performances in recent weeks, let’s just hope it can lead to something magical at Wimbledon.
We can’t forget Britain’s number one Cameron Norrie either. After reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon last year, Norrie will head back to SW19 with a lot more experience in this arena, and he might also add to this crowd of British talent hoping to take this Grand Slam by storm.
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