Wimbledon 2024: Alcaraz, Raducanu, Gauff and Sinner in day one motion – stay

Good day there and welcome to Wimbledon 2024 – day one!

If we arrived at Roland-Garros with the final sample of issues reversed – we knew who was prone to win the ladies’s occasion however had not a clue who would possibly take the lads’s – we transfer to Wimbledon with each trophies up for grabs.

Within the ladies’s competitors, it appears unlikely Marketa Vondrousova, now seeded six, can repeat final 12 months’s unlikely triumph, whereas of these above her, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are nonetheless studying the floor; Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champ, is erratic; and Aryna Sabalenka, who appears best-placed, nonetheless has lots to show. Finally, the finalists – by no means thoughts the winner – winner could possibly be any of them or none of them.

On the lads’s facet, issues look rather less complicated, the questions extra about who wins the massive matches after they inevitably arrive. We don’t know precisely the place Novak Djokovic is in his preparations, however do know what it takes to beat him when it counts, and if that occurs earlier than the semi-finals, through which he’s seeded to fulfill Alexander Zverev, it’d be a shock.

Meantime, within the different half of the draw, it’s arduous to shake the thrill of one other impending Carlos Alcaraz v Jannik Sinner epic. The previous is the defending champion and French Open champion, the latter the Aussie Open champion and world primary, which is to say we’re initially of a rivalry which might simply outline the following decade.

Earlier than that, although, we’ve acquired all the enjoyment and love of the early rounds: shock classics, big shocks and simply the big sense of affirming wellbeing we get from unstoppable, incessant tennis all day daily. So, within the immortal phrases of the all-time worst sporting chant and exhortation, “Let’s go!”.

Play: exterior courts 11am BST, No 1 Court docket 1pm BST, Centre Court docket 1.30pm BST