As Wimbledon begins, Emma Raducanu and other young stars shine in the rain.
WIMBLEDON, England — Britons affectionately refer to the world’s most hallowed tennis grounds as “SW19,” after the All England Club’s London postal code.
On the women’s side is homegrown sensation Emma Raducanu, who seemingly burst out of nowhere to reach the fourth round of last year’s tournament and then went on to win the U.S. Open
Despite some forgettable matches since, as well as a worrisome injury earlier this month, those achievements have propelled Raducanu to a career-high No. 11 ranking.
On the men’s side, her fellow 19-year-old prodigy is Carlos Alcaraz, a Spaniard who has won four tournaments this year, including two elite Masters 1000 tournaments.
t one of those Masters events, in Madrid, Alcaraz became the only player in history to defeat both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the same clay-court tournament.
Medvedev took out Alcaraz in the second round last year after the Spaniard gained entry as a wild-card player and outlasted his first-round opponent in the first five-set match of his career.
An elbow injury had forced Alcaraz to withdraw from a warmup tournament, giving him no preparation on grass after a busy and successful clay-court season.