LONDON — The English love talking about the weather, and in these sweltering days in the south of England, the conversation has intensified across television channels, radio and everyday exchanges.
The red alert, issued rarely by the UK Met Office, was extended through Friday night. It is the hottest June on record in the country: on Wednesday, temperatures reached 36.1°C in the south of England, surpassing a record that had stood since 1976.
A picture that does not suit Jannik Sinner, the defending champion at the All England Club. The Italian struggles in high temperatures. In Paris, the heat took its toll and drove him off the court before he eventually lost in the second round of a tournament he had arrived at as the overwhelming favourite.
Fortunately for the world No. 1, temperatures will drop considerably next week: no readings above 30°C are expected during the first week of the year’s third Grand Slam.
On the final day of London’s heatwave, Sinner trained alongside the man who is, on paper, his greatest threat: Novak Djokovic is the only player who can dispute his status as favourite. It is perhaps, beyond that, the last real opportunity for the Serb to claim his long-awaited 25th title.
The Australian Open showed that the Serb is still capable of overcoming the dominant players of the current era, but the task becomes near impossible when the other of those titans appears on the other side of the net two days later. Carlos Alcaraz, however, is absent: recovering from his wrist injury, his earliest possible return points to the North American hard court swing.
In Melbourne, Djokovic produced his best tennis and an iron mentality to overcome Sinner in the semi-finals; but he ran out of fuel against the Spaniard in the final.
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The grass is another matter entirely: nobody dominates the surface like him, nobody knows how to handle the pressure of the silence and the weight of Centre Court like the Serb.
Alexander Zverev? Although he lifted the great burden of winning a Grand Slam in Paris, grass makes him deeply uncomfortable. The German has never gone beyond the fourth round in London.
Another top ten player? One of the young talents? None of them seem ready for something of this magnitude. This is a different kind of tournament, one with an aura all of its own. Since 2002, no champion here has answered to any name other than Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Alcaraz or Sinner.
