Photo : Martin Sidorjak
For the first time in a decade, both tours coronated a new champion on the same weekend at the All-England Club.
Both Wimbledon winners were surprises, albeit for very different reasons. And now the storylines on the two tours have been completely changed as focus shifts towards the final major of the season.
On this side of the pond, a future star re-emerged with a milestone of her own.
Here’s what you need to know.
In Case You Missed It: New Champions at the AELTC
Following his quarter-final victory, Novak Djokovic declared what pretty much all observers believed:
I’m the favourite.
After all, the Serb was the four-time defending champion, the pick of nearly every expert and fan to win the title, and the darling of the oddsmakers. It was not really boasting. He was just saying what everyone was thinking.
On the face of it, Carlos Alcaraz winning a Grand Slam title is not a surprise. But given that he had lost to Djokovic on his preferred surface at Roland-Garros, it seemed highly unlikely that he could tag the Serb back on grass.
Well that’s exactly what happened, as the 20-year-old Spaniard consolidated his position as the new king of the ATP Tour with a thrilling five-set win over the seven-time Wimbledon champion on Sunday for his second Grand Slam singles title.
With the win, Alcaraz confirmed the No. 1 ranking and is now already halfway to a Career Grand Slam at just 20 years and two months old. Rafael Nadal was the youngest player to do it at 24 and three months.
Read the full tournament recap on the National Bank Open website.
The women’s result was a surprise for a very different reason.
Alcaraz was largely seen as the second favourite, albeit a distant one, on the men’s side. But Marketa Vondrousova was far from anyone’s pick for the title in the women’s draw. Especially given she entered the tournament with just four match wins on grass in her career.
Like Alcaraz, the Czech was the massive underdog against world No. 6 and 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur in the final, but she scored her first Grand Slam title with a straight-set win.
Read the full tournament recap on the National Bank Open website.
The Canadian content was limited in week two of The Championships after all the singles players were eliminated in the first week.
Rob Shaw was once again a highlight, reaching his second Grand Slam final in a row. But like Roland-Garros, he was defeated in the quad wheelchair title match.
What to Watch: Diallo’s Tall Order
This week is one of the strangest on tour, with events taking place on both grass and clay.
The grass-court season wraps up this week with the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, the lone tour-level event this week with any Canadian content.
Gabriel Diallo will be competing in just his second ATP Tour main draw in Newport and will have a tall task in front of him in the form of two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, who is playing his first match since coming out of retirement.
Diallo is seeking his first match win on the ATP Tour. Should he defeat Anderson, he could meet sixth seed Max Purcell in the second round. The Canadian is in the same quarter as third seed Ugo Humbert and is in the bottom half with No. 2 seed Adrian Mannarino.
Tommy Paul is the top seed in Newport.
Meanwhile in Europe, it’s back to the clay is Bastad and Gstaad.
The draw in Bastad, Sweden is loaded, led by world No. 4 Casper Ruud and No. 7 Andrey Rublev and also features Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Zverev, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and the Cerundolo brothers.
Also appearing on home soil is Leo Borg, son of 11-time Grand Slam winner Bjorn Borg, who is seeking his first win on the ATP Tour.
Over in Gstaad, Roberto Bautista Agut is the top seed in a draw that also includes Miomir Kecmanovic and Dominic Thiem.
There is just one event on the WTA Tour this week in Palermo on clay. Daria Kasatkina is the top seed and the lone Top 20 player in action this week.
Under the Radar: Mboko Doubles Up
At just 16 years old, Victoria Mboko can already say she has successfully defended a professional title.
The rising Canadian star went back-to-back at the ITF event in Saskatoon, defeating Emina Bektas to win her second title in a row in Saskatchewan. Mboko won her first professional title there a year ago. She did not drop a set in her title defence.
Read more about Mboko’s victory on Sunday in Saskatoon.
Mboko was one of three Canadians to reach the quarter-finals of the event, but the only one to reach the final four.
Stacey Fung was one of the others and also reached the doubles final, where she lost in a third-set super tiebreak.
Canada was guaranteed a home champion at the M25 event in Laval last week in doubles and it was Joshua Lapadat claiming the title over countrymen Liam Draxl, who also reached the singles semis, and Jonathan Sorbo. Lapadat was partnering American JJ Mercer.
On the ATP Challenger Tour last week, Canada’s Steven Diez reached the semifinals of an event in Iasi, Romania without dropping a set before falling to the eventual champion Hugo Gaston. It was Diez’s second Challenger semifinal of the year.
The women’s draw in Iasi, a WTA 125 event, takes place this week with Canadian Carol Zhao in the draw. It will be Zhao’s first event since competing in her first Grand Slam main draw at Wimbledon.
The big event on home soil this week is the National Bank Championships in Granby, an ATP Challeger/ITF W100 event with a loaded draw full of Canadians.
Several members of Canada’s Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams are competing: Vasek Pospisil, Alexis Galarneau, Rebecca Marino and Katherine Sebov.
Mboko will also be looking to build on her Saskatchewan success in Granby. She made her WTA Tour debut there last year when the event was a WTA 250, along with Kayla Cross and Cadence Brace who are both back this year.
You can follow the Canadians in action every week here.
