 | Tuesday, June 28, 2022
By Jesse Campigotto
Here's what you need to know right now in the world of sports: | |  | Tuesday, June 28, 2022
By Jesse Campigotto
Here's what you need to know right now in the world of sports: | | Wimbledon is a little weird this year | | | The three Canadians remaining in the singles draws at tennis' most prestigious event all played their first-round matches today. Here's a look at how they fared, plus some other storylines to follow at an usual Wimbledon:
Felix Auger-Aliassime got bounced. Seeded sixth in the men's draw after last year's run to the quarter-finals, Auger-Aliassime lost 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 to 45th-ranked Maxime Cressy, a 6-foot-6 American. The hard-fought match took more than four hours to complete.
Denis Shapovalov dodged an upset of his own. The men's No. 13 seed fell behind two sets to one to 62nd-ranked Arthur Rinderknech of France before rallying for a 6-1, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 win. Shapovalov, who reached the Wimbledon semifinals last year, will face 56th-ranked Brandon Nakashima of the U.S. in the second round.
Bianca Andreescu picked up her first-ever Wimbledon victory. Making her third appearance in the main draw, the 56th-ranked Canadian finally broke through to the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over 224th-ranked Emina Bektas of the United States. Andreescu's next opponent is 17th-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. Andreescu is the only Canadian left in women's singles after 104th-ranked Rebecca Marino lost in the first round yesterday. Canada's highest-ranked women's singles player, No. 15 Leylah Fernandez, is out with a stress fracture in her foot suffered during her quarter-final loss at the French Open earlier this month. Canadian doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski and her Mexican teammate Giuliana Olmos are seeded No. 3 in the women's doubles draw. They play their opener Wednesday. Read more about today's most interesting Wimbledon results here.
Russian and Belarusian players are banned. After many international sports organizations booted those countries from their events in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the men's and women's tennis tours opted to let Russians and Belarusians continue competing "under a neutral flag." But Wimbledon organizers took matters into their own hands in April, banning Russian and Belarusian players from this year's tournament. In response, the ATP and WTA stripped Wimbledon of rankings points. The most eye-catching consequence of this move is that, even if Novak Djokovic repeats as men's champion, he'll lose 2,000 points in the world rankings as last year's victory comes off the books. That will drop him from No. 3 to No. 7. On the flip side, Djokovic, who advanced to the second round yesterday, should have an easier path to his seventh Wimbledon title with world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and No. 8 Andrey Rublev missing due to the Russian/Belarusian ban and No. 2-ranked German Alexander Zverev out with an ankle injury. The ban will have less of an impact on the women's tournament as sixth-ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus is the only top-10 player who was not invited.
Other key players:
Rafael Nadal: The men's No. 2 seed is trying to make it 3-for-3 in Grand Slams this year after winning the Australian and French Opens. Those victories moved the Spaniard ahead of Djokovic and Roger Federer for the all-time record for men's Grand Slam singles titles with 22. Nadal might be hard-pressed to win his third straight Slam, as the last of his two Wimbledon titles came back in 2010 and he needed to undergo a procedure on his chronically painful left foot following his French Open victory. Nadal won his first-round match today in four sets.
Iga Swiatek: The most dominant player in tennis extended her winning streak to 36 matches (the longest run on the women's tour in 25 years) today with a breezy straight-sets win in the first round. Swiatek has won six consecutive tournaments, capped by her victory over Coco Gauff in the French Open women's final. And here's a mind-blowing fact: the gap in world rankings points between Swiatek and No. 2 Ons Jabeur is larger than the one between Jabeur and the 464th-ranked player. There are some questions, though, about whether Swiatek's streak will hold up on grass. Both of the 21-year-old's Grand Slam titles have come on the French clay, and she skipped the Wimbledon warmup circuit following her victory in Paris earlier this month. Last year, she was eliminated in the fourth round in her second Wimbledon appearance.
Serena Williams: The GOAT was playing her first singles match in a full year today vs. 115th-ranked Harmony Tan. At our publish time, Williams was down a set. Check the live scoreboard here. Apart from a doubles cameo last week at one of the Wimbledon warmup events, we hadn't seen Serena on the court since an injury forced her to quit her first-round match at Wimbledon last year. Some tennis fans even wondered whether she'd quietly retired, but Williams explained that she "just needed to heal physically [and] mentally." At 40 years old, Serena is by far the oldest player in the women's tournament, and her sabbatical has plummeted her world ranking to 1,204th (not a misprint). It's a long shot, but Williams is seeking her eighth Wimbledon singles title and her 24th Grand Slam singles crown, which would tie her with Margaret Court for the all-time record. One star Serena won't run into at Wimbledon is Naomi Osaka, who's out with an Achilles injury. | | |  | Bianca Andreescu advanced to the second round at Wimbledon for the first time in her career. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) | | | Quickly... | | | Canada won its first diving medal at the world aquatics championships. Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray took bronze in the men's synchronized 10m platform event today in Budapest. China's Yang Hao and Lian Junjie won gold to make their country 4-for-4 so far in the diving events. Tomorrow's slate at the aquatics worlds is highlighted by a pair of open-water swimming events and three diving finals, all of which will be streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca. See the full schedule here for details.
A big Hockey Canada sponsor is putting the relationship on "pause." In an open letter released today, the president and CEO of Scotiabank said he was "appalled by the recent reports of alleged assault involving younger ambassadors of Canada's game" — a reference to Hockey Canada's settlement of a lawsuit last month after a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted by members of Canada's 2018 gold-medal winning world junior hockey team at a gala and golf function four years ago in London, Ont. In response to Hockey Canada's handling of the alleged assault and the out-of-court settlement, the federal government announced last week that it is freezing public funding to the organization. Scotiabank's Brian Porter said in his open letter that his company is putting its sponsorship of Hockey Canada on hold "until we are confident the right steps are being taken to improve the culture within the sport — both on and off the ice." Read more about the bank's move here. | | | Coming up on CBC Sports | | | In addition to the aquatics world championships, here's what's being streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca:
Canadian Elite Basketball League: Watch the Newfoundland Growlers vs. the Saskatchewan Rattlers tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Volleyball: Watch Canada vs. Turkey in a women's Nations League match tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
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