![\"Frances](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01kx16ksexz1y5yydm9y.jpg\" "\\"Frances")
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Frances Tiafoe fell to Alexander Bublik at Wimbledon. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Is Frances Tiafoe ever going to win a major? It seems like every time he gets some momentum he can\u2019t sustain it.<\/p>\n
Lloyd<\/p>\n
\u2022 Here\u2019s a virtue of tennis: It only takes two weeks to rewrite a career. No rebuilding seasons. No worst-to-first. Which is to say: When someone says [Naomi Osaka, Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe] will never win a major, they have revealed themselves to be tennis ignorami. If Emma Raducanu can qualify and win a major, anyone can.<\/p>\n
Do I think Tiafoe will win a major? He\u2019s shown good progress this year, but he still needs to clean up his game and his match management. We know that his peak is sufficiently high. The problem is his lapse in best-of-five matches. In his past two majors, he was bounced in winnable matches where he lacked the necessary match generalship. So, would I predict he wins a major? Probably not. Would I rule it out? No.<\/p>\n
Hey Jon, hope all is well.<\/p>\n
Not sure what the cadence is for doing the mailbag during Wimbledon, but I have two separate questions. Maybe the second one can wait until after the tournament, as it\u2019s more general, as opposed to Wimby specific.<\/p>\n
1. With [Elena] Rybakina, Serena [Williams], and [Iga] \u015awi\u0105tek out, Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1 is the last remaining former Wimbledon winner in the draw. Assuming she doesn\u2019t take the title (although she very well could), that\u2019ll be 10 different consecutive winners. Wild! Who do you think is going to take it? Presumably you\u2019re sticking with your pick from the seed report (Jessica Pegula)?<\/p>\n
2. I\u2019m curious if the rise in antisemitism is a topic that gets discussed and\/or addressed in the tennis world. It\u2019s a scary time to be a Jewish person, especially in major cities, and I wonder if the tours are taking a proactive approach or using any language at all to help combat this problem. As far as I know, there aren\u2019t many active Jewish or Israeli players on the tours, but that doesn\u2019t diminish the need for being vocal about hate speech and violence. Your insight would be truly appreciated.<\/p>\n
Best regards,
LT (Toronto)
Thanks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1) Obviously, since this came in, Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1, Sabalenka and Pegula lost. Funny, I asked Pegula this very question on Sunday. And, as ever, she had a measured, reasoned answer. Best-of-three works in the service of change and upsets. Grass is a fluky surface. The field is deep. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s more complicated than that. I\u2019d add that the volatility and variance add a layer of impressiveness to what Martina Navratilova (9), Serena and Steffi Graf (7), and Venus Williams (5) did.<\/p>\n
2) Tennis often falls squarely\u2014or peripherally\u2014in the crosshairs of so many global issues. The Russian attack on Ukraine. Chinese autocracy. Sportswashing in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard\/seen\/experienced very little about Israel\/Gaza or anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. Zeynep<\/a> S\u00f6nmez was told last week that she couldn\u2019t use a watermelon shock absorber\u2014a symbolic gesture of Palestinian support\u2014but otherwise, I\u2019ve heard very little. Maybe it\u2019s because there are few Israeli, Jewish or Muslim players right now. Maybe it\u2019s for the opposite reason: It\u2019s because there are many Jewish and Muslim figures within the sport\u2014coaches, agents, media members, labor leaders<\/a>. But I\u2019ve seen nothing in tennis that would qualify as hate speech, much less violence.<\/p>\n Good Lord, the Serena worship TV coverage. First of all, everyone must call her the GOAT, not allowed to say maybe Steffi Graf was better \u2026 don\u2019t even … second of all, she just lost to an unranked player who had lost 11 matches in a row. But they treated it as \u201ccourageous\u201d and \u201cwho would even attempt this\u201d as further evidence of Serena GOATness. I mean, please.<\/p>\n Dominic Ciafardini\u00a0<\/p>\n Westchester, NY<\/p>\n \u2022 The media\u2014and I don\u2019t exempt myself\u2014may have gone a bit overboard. As for the actual tennis, it was, I keep using the word, respectable. Serena served well (the serve being the turnaround jump shot of tennis, the element that is the last to go). Serena held her own in most rallies. She was a step slow but did not embarrass herself with her movement. She did well, given the circumstances, her age (44) and her amount of run-up matches (0). She also lost to a player who, as you note, had been in a bone-deep slump and was the kind of player she would have rolled 6\u20132, 6\u20132 in her prime.<\/p>\n As for the off-court conduct, you try to balance grace and understanding with objective standards. Would it have been nice had she been more gracious after defeat? Yes. Would it have been nice if she had made her way to a press conference, not just for the independent media but for the tournament that gifted her a wild card? Yes. Then again, if she did things conventionally or absent drama, she wouldn\u2019t be who she is.<\/p>\n ENJOY THE END OF WIMBLEDON, EVERYONE!<\/p>\n
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