Roberto Bautista is sighing in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun has already begun to set in London. And he celebrates because the achievement (6-3, 6-1 and 6-4 against Maximiliam Marterer, in 1h 49m) is well worth it: it was more than a year without tasting victory on a big stage, since he beat the Chinese Yibing Wu on the sand of Roland Garros. Since then, there has been too much ups and downs, various physical problems and a fall in the ranking which has relegated him to 112th place; a completely anomalous circumstance, taking into account the quality of the tennis player (36 years old) and his undisputed permanence among the twenty best on the circuit for almost a decade. So he enjoys it and now – after training in s’Hertogenbosch (round of 16), Halle (qualifying phase) and Mallorca (quarterfinals) – he heads towards the Italian Lorenzo Sonego; with the same caution as always, but somehow liberated.
At the same time, Naomi Osaka has an idea of where things might go. The Japanese, former number one and winner of four Grand Slams, beat Diane Parry (6-1, 1-6 and 6-4) and found her way back to winning ways at Wimbledon no less than six years later; that gap against Englishwoman Katie Boulter was so far away. She had not won a match since the 2018 edition, happy times in sport, and she is trying to get back on the front line, especially now (113th) as the Olympic Games approach; an unbeatable memory for her, the athlete who lit the cauldron at the 2021 event in Tokyo. “It is the only event I remember watching on television with my sister,” she says in the conference room.
Osaka, 26, interrupted her career two years ago to become a mother. Although she was then the highest-earning sportswoman in the world, according to the magazine Forbeswith 47.4 million euros on her books, had already begun a professional decline that she has not yet managed to remedy. Her performance remains discreet – first round in Australia and second at Roland Garros – but at least she has a joy in the territory that most resists her. Crowned in Melbourne (2019 and 2021) and also in New York (2018 and 2020), she suffers from an allergy to clay and even more so to grass; two third rounds when she put her head in the elite and the rest, pure dry land. She had not stepped onto the green carpet of the British great since 2019.
“It’s been fun, but also very stressful,” he says. “The way I want to play now is an evolution of how I played before. I know I need the results to back it up, but I think certain aspects of my game are better,” he says on a day in which the number one, Jannik Sinner, advanced despite losing a set to Yannick Hanfmann (6-3, 6-4, 3-6 and 6-3) and in which the Spanish representation offered a double face: Sara Sorribes (7-5 and 6-3 with Jasmine Paolini) and Pedro Martínez (6-2, 6-1, 4-6 and 6-3 for Tommy Paul) said goodbye, but Carlos Alcaraz (7-6 (3), 7-5 and 6-2 against Mark Lajal) and Paula Badosa (6-3 and 6-2 against Karolina Muchova) progressed.
“It was a tricky match, because although she was coming off an injury (almost a year on the reserve list for her wrist) she is a very talented player, who plays differently, even more difficult on grass, because she serves, volleys well and plays with few shots,” explains the Catalan, virtually ranked 89th in the WTA. “I had to be attentive to the first shots and I served well; I was also attentive to the return and when she went up. Everything went well for me,” says the player from Begur, who is called up in the second round with another Czech, the young Brenda Fruhvirtova (17 years old and ranked 88th), and who says she has arrived in better condition in London, where the round of 16 in 2021 and 2022 mark her limit.
Novak Djokovic will be taking part on Tuesday (against Kopriva, around 16.00, Movistar+). Six Spanish players will also be taking part: Jessica Bouzas (against the defending champion, Marketa Vondrousova), Roberto Carballés (Alexander Zverev), Jaume Munar (Billy Harris), Rebeka Masarova (Liudmila Samsonova), Cristina Bucsa (Ana Bogdan) and debutant Alejandro Moro (Jacob Fearnley).
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