The 2024 Wimbledon Championships is at the halfway stage, and it has already set a new Open Era record.
The 137th edition will now be remembered as the tournament of comebacks, with at least ten men’s matches witnessing players recover from a two-sets-to-love deficit to win in five.
Before this week, this had never happened at Wimbledon, although it has at the other three Grand Slam tournaments. The 2002 Australian Open remains the benchmark with 15 comeback wins from 0-2 sets down, and given what has transpired in the first week, that number could be beaten.
In fact, the 2024 Wimbledon has now tied the 1976 Roland Garros, 1992 Roland Garros, 2012 US Open, and 2021 US Open for at least ten matches in which players trailed by two sets and won.
This year’s record at the championships was kicked off by South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, who sensationally defeated American teenager Alex Michelsen with quite possibly the most outrageous match point in recent memory. He won 7-6 (9) in the fifth.
Then it was Frances Tiafoe‘s turn to beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-7, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3. Remarkably, eight of the ten matches were in the first round. Jordan Thompson defeated Pavel Kotov 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Alexander Bublik, for his part, fired 32 aces to overcome Czech teenager Jakub Mensik 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in his opening match. Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild won his first-ever main draw match at Wimbledon by beating British wild card 1-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Roman Safiullin recovered from a slow start to shock 26th seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. Thanasi Kokkinakis and Tomas Machac both looked certain to lose but recovered from huge deficits to win.
Grigor Dimitrov avoided a second-round upset against Shang Juncheng, winning 5-7, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Holger Rune, meanwhile, rallied to beat big-serving Quentin Halys 6-1 in the fifth and will face Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.
