Wimbledon Drive

 

So do you think this road is always called this or is that only during these next two weeks? 

TigerBlog had to go pick something up yesterday (a gift for his brother and brother-in-law; TB would want to know if you told him the same thing), and it was in a warehouse in an office park that he'd never been to before. As he always does, he followed Waze. 

You know what's frustrating about following a GPS like that? It's how it says "turn right in 1,000 feet." How does that help? It should say "right turn coming up in a few ... not now ... not now ... now ... now ... NOW ... TURN HERE IDIOT!!!"

That would resonate more for TigerBlog. 

Anyway, he was so engrossed in trying to find this place that he completely missed the street sign the first time around. He also drove past it on his way back, only noticing it at the last second. He was going to let it go but then thought "blog content" and turned back to snap the picture. 

Wimbledon is one of TigerBlog's favorite annual sporting events. He'll watch more tennis the next two weeks than he will watch Major League Baseball for the entire season. 

He goes back with Wimbledon to the days of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and newcomer John McEnroe. They remain his favorite players ever on the men's side. 

Are you familiar with the 1980 Wimbledon final between Borg and McEnroe? It was one of two the greatest tennis matches ever played, along with the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal 2008 final. 

Borg defeated McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6; the fourth set tiebreaker went to McEnroe 18-16 after Borg had five match points. It took 3:35, because TV timeouts were way shorter then. The 2008 final went to Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 and took a total of 4:48. 

There weren't many great first round matches yesterday, though there was one that really interested TigerBlog. He'll get back to that one in a few moments. 

First, there was a tight four-set win for Novak Djokovic, who is one of TB's favorites. Jannik Sinner needed five sets to get out of the first round as the top seed. 

Maybe the best of all the matches yesterday came when an unseeded American player knocked off the No. 26 seed, from Great Britain no less. The Brit is Cameron Norrie. The American is Michael Zheng, who in four hours defeated Norrie 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, taking the final tiebreaker 10-4. 

Zheng also won his first round match at the Australian Open back in January. He'll next play Nicolás Mejía of Colombia in the second round.  

Is that name familiar? Michael Zheng? 

Yes, it is. 

Zheng won the two most recent NCAA singles championships while at Columbia. That makes the second round match Columbia vs. Colombia. 

Despite winning the NCAA title, Zheng finished sixth in the final ITA singles rankings. Who was fifth? Princeton's Paul Inchauspe. 

Zheng defeated Inchauspe in the NCAA semifinals and then beat SMU's Trevor Svajda in the final. Inchauspe defeated Svajda in the NCAA team tournament, when Princeton fell to SMU. 

Inchauspe and Zheng played three times this past year, and Zheng won two of them. The one that Inchauspe won came in the final of the ECAC tournament, an event in February between the eight Ivy League schools. 

Princeton defeated Columbia 4-3 to win the tournament, helped greatly by Inchauspe's 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Zheng. The deciding point then came courtesy of Landon Ardila at No. 3 singles. Unfortunately for Princeton, Ardila then missed all seven Ivy League matches due to injury, though he was back for the NCAA tournament. 

In a year that didn't include an NCAA men's lacrosse national championship and run by the field hockey team to overtime of its own NCAA championship game, that match in February quite possibly have been the best Princeton event TB saw. Despite that, it was an epic day, one that really stands out to TB, for the competition — and for reconfirming something that TB has long known. 

In the world of Princeton sports, you never know when you're going to stumble across a masterpiece. That's what that match was for TB. What will be the event in 2026-27 that comes out of nowhere to become a classic? 

Who knows. 

In the meantime, TB will root for Columbia against Colombia in Round 2 at Wimbledon.