Wimbledon Q&A: our tennis reporter answers your questions live now – can wildcard Fery go all the way?
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SidKirkwood asks: Can the wildcard Fery go all the way?
Tumaini: This has been a truly incredible tournament from Fery. First he showed his fighting spirit in consecutive comeback victories over Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov, then he showed his quality and level in that incredible performance against Flavio Cobolli on Thursday, where he was nearly flawless.
However, I find it very hard to see him winning the title. Fery had a fair draw against five opponents he knew he was capable of beating. The three remaining players in the draw, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and his opponent Alexander Zverev, are by far the three best players in the draw right now. I do not see him beating two of those three players back to back.
Tumaini: In a perfect world, the seven kingdoms of professional tennis - the ATP, WTA, ITF and the four grand slam tournaments - would come together, tear up the calendar and start from scratch. It is undeniable that the season is too long, inefficient and should be streamlined. This has been a talking point for many decades and there have been so many proposals over the years to address these issues. The increasingly physical nature of the sport has only exacerbated this problem in recent years and the number of injuries on the tour this year, particularly to younger players on the ATP tour such as Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Lorenzo Musetti and Arthur Fils, is alarming.
However, the way things currently are, I do think players have a measure of power over their scheduling decisions. It can be tempting for them to chase points, prize money and appearance fees, and there are certain penalties that come with splitting certain tournaments, but in order to be a top player for an extended period of time, players have to prioritise their bodies when scheduling tournaments. I think the most obvious example of this is Alcaraz, who is still nursing the right wrist injury he suffered three months ago after opting to compete in Barcelona a couple of days after reaching the final in Monte Carlo.
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