The first week of the men’s tournament was dominated by comebacks from two sets down. The Wimbledon Open Era record of nine such results was equalled after four days’ play then broken on Saturday night when No 15 seed Holger Rune came back to beat Quentin Halys.
The players involved in these 10 matches have generally been at a loss to explain why they keep happening, and whether they’ll continue. The Open Era record at a Grand Slam tournament is 14, from the 2002 Australian Open. But Rune’s win encapsulates some of the working theories.
Firstly, many of these comeback wins have been rain-interrupted. The delays allow the losing player to regroup while forcing the player in front — often someone who was not expected to win, such as Halys — to stop and think about the great position they are in.
Halys is also ranked more than 200 places below Rune at 220th. The same could be said of world No 10 Grigor Dimitrov coming back against Shang Juncheng, who is ranked 91st. Some of the top players are creating the necessary conditions for this comeback record to be broken.
Thirdly, Halys is a powerful server, who, in Rune’s words, “goes big on his return”. Against players who are big servers but not reliable returners, it doesn’t take much for a match to change — especially on as slick a surface as grass. That happened with Rune and Halys, and many of the other comeback matches.
Dimitrov didn’t think that the rash of comeback wins had necessarily inspired his own against Shang on Thursday, but there might be some players in the second week who won’t feel quite so despairing should they find themselves 2-0 down.
And Taylor Fritz, into a fifth against Sascha Zverev, could be another added to that list…
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Wimbledon recap: Gauff and Djokovic’s draws, Iga Swiatek’s defeat and rain delays
