No Djoke, the men’s side is actually pretty boring so far, going largely as predicted among the ranked players. But the women lost Sofia Kenin (11), Coco Gauff (18), and Leylah Annie Fernandez (23) in round one, plus unranked-but-noteworthy Sloane Stephens. She unfortunately U.S. Open champ Emma Raducanu in round one, and got bounced (and by the time this runs, Lord knows what else might have happened). But obviously, the big to-do here is Novak Djokovic, and I won’t rehash that except to say that I didn’t like him very much before all this and none of this has changed my low opinion of him as a person. And despite pledging my eternal love for Roger Federer, I have a soft spot for Rafael Nadal that grew ten sizes when he basically was like, “Well, the easy way to solve this was to get the vaccine LIKE BASICALLY EVERYONE ELSE, YOU ABSOLUTE DINGUS,” which perhaps I have paraphrased slightly. Also, best wishes to Chrissie Evert, who is grappling with her recent ovarian cancer diagnosis (stage 1); this is the same disease that killed her sister in 2020, and I’m sure the fact that hers was caught early by near-accident (she was having a preventative hysterectomy after genetic testing, and there it was) has been extremely emotional — feeling lucky, feeling scared, feeling fresh grief all over again. My wish for everyone is that we all HANG IN THERE to get to brighter days. Speaking of bright: These outfits! How’s THAT for a transition? There’s some wacky stuff in here, too, like a pocket with eyes. Yes. I said that.
