![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1943-e1784662525144.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one above.<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019m absolutely crushed for Karolina Muchova, who lost the Final to her fellow Czech, Linda Nozkova. And then the very next day, the #2 men\u2019s player in the world, Alexander Zverev, lost his<\/em> Final to #1 Jannik Sinner. Both runners-up made matches of the Finals, but I\u2019m almost as disappointed as they<\/em> are.<\/p>\n Following are some of my thoughts over the fortnight, in order. I had done several tweets along the way, but not as many as I should have because, with the extreme time difference, (LA is 8 hours behind London,) I was always watching late in the day. You can always still read them on Twitter\/X; my \u201chandle\u201d there is @MajorCelebrity.<\/p>\n All the tennis commentators need to check out these pages before the next tourney!<\/p><\/div>\n And yes, for those of you who are also grammatically knowledgeable, the announcers\u2019 habit of always leaving off the \u201cly\u201ds at the end of words, did make me crazy! I already covered their adverb deficit in a column a couple of weeks ago, but it\u2019s always worth a read, especially for those people who need that lesson. So here\u2019s the link: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/karens-lessons-please-espn-buy-your-tennis-commentators-an-ly<\/a>.<\/p>\n Okay, here are the rest of my random Wimbledon thoughts:<\/p>\n I found it a tad hard to listen to new studio Rece Davis\u2019 \u201cl\u201d speech impediment.<\/p>\n Just when I thought that, even with his impediment, at least his hiring meant that we wouldn\u2019t have to listen to creepy former<\/em> host, Chris McKendry this year, there she was, calling the first match. Ugh. (She\u2019s the one who always adds an \u201cl\u201d to the ends of \u201csaw\u201ds and \u201cdraw\u201ds!<\/p>\n I love Mary Jo Fernandez, but her usually-gorgeous, thick hair looks weird. So I looked-up old pix of her to show Mr. X, and something hit me\u2014she has always looked worried! I mean it\u2014look her up yourselves.<\/p>\n I was worried that we were going to hear about Serena ad nauseam, (as we did for the first 2 days,) so thank goodness she lost in the\u2026first round! Yay!<\/p>\n The giant glass behind the ESPN studio hosts is the cleanest, least reflective window I\u2019ve ever seen! I\u2019m impressed with the team that maintains it. Great job!<\/p>\n The chair referee having to move rude Naomi Osaka’s bundle of crazy clothing! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I can\u2019t stand Naomi Osaka. Poor girl must be so insecure; she feels that she has to wear crazy outfits to get attention. The chair referee had to move her discarded outfit that she was so rude to leave all over her chairs, so the ball kids could fall on it! I know she\u2019s admitted she has mental health issues, (who doesn\u2019t, actually?,) but she should not subject everyone to her nuttiness.<\/p>\n What the heck happened to Caroline Wozniacki??? She looks like a sixty-year-old #skeleton!!!<\/p>\n I really like Malika Andrews, but what is she doing there? It\u2019s just confusing me. I\u2019ve seen her do only basketball before, so this will take some getting used to.<\/p>\n Chinese player Wu Yibing did great against Novak. He was impressive.<\/p>\n Sam Querry has quickly become the best commentator on there. Great voice, pretty intelligent, and he even said that Taylor Fritz looked \u201cresplendent\u201d in his crazy new outfit. (In case you were lucky enough to miss it, it was a white suit jacket, a long white tuxedo scarf, and\u2026tear-away pants! What an idiot.) Sam also said the clever, \u201cWorking on the tan during this match, with the sleeveless,\u201d regarding player Miomir Kecmanovi\u0107 \u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n Miomir Kecmanovi\u0107 watching his friend play after losing his own match the day before! That’s basically unheard of! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki is the worst<\/em> one, with her weak voice.<\/p>\n Speaking of Miomir Kecmanovi\u0107, how kind was he to stay at the tourney the day after his five-setter against Sinner, to watch his “lucky loser”* pal play his own match? Most tennis players are on the next plane as soon as they lose! (A “lucky loser” is a competitor who fails to advance during the qualifying rounds of a tournament but is given a spot in the main draw because another player withdraws before the tournament begins.)<\/p>\n So glad to be rid of McKendry as the host, but she may be even worse as the play-by-play person on some matches. She talked through the entirety of one of Iga Swiatek\u2019s games!!!<\/p>\n And ESPN kept making us miss matches to show us Serena Williams walking! They\u2019re making the entire tourney about her!!!<\/p>\n Ben Shelton after he lost a 5-setter in the first round. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I feel for #4 Ben Shelton to have lost a heartbreaker in the first round, but he needs to stop yelling an uber-loud \u201cA\u201d every time he hits the ball. It\u2019s soooo distracting to his opponent. Not fair. Or nice. He should be docked a point every time he does that. At one point, commentator James Blake said, \u201cHe\u2019s going for a screaming winner.\u201d Exactly.<\/p>\n ESPN announced the wrong time for Serena\u2019s match, (which I\u2019m sure they did on purpose, to get her fans to tune in early,) and then the channel kept trying to rush the other matches. When eventual finalist Alexander Zverev got to two sets to one in his matches, they kept announcing, \u201cOnly one more set till Serena,\u201d totally minimizing Zverev\u2019s opponent, who could have won the fourth set, thus making the match go the full five sets! And they did so repeatedly!!! So rude.<\/p>\n I like Patrick McEnroe, but how can he not know the correct word here is \u201cha<\/em>llowed???\u201d He declared, \u201cShe\u2019s back. On the hollo<\/em>wed grounds of centre court.\u201d So he thinks there\u2019s a hole in the court, instead of being revered!!! Why are all these people so stupid???<\/p>\n One of the commentators said that Serena being back, (which turned-out to be for just one match\u2014she was a complete and utter bust,) is an \u201coh so pleasant surprise.\u201d Speak for yourself, John. It\u2019s disgusting that ESPN made the entire first week of the tournament about her! There were two hundred fifty-five other competitors in just the singles<\/em> draws, each with an interesting story, and they were all being ignored. And Serena was back only<\/em> to show off her weight loss!!! How much is that drug company paying her to go back??? Horrible.<\/p>\n They say how all the players are so excited about her comeback, but they all are basically forced to say those things. If they said they don\u2019t give a fig, they would be iced out.<\/p>\n Serena Williams rudely sticking her arm out to Maya Joint who had just beaten her…in the first round!!!<\/p><\/div>\n So a beyond-major congrats to young Aussie Maya Joint for that amazing win over Serena Williams! You rock! And could Serena have been any less gracious in defeat? I think not. And she was so rude that not only did she not<\/em> congratulate nor praise Maya, but she refused to do the mandatory post-match presser! That behavior was disgusting.<\/p>\n I hate when the winners, like Naomi Osaka, say, \u201cGood match,\u201d to the person they just beat! It\u2019s beyond pat. There are soooo many other things to say, even if the two competitors had never met before! How about, \u201cNice to meet you,\u201d \u201cI hope to see you again,\u201d \u201cYou play well,\u201d \u201cNice dress,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n And Naomi said in one of her post-match interviews that she was glad she won because the next day was her young daughter\u2019s birthday, and she \u201cdidn\u2019t want to make her get on a plane on her birthday.\u201d Is she an idiot??? She wouldn\u2019t have<\/em> to fly home because she lost! She could stay in London an extra day and give her daughter a fabulous b-day to remember!!!<\/p>\n The statement that many of us believe is a big untruth! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n We were subjected to yet another of Serena\u2019s lies! (Remember when she said she couldn\u2019t play because she had stepped on broken glass outside of a restaurant in Munich? There was no record of the incident nor any images, and the eatery was never named. Nor sued! Everyone in the know feels it was all a big fat lie so she would have an excuse to not play in the next tourney, where she had been disqualified in the semis for her behavior the year before!!! Look it up\u2014it\u2019s a fascinating tale.) This<\/em> time the fabrication was that she injured her knee at the end of the 1st set against Maya Joint, (so she now had an excuse for her loss.) During the match, she never once touched her knee, called a trainer, or looked like anything was wrong physically. Am I the only one who\u2019s sick of her??? Even Chris Fowler and Andy Roddick said they didn\u2019t notice anything wrong during the match.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t dislike Coco Gauff anymore, but I almost started to again when she said \u201ccomrididd<\/em>ie\u201d for \u201ccamarader<\/em>ie!!!\u201d It took me a while to try to figure-out what she was even trying to say! And she wasn\u2019t tripping over the word\u2014she said it like she meant it! Oysh.<\/p>\n Very young American, Iva Jovic, is the most mature and speaks the best and says the most intelligent things.<\/p>\n They need to tell us who is in the players\u2019 boxes already! They rarely do, which is just nuts, especially when the camera is showing them every other second.<\/p>\n This is the photo Learner Tien posted, in which the commentators didn’t notice his hospital bracelet nor IV! Wow. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n How could Andy Roddick and Rece Davis see this pic of Learner Tien, and not see his hospital bracelet and IV??? They just kept making jokes about how much he was eating! It\u2019s major news when a player is in the hospital shortly after competing!!!<\/p>\n I\u2019m very ashamed of John McEnroe and Chris Fowler for how much they were making fun of British player Jan Choinski! They were chuckling about that he\u2019s #100 in the world. How about that he\u2019s getting to play at his country\u2019s home tourney, which is the most prestigious in the world, without even needing a wild card or to play qualifying matches?! How about mention that<\/em>??? They should have been lauding him to the max! And they were dissing him because he was playing American Francis Tiafoe. Disgusting behavior from them.<\/p>\n Studio host Malika Andrews said, \u201cThere\u2019s no better way to celebrate the holiday weekend than that,\u201d about watching the Williams sisters! Is she out of her mind??? I used to love her, and then she was changing all that in just those few days. (But luckily for us, Serena dropped out of the doubles, I\u2019m assuming so it would look like she was telling the truth about her aforementioned \u201cknee injury.\u201d)<\/p>\n Now I love young Jakub Men\u0161\u00edk for being so happy for Grigor Dmitrov who just beat him when Jakub was the seeded player!!!<\/p>\n Rece David just told us who Novak Djokovic \u201cis playing in the next round,\u201d even though he had not played today\u2019s match yet! That totally ignored his opponent for today!!!<\/p>\n Sam Querry and Mike Monaco. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n As Wimbledon went on, one commentary duo emerged as the best for me. Sam Querrey and Mike Monaco both have great voices and speak well and intelligently. And are interesting and entertaining without pushing. Sam made Mr. X and me laugh several times, by simply being honest.<\/p>\n But right after I wrote that note, Sam got something majorly wrong. As they played a video of some of the players in the security line at the practice courts, he said of Coco Gauff, \u201cCoco is\u201dwaiting her turn in line, she\u2019s not cutting.\u201d But\u2026the video shows she and her party totally cut the line!!! They just went ahead of everyone without permission!!! It looked like they had no plans to do the right thing, at all!!!<\/p>\n Every sport needs to have a website, preferably public, where the athletes say their own names a couple of times, so that the broadcasters will know how to pronounce them! I don\u2019t mean this as a diss; I\u2019m only trying to be helpful. (And let\u2019s face it\u2014it\u2019s a brilliant idea!)<\/p>\n Back to the selfishness of Serena Williams. She screwed her own sister, plus a second player who could have competed alongside Venus in the Doubles, as Leylah Fernandez did last year. Serena truly thinks it\u2019s all about herself. And\u2026she took soooo much attention away from the entirety of the tournament from the get-go! Only two good things came out of having Serena attempt a comeback at Wimbledon. The first is that Maya Joint gets to now say that she beat Serena Williams, which she never thought she\u2019d even have the opportunity to do. Second is that we got to see her lose in the first round, which was a pleasure. But she\u2019s totally lying about her knee. And, because sooo many people didn\u2019t believe her tale, she had to withdraw from Doubles, to not look like the big fat liar that she is. Even the commentators, who always have to make believe they\u2019re in her corner, have all said that they didn\u2019t see anything happen to her knee in that match.<\/p>\n Any excuse to show Matteo Berrettini’s beautiful visage! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Sadly, (to me,) Malika Andrews kept mispronouncing gorgeous Matteo Berrettini\u2019s last name. She kept putting an \u201cn\u201d in the wrong place, saying \u201cBerreNtini\u201d instead of \u201cBerrettini\u201d with no \u201cN\u201d in it! I loved her doing basketball, but not so much for tennis. She seems like she doesn\u2019t know that much about it. Shame.<\/p>\n I\u2019m happy for new Filipina star Alex Eala, but in an on-court post-match interview, her supposedly improvised line about her \u201cruffled socks and chubby cheeks\u201d as a little girl sounded so pat and rehearsed. She even repeated it twice in that same interview, and again in the studio the next day! She needs to get some new material already. It sounded like she read that about herself in an article, and decided to use the line herself whenever she can. (And by the way\u2014what little girl did not<\/em> have those two things?!)<\/p>\n Alex Eala in the studio with a pic of her as a kid. Notice that her cheeks are chubby now, not then! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n But I love her hair, both the off-the-court wearing it down, and that adorbs compartmentalized ponytail on the court.<\/p>\n Speaking of hairstyles, I just finally figured something out\u2014ESPN probably doesn\u2019t have hair people for their \u201ctalent,\u201d so Malika Andrews had to give up her classy and fun basketball work \u2018dos, and go with the not-great braids, (pieces of which looked out of place for the entire fortnight,) because like me, she has no hair talent herself! That has got to be it!<\/p>\n The worst pretty Malika Andrews has ever looked! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Look at the difference in kindness and graciousness between the two American girls who played each other and the two Czech ones who did the same in the Quarter-Finals. Shame on the US ones, who always make believe they\u2019re such good friends!<\/p>\n I\u2019m sick for World #1 Aryna Sabalenka to have been ousted in the Quarter-final. I think her issue is that she just cares too much and is too desperate to win.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve mentioned, I always write good things about Malika Andrews. But even though I\u2019m not a fan of Naomi Osaka, Malika really needs her to stop mispronouncing her name. She keeps saying \u201cNIomi\u201d instead of the correct \u201cNAomi!\u201d Malika is better than that, so can someone at ESPN please correct her already?!<\/p>\n This match was very exciting\u2014a pair of Wild Cards met on Centre Court in the Round of 16!!! Wow. Grigor Dmitrov and Brit Arthur Fery. They both have such interesting stories that are waaaay too long to tell her, so, if you\u2019re a fan or sports, comebacks, and the like, look them up when you get a sec.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>