A DIRGE FOR WIMBLEDON

with apologies to Verlaine

It rains in my heart

As it rains on court.

What is it in this green

That gives me such spleen?

The damp flags swing loose

Like a corpse in a noose

While forlorn pigeons fly overhead

With all the flickering dread

Of newly dead souls looking

Back in anguish at the living.

Here where it's been evening all afternoon

And the drizzle surely won't stop soon

I wonder what I have done

To deserve this day at Wimbledon.

 LONDON -- On the eighth straight day of rain at Wimbledon, I have only poetry, not prose, to offer. Daniil Medvedev beat the tournament favorite, Jannik Sinner in five arduous sets. Sinner seemed to be seriously ill in the third set and looked likely to retire. But he came back to win the fourth set, then collapsed 6-2 in the fifth set. So there’ll be no Sinner v. Alcaraz semifinal. Instead, the Spaniard will take on the mad stork, 6’6” Russian Medvedev.

The day wasn’t a total washout for Italians. Jasmine Paolini played attacking tennis and took down American Emma Navarro 6-2/6-1. Advancing into the semifinals after fighting her way through the qualies, Paolini becomes just the fourth player to emerge from the qualies and make it to the semifinals. 

Carlos Alcaraz bobbled away the first set against American Tommy Paul. But after that it was all one-way traffic with Alcaraz easily winning the next three sets.