Worst-Case Scenario
Grigor Dimitrov got his Wimbledon dream shattered and broke all tennis hearts. Also, tag along for retail therapy and an exclusive Marta Kostyuk interview.
Welcome back! Well, things took a turn at Wimbledon on Monday night… It’s the next day, post-Grigor Dimitrov heartbreak and Jannik Sinner’s elbow injury, when I’m writing these lines, and I still cannot wrap my head around what happened to Dimitrov AGAIN.
You’ll then read something much lighter, as, after getting into the players’ restaurant, I went digging into another pillar of any Grand Slam event nowadays, and especially here at Wimbledon: The Official Shop. Did you know that 70% of products are renewed every year? How is the sourcing made? What are the best-sellers? Which weather sells the most? How are dressing gowns made from official towels? Also, how they surf on the quiet luxury trend. I discussed it all with Dan Ashmore, the Head of Retail here. If you need to catch up on the players’ restaurant feature, click here.
You’ll also read an exclusive interview with Marta Kostyuk about the tough time she’s been having lately, with a reaction from her coach, Sandra Zaniewska, and also… tennis fashion. “Right now is definitely not an easy time in my career,” but also, “You have to learn how to forget,” she told me. It’s a packed edition, so buckle up, grab that cuppa, and be ready to scroll.
After the paywall, you’ll find the other half of the Dan Ashmore interview, the exclusive interview with Marta Kostyuk, the ELC fail issue, the weird Rybakina scheduling here, a video of Maria Sharapova and the Bryan Brothers, and other news from Wimbledon.
WIMBLEDON
Worst-Case Scenario
I don’t believe in curses, but I’m now tempted to change my mind. Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire in his fourth round against Jannik Sinner while up 6-4, 7-5, 2-2 on the World No.1. Yes, you read that right. Tennis can be both the most beautiful sport and the worst. Sometimes, in the same match. Grigor Dimitrov got his Wimbledon dream shattered by a freak injury when a curse struck twice in the same fourth round on Centre Court on Monday night. Here’s a reminder of how fragile tennis careers can be and of how rough on these elite bodies the sport has become.
I’m honestly struggling to even put into words what we witnessed last night at Wimbledon. OF COURSE, I KNOW there are way more horrific things happening in the world right now, that these are privileged millionaires playing professional sports, that nobody died. I KNOW. But right at that moment, right in this tennis bubble, gosh, what happened to Dimitrov hurt badly. Crossing people on the grounds on the morning after, and when the name Dimitrov gets out, it’s all sighs and head shaking, very rarely words.
“This feels like too much. Like… It is too much,” I told someone, and it’s what I feel is the dominating emotion here. It’s not that Dimitrov had to pull out from that fourth round, not even that he had to retire while leading two sets to none against Jannik Sinner. No, it’s that it now feels like pure tennis universe cruelty. It’s tennis fate harassment. It’s so unfair. It’s traumatic even for Dimitrov.
“This feels like too much. Like… It is too much,” an upset Me.
One of the last sentences I said about it last night was right before Sinner came to press, and we were all discussing Dimitrov's injury: “Grigor might need an exorcist.” When it’s too tough, I tend to throw stupid jokes; this is how it is. But also… I mean… Let that sink in: Grigor Dimitrov has now retired for the fifth time in a row from a Grand Slam. FIVE TIMES IN A ROW. Yes, I’m internally screaming.
Last year, here at the same round, Dimitrov slipped in the first set and did a knee. It’d be the start of the curse. As recently as a few weeks ago, I’d see him cruising two sets to none at Roland-Garros before a leg gave up. As Dimitrov left the Centre Court in tears on Monday, the whole tennis world was crying with him, because this felt like way too much. The name Juan Martin Del Potro jumped into some conversations, of course, both because of the amount of injuries (although, unfortunately for him, Del Po still wins that nightmarish contest) and because of how nice these two guys are. Everyone was saying the same: such awful luck couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
I asked James Blake - talk about Team Nice Guys! - about it on Tuesday, as he had some media availability before the Legends event, and he was as devastated as the rest of us about what happened. “I was gutted. It’s so sad. He’s one of the nicest guys, so you want what’s best for him. He’s playing such exceptional tennis. You hate seeing a match end that way at any time, whether one is up or down, especially when he’s playing such beautiful tennis. I want a speedy recovery for him, but that looks like it was pretty serious. I feel really sad for him. I saw him before the match, and he was so nice to my kids. Such a friendly guy.”
You couldn’t find a single tennis soul that wouldn’t be heartbroken for Dimitrov. Greg Rusedski, who was commentating during the match, was one of them. “It was terribly sad for him and disappointing because Gregor was playing the tennis of his life. The first two sets were brilliant, the tactics were perfect, and for him to finish in that manner is just so devastating. For him, for his team, for everybody around, and also for the Centre Court crowd because it could have been one of the biggest upsets I've seen in a long time at Wimbledon and you know if you look at the last five Majors he's been in, he's had to retire five times and that's an unbelievable stat to be there.”
“It could have been one of the biggest upsets I've seen in a long time at Wimbledon,” Greg Rusedski
I asked Rusedski, as a former top player, how one is supposed to cope with something like this. He wasn’t sure. “I don't know; I mean, he's going to be devastated; he's probably getting an MRI right now; it looks like he probably tore a pec muscle there. This will be devastating, but hopefully, he'll be back because the tennis he played for two and a half sets was tremendous.”
If you’ve read that space long enough, you know I’ve been writing for some time now that tennis has been experiencing way too many severe injuries among all players, regardless of their age or ranking. We are aware of the ongoing debate regarding the balls and the speed of the courts. We are aware of the ongoing debate regarding the heavy schedule. I don’t pretend I have the answers, but I refuse to think this is all coincidence. That these elite bodies are breaking down every other week, just because this is how it is. So, maybe, at some point, the sport as a whole will decide to take a look at what’s going on and stop the carnage.
More on how the medical side of a Grand Slam is run:
I also tend to think that you don’t only see what champions are made of in their highs or their lows but also in how they treat their opponents. And on Monday, Jannik Sinner showed he was fully deserving of his status and his spot in tennis history. He not only rushed to Dimitrov but also stayed with him even when the medical staff arrived on the court. He looked like he knew before Dimitrov that this match was over. And when Dimitrov got back to his chair, in emotional distress, surrounded by doctors, Sinner came back next to him. He made sure there would be a familiar face to help Dimitrov go through that. He was still there when his rival came back from an off-court MTO, and he held him. He would then pack Dimitrov’s bag.
Sinner looked as devastated as if it were he who had to retire. For someone who’s been criticized for the lack of emotion he shows on and off the court, Sinner, on this occasion, was the face of empathy in Dimitrov’s tennis hell. I genuinely believe that it’d have been even more dreadful out there for Dimitrov without Sinner’s shoulder to lean on.
Sinner was pure class out there, and that will be remembered as much as the rest. In this emotional rollercoaster, the Italian’s own curse faded to the background, but he also went through it on Monday. Think about that, Sinner, who has been playing lights out again since the first ball here FELL IN THE FIRST GAME. Yep, we had it all. He fell in the first game, and he fell on his right elbow. Serving was painful, and hitting a forehand was painful.
Sinner doing his right elbow was nearly forgotten in the madness
A last sign that things weren’t normal from his side: Sinner, who had the trainer on the court to give him massages and painkillers, yelled his lungs out when he broke back to 5-5 in that second set. We all looked around like, “Who Is He?” It was the most animated Sinner I had ever seen. He was back to being coldly upset when he got broken again, lost that set, and could feel the exit sign getting brighter. And then, they had to pause to close the roof. Did that play a part in Dimitrov’s injury? Did he get cold? They had a warm-up before resuming the match, but who knows? Sinner wasn’t looking much better despite the fight he was putting out there. Dimitrov’s slice was deep in his brain, his own shots not really going through. But at 2-2, all of Sinner’s issues stopped mattering, as Dimitrov collapsed.
Sinner, much later at press, said he was feeling the pain a lot, would get an MRI, hoping for the best. I was there wondering if he now regretted having fired his physio before Wimbledon, thinking about Marin Cilic telling me when I asked him about the situation, “The ATP physios are fantastic, they know their job, but you can't take them with you to the hotel, so they work on you for four hours.” On Monday night, something absolutely insane happened on that court: both players went through their worst-case scenario.
More on Sinner before this Wimbledon:
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Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. What? Shopping At Wimbledon
Every year, I say I don’t need to buy anything more from the Wimbledon shop. Every year, I buy something more from the Wimbledon shop. Obviously, these people are really good at what they do! And also, who doesn’t need some retail therapy these days?…
So I thought it’d be interesting to talk to one of the brains behind what has become at Wimbledon, like at any of the other three Grand Slam events, a crucial part of the tournament’s business, reputation, and source of fans’ entertainment.
I was lucky to be introduced to Dan Ashmore, the Head of Retail at Wimbledon, and even luckier to discover he was extremely passionate about his job, very aware of what a tennis fan's ideal experience should be, had basically been raised in that stadium, and was very generous with his time and information details. No wonder the shop’s going so well when the people working at it are also very good at promoting it, ha!
As I’ve often said in this space, storytelling is a gift that tennis masters too rarely. And as I’ve very often said, Wimbledon is the gold standard of how tennis can nail storytelling.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: How did you end up at the head of the Wimbledon shop?
Dan Ashmore: Well, I had a very fortunate pathway to where I am at the moment. I grew up about two miles from our gates. And so, as a student, I was very lucky to be employed in our year-round store as a Saturday boy, serving customers in the store and filling up the stock rooms. That meant I was lucky enough during my university years to work here through the summers. I've held every role that I can think of on the retail team, from moving trolleys in the rain to the express shops to taking deliveries into our stockrooms and, of course, greeting our guests at the championships.
Now, I'm recruiting and leading the teams. So I've been here a long time. I think this will be my 19th Championships. So, like many of my other colleagues, it is a place that we enjoy and love coming back to. I think within retail, in particular, the stores are always there, and there is an expectation that merchandise will always be available. However, we challenge ourselves to increase the quality every year and to reassess what our guests' expectations are. So when you come into a store, it’s fresh every year.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: I guess some products have been there for many decades, and you cannot touch them.
Dan Ashmore: Yes, so we have around 70% new products every year at the Championships, and around 30% of what we call our core or continuity lines. There is an expectation when you visit the Championships, particularly for the first time, that you will be able to buy a green and purple umbrella. In the sun, we'll sell them as parasols. People will queue in Wimbledon Park, and they will stand in the sun for a few hours, so the umbrellas still have a market even when the sun shines.
“My expectation is that we will do 100,000 baseball caps”
Our logo-fronted baseball cap is a bestseller, too. Baseball caps are our best-selling category in volume terms. We do our biggest numbers in baseball caps. We've had two very wet years at the Championships, and so I've talked with confidence prior to the Championships, twice now, about selling 100,000 baseball caps, and because of the rain, we've become just a little bit shy. My expectation is that we will do 100,000 baseball caps if the sun shines (breaking news: It surely did!). Certainly, we've got the stock to meet that expectation, so we'll see. Within the baseball caps, we have to have the logo-fronted baseball cap in white, navy, and green. But in that part of the collection, as well as the apparel and the gifting, there's around 70% newness each year.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: Towels, T-shirts, and tote bags are blockbusters everywhere, so I guess for you, it’s the same…
Dan Ashmore: Yes, the towels in particular. Of course, we couldn't hope for a better advertisement for our products than to see merchandise on the courts, and the towels are on the court. Both the seasonal and the classic colorway of the towel are on the court during every match. That's a gift for us as retailers to know that everyone who comes to the championships will have awareness of a product that's of high quality and also has high visibility on the ground.
Tote bags are a growing category for us. I think there is an increasing interest in sustainability, and guests are less inclined to take carrier bags away from the tills. Our bags are actually fully biodegradable within one waste stream. They're 100% paper. They're an FSC-certified mix. Even the handle is made of paper. But guests are still, and we support it, still thinking about sustainability and limiting the number of bags they take away. This has meant that within our tote bag category, the sales are increasing year on year. So it's not a problem of our own creating, but we're very happy to meet the demand.
“It takes four Championships towels to make a dressing gown.”
Certainly, our towelling supplier has thought very creatively about surplus stock in the last year, in particular, and they took towels back from the Championships last year that have been turned into bags that we're selling at the championships this year. That was trialled in 2024, just two bags, and they sold very well, they sold out very quickly. This year, that range of heirloom products, as we call it, these up-cycled items, they're also featured in make-up bags, in wash bags, and in dressing gowns.
It takes four Championships towels to make a dressing gown. So, in sustainability terms, if you have surplus stock, to know that you can turn that surplus stock into a new item is a very positive message. We're very proud of Christie, our towelling partners, and the work they've done in that area.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: So 70% of the offer now is new?
Dan Ashmore: It’s new, yes.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: Wow, I would have never guessed that... How do you organize it? It's a huge percentage of the whole thing.
Dan Ashmore: Yes, it's a year-round challenge for the team. So, clearly, our USP (Unique Selling Proposition/Point) within our clothing collections is that we sell white performance clothing. When our guests come into the store, they see white performance clothing, and it looks very much like they might have seen in prior years. That's because of the rules we have regarding the amount of color and branding that can go onto the court at the Championships. So we have to think quite creatively about how to make a white T-shirt or a polo shirt or a sweatshirt different from last year. And for us, it's in the textures.
So we have a polo shirt in particular in the store this year, which has a pattern within the weave that is representative of the net on the court. So you can see the texture, and you have the small gridline boxes on the polo shirt. And from across the room, it looks like a white polo shirt. But when the guest gets up close and gets a feel of the fabric, you can see the work that has gone into it. That work is taking place in the museum building just over here throughout the year. We have a year-round merchandiser. We have an apparel designer. We have a QC (Quality Control). We also work with freelance graphic designers as well to support the newness within the collection.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: It takes a village.
Dan Ashmore: It takes a village, and at this stage, they're a very well-trained village. They've been working with us, all the team I mentioned there, for a handful of years. They are passionate about the championships, but they're also passionate about bringing something new each year.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: It's pressure, too, because you can't miss. What's the brainstorming like for the new collections? Are you getting feedback from the previous years
Dan Ashmore: Yes, we're very fortunate in our sales history to have quite a long and detailed sales history. So, on the towel in particular: We've been selling the towel at the Championships for so many years and working with Christie for 30-plus years, so we know how many towels we will broadly sell at these Championships, which is very helpful. Within our clothing, we have to think about the weather, about the fashion, and about the guest mix as well. So last year, we sold very many sweatshirts. I think in apparel terms, seven of our top ten best-selling items last year were long-sleeved garments, whether it was sweatshirts, jackets, or outerwear, because of the cold.
But when we do the design for the following year in August, we can't predict the weather. So our stock rooms are full again of sweatshirts because, in August, we don't know if we'll have rain or shine. But we also have T-shirts, polo shirts, and all the other items you expect to find at the Championships. The challenge for us with the weather is that often we're asked whether rain is good for the shop. And rain is good at filling the shop. But it's not necessarily good in sales terms. Our small umbrellas cost less than our baseball caps.
“Cold weather is very good in the store.”
What is good for sales in the shop is cold. And what we find is that people dress for summer. They come in July. They arrive at 11 a.m., 12 p.m., or 1 p.m. And it can be very hot, as it should be in July. But if you sit on the court and you're still there at 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock in the evening, you're still in the UK, so at that point, the strappy dress you might have come in or the linen shirt is now not necessarily warm enough for your journey home.
So, cold weather is very good in the store. And we tend to find that guests arrive in the later hours. They'll buy the knitwear, buy the sweatshirts. Often, women, in particular, buy an oversized fit because it's going over the top of a summer dress. So they're not trying too hard to pair with the outfit. They're thinking functionally about what they have. But, yes, sweatshirts are very good in the cold. Umbrellas, we sell a lot of them in the rain, but they cost less than baseball caps.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: Wimbledon fashion is an integral part of the Wimbledon reputation and experience. There’s a pressure to rep the Championships and all the history that goes with it. How do you balance tradition with the evolution of people's tastes or try to modernize it?
Dan Ashmore: It's a great question. When we think about our guests, we want to make sure that we have something in our collection for everybody at every price point. So when we think about the Championships, of course, we have our guests who join us in hospitality. We also have our guests who pay face value for tickets at the gates every morning in the queue. So, profiling our guests in merchandising terms is a challenge. It's a real challenge. There is also an expectation that the guest is able to shop for themselves, but also that they're able to shop for gifts.
So we're operating a miniature department store, and we want to make sure that what you find in that department store is a who's who of best sellers for the tennis guest. When we think about what fashion looks like at the Championships, we usually start with our own history. We start with the rule book, the white clothing, how much colour, and how the branding can appear in our white clothing performance collection. And then we look at whether we should recolor those garments for members of other tennis clubs who might not necessarily play in white. So our best-selling white clothing will be repeated in our core colors, whether it's our French navy or our botanical green, as we call it. That's the green that exists within our clothing collection.
“We've maintained the entry-level price point. We still have our souvenir T-shirt that says, I was here at the Championships.”
Then we look at our lifestyle clothing. We need to make sure that we have the souvenir T-shirt that still has a place within our collections. We've also focused a lot of our attention in the last five or six years, in particular, on finding opportunities to help our guests trade up if they want to. What I mean by trade up is that we've maintained the entry-level price point. We still have our souvenir T-shirt that says, I was here at the Championships. But we also have an excellent collection of polo shirts, sweatshirts, knitwear, jackets, and so on. So if a guest is looking for a souvenir, we have that. They're very well catered for in our store. If they're looking for something that might be more suitable in a restaurant environment or a cocktail bar that says Wimbledon without shouting Wimbledon, we also have that.
Carole Bouchard, The Tennis Sweet Spot: Quiet luxury.
Dan Ashmore: Quiet luxury is a very good way of putting it, yes.