Brilliance in backwards hats: Trio tries for Wimbledon history

LONDON — Positive, Novak Djokovic is pursuing historical past, however what about his fellow fourth-round Wimbledon rivals Matthew Berrettini, Christopher Eubanks and Holger Rune? Every member of that trio is 4 wins from a uniquely heady accomplishment within the annals of the 146-year-old Championships.

All three are carrying backwards caps on courtroom — a style assertion no man or girl has made whereas capturing a singles title on the All England Membership.

“I feel it is a cool model,” mentioned Rune, a 20-year-old Dane, who wasn’t a fan till he first tried it two years in the past in Chile, in his second ATP match.

“Now it is simply part of how I look on the courtroom — I do not actually give it some thought anymore. I attempted to play with out, however then I sweat rather a lot, so it will get in my eyes and stuff like this.”

Berrettini, an Italian, 27, who was a 2021 finalist in opposition to Djokovic, mentioned that when he was getting back from an harm in 2016 he picked up the behavior — one his father additionally had — and it helps to maintain sweat off his face. “I simply favored it, then I figured once I was taking it off, I used to be sweating.”

Eubanks, a 27-year-old American, mentioned he experimented with caps in each instructions when he was in faculty at Georgia Tech.

“Seeing the invoice of the hat on my serve began to get somewhat bit annoying, so then I simply persistently began to go backwards from then on,” mentioned Eubanks, who is not bought on the invoice of a front-facing cap successfully blocking the solar.

Neither the unseeded Eubanks nor No. 6 Rune has ever superior previous Wimbledon’s fourth spherical. Eubanks faces No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday; Rune goes up in opposition to No. 21 Grigor Dimitrov and the unseeded Berrettini’s opponent is top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz.

Many contemplate 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt the participant who popularized the backwards cap in tennis, however he did not put on one when he received Wimbledon. The Aussie did have one on the 12 months earlier than, nevertheless, when he captured the US Open title.

The 2023 version of Wimbledon’s annual compendium, a 556-page sure reference e-book, features a listing of the headgear worn by singles champions.

The carrying of caps of any variety started in 1887 with Lottie Dod’s white cap. A complete of 46 champions have worn some type of headgear, courting again to the straw hat Maud Watson wore as she beat her older sister, Lilian, in 1884.

The headwear can be something however headline materials if Berrettini, Eubanks or Rune had been to earn the gents’s singles trophy subsequent Sunday, but it surely would not simply be a footnote, both. It might be entrance into the file e-book, with wearers of bandanas, headbands, visors and even a beret.