At Wimbledon, She's Both the Newest and the Oldest

On Lina Gjorcheska, who took the long road to putting North Macedonia on the tennis map.

WIMBLEDON, England — As we walked together toward the court where Lina Gjorcheska was finishing up a win last week at Wimbledon qualifying, a tournament staffer asked me what country the player was from, adding that they didn’t recognize the flag next to the player’s name.

This was an understandable gap in knowledge for someone working in tennis: never before this week had this flag ever been seen next to a player’s name in the singles main draw at a major.

Photo by Dimitar Stevcev on Unsplash

To read the rest about the first Macedonian in Grand Slam main draw singles history, who is also making another big piece of history at Wimbledon—plus a look at other Day 2 Matches to Watch—please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben