The highest honors at tennis’s most storied tournament have eluded former Bruins for nearly a decade.
This year, a cast of five seeks grass glory, and the last one from the school to win it all will be among them.
Five alumni of UCLA men’s and women’s tennis earned bids into the main draws at Wimbledon, with play at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club slated to begin Monday. Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer, a Bruin from 1999 to 2002, was the last alumnus of either program to win big at the tournament’s senior level, securing the 2015 men’s doubles crown alongside Horia Tecău of Romania.
The Bruins have the strongest representation in the 2023 men’s singles draw, where the trifecta of world No. 54 Mackenzie McDonald, No. 58 Maxime Cressy and No. 65 Marcos Giron are all active as unseeded entries.
McDonald, a recent semifinalist at the Eastbourne International, enters as the hottest of the bunch. He edged out defending tournament champion and No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz 7-6(3), 7-6(8) in a tight round of 16 thriller – his third career top-10 win – and two matches later was well on his way to his second-ever ATP singles final.
Pitted against No. 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, McDonald sprinted out to a 6-2 first-set victory and went up 4-1 in the second.
All it took was one break from his opponent to turn that sprint into a limp.
Storming back into the contest, Cerundolo won 10 of the next 11 games to claim the second frame and lead 4-0 in the third before rain delayed his eventual comeback win. McDonald, now eight years into his professional career, was left still in search of his first ATP singles title.
Cressy and Giron come into the third slam of the season with less promising trajectories. By way of the reverse sweep, both failed to reach the quarterfinals at their respective Wimbledon warmups.
Cressy, also at Eastbourne, fell to world No. 52 Zhizhen Zhang of China in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 round of 16 decision, while Giron was dealt the knockout punch in his first bout at the Mallorca Championships. It was a player sitting hundreds of spots lower in the rankings who delivered it – world No. 308 Argentinian Guido Pella handed him a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) defeat.
As a collective, the three former Bruins are 7-7 in Wimbledon singles play, with the deepest run courtesy of McDonald, who reached the fourth round in 2018. None of them surpassed the second round last year.
The trio will also be out and about on the doubles side of things. Cressy is paired with Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev, while McDonald will work in tandem with American phenom Ben Shelton and Giron alongside the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp.
McDonald and Cressy are both former NCAA doubles champions and hold one ATP doubles title apiece, the former from the 2022 Japan Open and the latter from the 2023 Dubai Championships.
But those accomplishments are dwarfed by what Rojer has done in the format.
Currently the world’s No. 14 men’s doubles player, Rojer has 35 ATP doubles titles to his name – including three at Grand Slams – and enters Wimbledon as the No. 7 seed alongside El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo.
Rojer and Arevalo have taken home the top prizes at this year’s Delray Beach Open and Adelaide International 2 but will step foot on Wimbledon’s storied grass fresh off a quarterfinal upset as the Halle Open’s No. 1 seed. Rojer alone is 18-12 all-time at Wimbledon and has not reached the second round since 2019.
Only one female alumnus will have a shot at Wimbledon, but she’s already turned some heads.
World No. 20 Ena Shibahara – a finalist in women’s doubles at this year’s Australian Open – is set to continue her longtime partnership with Japan’s Shuko Aoyama, forming the No. 8 seed in the bracket. With the mixed doubles draw not announced until Wednesday, Shibahara currently stands as the youngest of the Bruin bunch at 25 years old.
Since departing UCLA for the pros after her sophomore year in 2018, Shibahara has accumulated nine WTA doubles titles, most notably claiming her maiden major by winning the 2022 French Open mixed doubles alongside the Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof.
Shibahara enters her third consecutive and third-ever Wimbledon with a cumulative mark of 6-2 at the tournament, with her finest finish coming in 2021 as a semifinalist.
The quintet gives the Bruins more main-draw participants than any other college – a timely boast considering how the collegiate path to the pros is becoming increasingly viable.
Five contenders for tennis immortality, all within UCLA’s grasp.
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