My Wimbledon top 10

Making use of the Club membership already... ☺️#Wimbledon | @Simona_Halep pic.twitter.com/jPXQpWrzXP

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 14, 2019

Here, in ascending order, are my top 10 Wimbledon happenings:

10. Ukraine rising: For only the second time, a Ukrainian girl won the junior singles championship (Kateryna Bondarenko won it in 2004). Unseeded Daria Snigur, playing in her last junior match, defeated 10th seed Alexa Noel 6-4, 6-4. The 17-year-old is coached by Larisa Savchenko, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 1994.

9. Dutch treat: Aniek Van Koot, unseeded, pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, defeating doubles partner, defending champion and top seed Diede De Groot in the women's wheelchair singles final. It took her almost two hours, but Van Koot beat her countrywoman 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, earning her first Wimbledon singles title. She and De Groot also won the doubles title. De Groot was the defending champion; she won the title last year with Yui Kamiji.

8. Didn't you win this once?: Defending champion Angie Kerber was upset in the second round by unseeded Lauren Davis, a player who sometimes tends to do well on the big stage. 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza was upset in straight sets in the first round by qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia. 

7. Cracking heads and taking names: Though she lost the magic when the final rolled around, Alona Ostapenko--the real Alona Ostapenko--made an appearance at this event in mixed doubles. Ostapenko lost in the first round in both singles and doubles, but with partner Robert Lindstedt, she lit up the court, showing all the brilliance she displayed in her 2017 French Open run. The biggest shock? Her serve was on fire! There was, of course, plenty of drama; on two occasions, the Latvian star's fiery serves hit Lindstedt in the head. It was a groin injury that did him in, however. Hampered in the semifinals, his condition became worse in the final. As for Ostapenko, in the final, she went right back to serving double faults and sticking volleys into the net. But for a while, we got to see the Ostapenko who dazzles. (Please come back soon.)

6. Don't look now, but there's a Czech behind you: Isn't there always? Unseeded Karolina Muchova took out the likes of Alex Krunic, 20th seed Anett Kontaviet and 3rd seed Karolina Pliskova and reached the quarterfinals. Her run was ended by Elina Svitolina, but she played some of the most inspired tennis I saw during the event. And this came on the heels of countrywoman Marketa Vondrousova's brilliant run to the French Open final. The depth of Czech tennis just continues to impress.

5. Mixed double: Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig won the French Open mixed doubles title, so why not win Wimbledon, too? The pair skillfully ran through the field in London, defeating Alona Ostapenko and Robert Lindstedt in the final.

4. There's a reason they're called "legends": This isn't the shot of the tournament--there are too many amazing shots here to single just one out.

Point of The Championships? 😱

This is incredible. Just incredible. Enjoy that, @Martina?#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/hdbQzSd3s8

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2019

3. Forget the Pimm's--we want Coco: There was plenty of buzz about Coco Gauff before the tournament, but during the first week of Wimbledon, people got to see what that buzz was about. 15-year-old Gauff began her campaign by knocking out the top qualifying seed--the talented Aliona Bolsova. Gauff won her next two qualifying matches, and then began her main draw campaign by beating her idol, Venus Williams, in straight sets. She then beat Magda Rybarikova and a very tough Polona Hercog. Gauff, not surprisingly, lost in straight sets to Simona Halep in the round of 16, but she left London with plenty of which to be proud.

2. Better together: First, see number 6. The inimitable Barbora Strycova reached the semifinals in singles, a first for the Czech veteran, by taking out--among others---Lesia Tsurenko, 4th seed Kiki Bertens, Elise Mertens, and Jo Konta. She was stopped by Serena Williams, but it was an amazing run, surpassed only by her run to the doubles final.

Strycova and Hsieh Su-Wei--two of the WTA's most beloved cult figures--are even better as a team. In the semifinals, the 3rd seeds beat the top-seeded team of Timea Babos and Kiki Mladenovic, then went on to beat 4th seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan (the team that took out defending champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova) in the final. Strycova and Hsieh did not drop a single set throughout the tournament. Strycova is now ranked number 1 in the world in doubles.

This is Strycova's first major doubles title. Hsieh won Wimbledon, with Peng Shuai, in 2013. She and Peng also hold a French Open title.

1. My brilliant career: Simona Halep likes to play on clay. She has time to set up her points, and she can slide with the best of them. Too smart to take on the complications of learning to be a grass court player, Halep--instead--made a decision to improve her serve, and to use her considerable talents to her advantage on grass. It was a good decision. During her stay in London, she took out the likes of Vika Azarenka, teen sensation Coco Gauff and 8th seed Elina Svitolina.

But the real test came in the final, when Halep faced seven-time champion Serena Williams, who held a 10-1 record against the Romanian star. This was Halep's fifth major final; of the previous four, she had won only one--the 2018 French Open. To say there was pressure is to understate the importance of the occasion. But if ever anyone were up to the pressure, that person would be Simona Halep. The picture of controlled aggression, Halep used her mighty legs to pull Williams back and forth across the court like in those long rallies that the Romanian loves.

Both her forehand and her backhand were on fire, and Halep's serve was the best it has ever been. The only unforced errors she made occurred in the first set, and there were only three of them. It was a clean, inspired, utterly dominant performance, and it was all over in under an hour. Halep, much like the defense-loving Angie Kerber before her, saw what needed fixing and set about fixing it.

As for Serena, she hasn't won a major since she took home the trophy in Australia in 2017, but she's been to three major finals since then, despite having to deal with injury. There's every reason to believe she'll continue to be in a position to attain what, so far, has been an elusive 24th major singles title. Her next opportunity, of course, will be in Flushing Meadows, where she hasn't won the title since 2014.  

In the meantime, Simona Halep--who has now triumphed on both clay and grass, and whose hard court skills are well known--takes home more than a replica of the Venus Rosewater dish. She also leaves with a confidence that is probably not like any she has ever had before.