Key events
We’re ready to go and … play. Vekic to serve.
Vekic and Sun arrive on No 1 Court. What a moment for both of them.
Otherwise, it’s hard to see how Alcaraz loses, but he’s been a little erratic lately and Paul has never played better. There’s a feeling watching the best players that, even when off it, they’ll find a way to do the necessary, but if Paul’s serve and forehand are working, and if he can keep Alcaraz guessing with his length, spins and angles, he’s a chance.
As for our second round of matches, the clash between the exuberance of Jasmine Paolini and the steel of Emma Navarro looks exceedingly enticing. I couldn’t be more impressed with how Navarro has played in this tournament – she’s battered both Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff – and given all her best Slam performances have come in the past year, it seems fair to posit sh’es hitting a stride.
The same, though is so of Paolini, but if you’re asking, I’m backing Navarro’s composure and consistency over her unpredictability. But there’s a strong chance I’m wrong.
What I especially enjoy about Sun is how hard she hits it, but how deft her touch is. Listening to her coach, he sounds genuinely shocked he found someone so good, and the sense is she’s got a fair bit of catching up she can do having not had the coaching and facilities others had in their youth.
Email! “Such an exciting day as a New Zealand tennis fan,” writes Nick Fenton. “Lulu Sun was born in Te Anau – a town of about 2,500 people (1/5th of the capacity of Centre Court!) set in amongst the mountains of Fiordland National Park at the bottom of the South Island. Her quarter final starts at midnight NZ time, but I was pleased to see this isn’t stopping the locals from getting behind her. There is now a sign up on the drive into Te Anau that says ‘Go Lulu – Te Anau to Wimbledon!’ – and Radio New Zealand today reported that the Te Anau tennis club is holding a screening of the match, complete with midnight snacks and decorations. Vekic is obviously a wonderful player too but I’m selfishly hoping Lulu can keep us Kiwis dreaming!”
Ah, thanks for that – it’s so moving to hear about the impact sport has on people, and to understand our sportsfolk’s stories. Sun will have to play the match of her life to win, but she’s become quite adept at that over the last few weeks, having won seven in a row including qualifying. Given on Sunday, she beat Emma Raducanu on Centre Court – convincingly – we can be almost certain she won’t shrink at the enormity of the occasion.
For balance, then, a question: does Novak Djokovic possess the greatest hairline of all time?
Back to Djokovic, who they’re discussing on BBC – and there’s a general sense he overreacted – I baulked at his accusation the crowd were disrespecting him. No one with the remotest interest in tennis can possibly fail to respect the greatest male player of all time; what hurts Djokovic, I think, is that among that respect there’s not always love – especially relative to how much there is, uniformly, for Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Carlos Alcaraz.
As for Sinner v Medvedev, it’s hard to see a way the world number one loses on grass. The roof being closed, assuming it is, will help both – Sinner can hit it cleanly, while Medvedev will appreciate the sureness underfoot, sometimes unwilling to plant for fear of slipping. If he serves and returns like God, he’s got a chance, but even then the confidence, authority and composure of Sinner looks likely to be decisive because almost everything Medvedev does, he does better.
Frankly I’ve not a clue how Lulu Sun v Donna Vekic might go. Vekic is of course the favourite and if she plays at close to her best, she wins. She hits it hard, moves well, has improved over the last couple of years and as 28 knows this might be her best chance of winning a biggun.
Sun, though, is a wild card. She too gives it a hearty thwack and, though she doesn’t move as well, she has far less to lose and the advantage of surprise: no one quite knows what to expect from her.
So what of today’s matches?
Also going on:
Nor is that our only controversy. It turns out that while Taylor Fritz was coming back from a two-set deficit to beat Alexander Zverev, members of his box were, according to the German, going “over the top” in their support.
Later, Morgan Riddle, Fritz’s girlfriend, posted a video – now deleted – on her Instagram story captioned “when ur man wins 4 the girls” and during the match posted a photo – also now deleted – of the court, with the caption “cheer loud ladies”.
“His team is extremely respectful,” Zverev said. “I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful.
“I think there are some other people that maybe are in the box that are not maybe from the tennis world, that are not maybe from particularly watching every single match.
“They were a bit over the top.
“That’s okay. No issues. No drama. He fought back from two sets to love, so they’re obviously all excited, very pumped up, yeah.
“But no issues with Taylor. I think Taylor is a great guy. I have absolutely no issues with him.”
Fritz, meanwhile, said:
“I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me,” the American said.
“Honestly, I can’t hear. I don’t know. Like, no big deal. He said it’s nothing towards me or anything like that.”
Fritz added: “I don’t really hear my box when I’m playing like that.
“I didn’t hear anyone being, like, extremely loud.
“He’s totally allowed to be annoyed if they were being annoying.
“That’s one of the things I asked him at the net, Who was it? Yeah, I mean, again, it’s not a big thing. It’s all good.”
I was blogging this match, and I must say I didn’t appraise anything untoward. There are phonic similarities between Ruuuuuune and booooo, it’s true, but Ruuuuune seems like a fairly obvious way to support a player called Ruuuuune – especially in England, where chants of Ruuuuuuud and Rooooot have been commonplace for decades now. It may be that those involved were enjoying the opportunity to boo without actually booing – as if they were saying boo-urns – but I’m not sure how anyone could know for sure. I guess if I thought I was being booed, I like to think I’d introspect to wonder why – Novak Djokovic is the greatest player of all time but not everyone vibes with his persona. Other hand, I’m certain he’ll play even better as a consequence, so.
Of course, we’re still processing yesterday’s controversy…
Preamble
The great Mike Costello tells a story that after he did his first boxing commentary he was given some advice by an old pro: always leave yourself somewhere to go. Or in other words, if you get too excited too early, when the really big stuff happens it necessarily sounds like everything else that’s gone before.
Easier said than done: over the last eight days, we’ve seen some fantastic matches, incredible comebacks and ridiculous shocks. But now, as we begin our quarter-finals, we’re free to let it all out because that really big stuff is upon us.
As is often rhapsodised in these pages, women’s tennis is the most unpredictable sport in the world. So just as it would’ve been impossible to predict that Jasmine Paolini would meet Emma Navarro and Lulu Sun play Donna Vekic, so it is impossible to guess which pair might make the semis.
We’ll dig into the hows and whys later on, but for now, we have four players in terrific form who know that these are the days of their lives. They may reach this stage again or they may not, and with that comes pressure, intensity and emotion – for our delectation. So we can expect these matches to be moving, affirming and – given two of them must lose – distressing. What more could we possibly want?
On the men’s side, meanwhile, we begin with a repeat of the Australian Open final, the last thing Daniil Medvedev will want to remember. For two sets he played celestially, only for Jannik Sinner to steal the title – his first major – to fortify an already brilliant game with confidence and legitimacy. It’ll take something special to stop him not just today but between now and Sunday teatime.
To call Carlos Alcaraz merely special, though, is to insult one of the most inspiring talents in all sport. The energy, creativity and aggression he brings to court is unlike anything we’ve seen before, but there’s a sense he’s not quite at his best – unlike Tommy Paul, winner at Queen’s and in the form of his life. Like Taylor Fritz yesterday, if he stays calm and in the moment – easier typed than achieved! – he’s a chance.
Play: 1pm BST on No 1 Court, 1.30pm BST on Centre