Ant-ics on court
The loss of Caroline Wozniacki, No. 2 seed, who was beaten in the second round by Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, is greeted in Denmark with understandable shock, with Ekstra Bladet capturing the mood with the headline “End: Finished in Wimbledon: Wozniacki in amazing horror!” The Yorkshire Post notes that an invasion of flying ants during her defeat saw Wozniacki ask the umpire for bug repellent as, “You want to focus on playing tennis and not eating bugs”.
Serena and Venus Williams welcomed the scheduling of women’s matches on the main Show Courts at The Championships over the opening three days and it is a theme picked up by major media organisations.
Show Court joy
The Daily Mail reports Serena’s reaction, with the former champion stating, “I think it's wonderful" after reaching the third round while sister Venus, another winner yesterday, says, “I was really overjoyed when I saw the schedule” as the paper points out that, “The Championships have seen an abrupt shift in the gender proportion of contests hosted on Centre and Number One courts so far in 2018. By the close of play on Wednesday night, 13 women's matches had taken place on the two largest arenas, compared to eight featuring the world's leading men.”
The Straits Times in Singapore is particularly impressed with Serena’s 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktoriya Tomova, reporting, "Serena Williams powered to her 16th successive win at Wimbledon, brushing aside Tomova in just 66 minutes with 24 winners.”
England v Sweden rivarly
As the build-up to the Sweden versus England football World Cup match gathers pace, the relationship between British No.1 Kyle Edmund and his Swedish coach Fredrik Rosengren remains as strong as ever with The Times reporting that Rosengren believes, “He can beat everybody. There's absolutely no reason to think he can't, for me. I think he has the strokes, all the tools that it takes to be very successful on this surface. I always believe Kyle can win when he goes on court."
The Calgary Herald reports that Milos Raonic, the Canadian No.13 seed, fired off 34 aces in his second round 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4) victory over unseeded Australian John Millman. Raonic has a remarkable tie-break record and the paper trumpets the fact that the 27-year-old leads the ATP Tour in the past year with wins in 73.7 per cent of his tie-breaks.
Excitement Down Under
Australian success is grabbing the headlines back home with the Sydney Morning Herald excited about one of their lesser-known players, telling readers that, "Boosted by the biggest win of his fledgling career, Aussie teen sensation Alex de Minaur is confident he can extend his Wimbledon love affair beyond the second round. The 19-year-old faces French doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert and victory could potentially see him take on world No.1 Rafael Nadal in the third round.”
Despite a first interruption for rain on Wednesday, the Daily Express is asking if this will be the hottest year in the history of The Championships, although it points out that, "The average peak temperature of the ’76 tournament was a phenomenal 30.8 degrees. The hottest day in Wimbledon history was in 2015 when tennis fans were collapsing in 36 degree heat. Monday was the second hottest opening day in the tournament’s history, with temperatures soaring to 29 degrees.”