Not so long ago, this would have been Manic Monday, the day when all 16 of Wimbledon’s fourth round matches would have been played on one dizzying, helter-skelter afternoon.
Things are a little calmer now that we play on middle Sunday, but it’s good to know Manic Monday is still Magic Monday. And maybe by the end of today, it may even be Matteo’s Monday.
What a fourth round match we have to headline Day 8. The 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini, back in barnstorming business after a hiatus, against world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz. Yes, the old rocket man against the new.
Berrettini had disappeared from the tennis radar for a while, struck down by COVID-19, injuries and a period of introspection as he pondered where his career was heading. Even flying to England, his Wimbledon participation was uncertain as he didn’t know if he was emotionally or mentally prepared, and he was harbouring a painful abdominal injury too.
Yet the All England Club has worked wonders on his wellbeing.
“It must be this place, it has something special. I feel a kind of energy I don’t feel anywhere else,” Berrettini said following his win over Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, who told him at the net he could go on to win Wimbledon.
He has to get past Alcaraz first, mind. “It’s always been like a pleasure, a fight, a great fight against him,” says Berrettini, who has the memory of a five set win over the Spanish phenomenon at last year’s Australian Open to warm him.
Wimbledon ladies’ champion Elena Rybakina looks stronger and more focused with every match, having coolly finished off British hopes by outplaying Katie Boulter.
Now on Centre Court, she faces one of the game’s trailblazers, Beatriz Haddad Maia, who’s seeking to become the first Brazilian woman to reach the quarter-finals since the late, great Maria Bueno, Wimbledon champion in 1959, 1960 and 1964, and who was still performing with incomparable balletic grace when she reached the quarter-finals in 1968.
Haddad Maia met Bueno at Wimbledon before her death five years ago and she remains a beacon for the 27-year-old, who made another breakthrough recently by reaching the semi-finals at Roland-Garros. “She’s my inspiration every day,” says the Sao Paulo-born left-hander.
Talking of trailblazers, last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur, the pioneering pride of African and Arab sport, is enjoying another fine run, having seen off the considerable challenge of former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the previous round.
But she has reason to be fearful on Centre Court of Petra Kvitova, the two-time champion who still flows around the lawns at 33 years young while others simply flail.
Kvitova protests she can’t be considered a contender anymore, nine years after she last won here, but she has a bit of an aura at Wimbledon. “I need to believe more in myself that I can beat someone like Petra,” admits Jabeur. “She plays amazing.”
Unseeded Christopher Eubanks has been pretty impressive too, a 6’7” American streak of lightning who’s cracked the most aces (72), the highest percentage of winners (28 per cent) and most return winners (16) of any man left at The Championships.
And that’s all down, he says, to the tips he received in a WhatsApp conversation with four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters after he’d complained to her: “Grass is the stupidest surface to play tennis on!”
So, Clijsters offered advice on footwork drills and grass court tactics. Lo and behold, he’s been like a man transformed. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the latest to face the Eubanks hurricane on No.2 Court, won’t be thanking Kim, that’s for sure.
Meanwhile, Mirra Andreeva just continues to have a ball. “I do everything that girls my age do. I love to watch some series. I have to do my school – I have no choice, I have to suffer for two more years - and that's it,” shrugs the 16-year-old comet.
“I'm just a normal teenager, like normal girl.” Her room’s a right mess, she reassures us. But what she’s achieving is quite out of the norm.
And while we’re talking of the next generation, let’s savour the feisty great Dane-in-the-making Holger Rune, aged 20, versus a now distinguished elder of the Tour and an old Wimbledon favourite Grigor Dimitrov – is he really 32? – in a rapier-duel of the generations on No.1 Court.
“He’s young, talented and dangerous, but so am I,” roars Grigor, before adding delightfully: “Minus the young part…”
For an added bonus – Centre Court will also feature the conclusion of Novak Djokovic versus Hubert Hurkacz, with the Serbian leading by two sets to none after winning his 13th and 14th consecutive tie-breaks at Grand Slams this year.
New this year:
See the draw like never before, with interactive Path to the Final view of the draw by clicking a player’s name on the draws page
See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play
View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis