Manic Monday, Magic Monday, call it what you will. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that stages all fourth-round men’s and women’s singles matches on one day and for fervent tennis fans, it’s the absolute dream ticket.
With play paused on Middle Sunday to give the grass courts respite, there’s nothing sweeter than the excitement that dawns on Day 7 at Wimbledon. No Monday morning blues. No allergy to the alarm clock. It’s hard to think of another week in the year when you wake up and think: Thank goodness it’s Monday.
That sentiment came in waves from dawn onwards. “Omg soo missed the tennis on Sunday!” said Margaret Benham on the official Championships Facebook page, while Oswald Dehnert commented: “The rest day is annoying, but I understand it's necessary. Grass isn't a self-maintaining surface. Made me even more hungry waiting an extra day to see if Kyrgios could topple Gasquet.” A physician in Nigeria admitted he made sure he stayed up so late on Saturday night that he would sleep through Sunday entirely, tagging his confession #WaysToCopeWithMiddleSunday.
Next year the doctor might like to offer some advice on how to cope with Manic Monday. I mean, the blood pressure! (And that was soaring just with the anticipation of Murray versus Ivo ‘cannonball-serving’ Karlovic before the aces started raining down, a tie-break and Andy’s failure to grab the third set.) The nail biting! And the repetitive strain injuries caused by obsessive channel flicking as Venus and Serena’s sibling set-to hit Centre Court in parallel with Sharapova’s No.1 Court appearance, and stylish Wimbledon champions Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were scheduled to continue their respective campaigns in the third match on both Show Courts.
Serena Williams once described Day 7 - the day the singles draws taper to the last eight – as the day that Wimbledon becomes “all business”, and she duly looked like she wanted the awkward encounter with sister Venus to be over as efficiently as possible.
That’s the thing about the fourth-round match-ups. It’s not just the thinning of the fields and the emergence of the in-form competitors that is so intriguing; it is the shows that must go on within the show. The Serena Slam, for example. Wimbledon is the perfect setting to make history – and the US, Australian and French Open champion is still on for the Grand Slam.
There’s Federer bidding to become the first man in history to win eight Wimbledon titles – and making apparently effortless progress by beating Roberto Bautista Agut; and Murray seeking to become the first British man to win multiple Wimbledon titles ‘since Fred Perry’. Oh yes, the ‘first...since Fred Perry’ line is in the air again.
We expected Manic Monday to conjure straightforward victories, upsets and long battles. The question was which storyline would be attached to which matches?
From the ladies, there were plenty of businesslike results with Serena, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska all winning in straight sets. Two notable upsets came as the 6ft 1in American CoCo Vandeweghe knocked out the popular No.6 seed and French Open finalist Lucie Safarova, 7-6, 7-6, and No.5 seed Caroline Wozniacki fell again at the same hurdle here to the Spaniard Garbine Muguruza. Timea Bacsinszky and Madison Keys both ground out wins after going to a third set over their respective opponents, Monica Niculescu and Olga Govortsova.
Apart from the Kvitova-like shock defeat of her Czech compatriot Tomas Berdych, and the usual melodrama from Nick Kyrgios, seven of the men’s last eight were settled without any breaking news headlines. Stan Wawrinka ticked the 'emphatic win' box. Andy kept the home crowd happy. Vasek Pospisil emerged the victor over the seeded Viktor Troicki in five sets and Marin Cilic took four sets and a long time to despatch wild card Denis Kudla.
One huge headline, though, might still have to be written. Djokovic returns at 1pm on Tuesday for a winner-takes-all final set against Kevin Anderson. If that goes against the formbook, it will truly be a tumultuous Tuesday.