Johanna Konta's Wimbledon run was stopped abruptly in the semi-finals on Thursday - but consolation was on hand from an unlikely source.
Van Morrison took to Twitter to invite the British player to one of his concerts "as my guest."
Konta, who has admitted to being a fan of the singer thanks to her parents, was not surprisingly quick to accept.
All she needs now is for U2 to take Van's lead. Konta - who says in her Twitter bio that she "would love to go to concerts most nights" - once said she would mortgage her house in order to see the Irish band.
GRAND SLAM SAM
Sam Querrey may be the biggest surprise of the four men left standing for the gentlemen’s singles crown this year but the big American has the runs on the board. His coach Craig Boynton is not one bit surprised. It might have taken Querrey 42 attempts to progress to the last four of a Grand Slam but he has the honour of having beaten the No.1 seed – who also happened to be the reigning champion – in his past two Wimbledons: Novak Djokovic last year and now Andy Murray this year. That’s some bragging right.
“Why I'm excited for Sam is him being able to validate what he did last year, being able to think of himself like ‘I can do this’," Boynton told Wimbledon Radio. “It's been documented he’s had struggles with confidence in the past. Watching him, it just warms my heart to see someone coming of age.
“Sam has the type of game that’s very dangerous. The top guys don’t want to play him. He's beaten Andy, Rafa, Novak, Tsonga and Thiem. He has a very good resume. If I’m a top guy I don’t want to face an in-form Sam – he presents so many disruptions. When Sam’s playing well, he can really take the racquet out of anyone’s hand.”
MARTINEZ MAGIC
After her defeat of home favourite Johanna Konta in Thursday’s semi-finals, 37-year-old Venus Williams became the oldest finalist at the All England Club since Martina Navratilova finished runner-up in 1994 at the same age.
In that final, 23 years ago, it was a 22-year-old Spaniard who stunned the Czech-born American in her 12th Wimbledon final. When Williams takes the court on Saturday she will be staring down a 23-year-old Spaniard bidding for her maiden Wimbledon title. If she stares a little further beyond the baseline she will notice the Spaniard who denied Navratilova a 10th Wimbledon title, Conchita Martinez. In the absence of her usual coach, Sam Sumyk, Martinez has stepped in as Garbiñe Muguruza’s mentor this past fortnight and what a partnership it is proving to be.
“I think she’s helping me to deal with the stress of the tournament, because it’s a long tournament. I've been here already since a while,” Muguruza said of Martinez. “She just knows, you know, how to prepare, how to train, what to do. Not that I'm doing something different, honestly. But to have her by my side gives me also this little confidence on having someone that has won before.”
SLAMLESS AT THE TOP
While Venus Williams was winding back the clock to keep her tilt at history alive on Thursday, out on No.1 Court a five-setter was about to create another unexpected quirk of The Championships. When Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot took down No.1 seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers 9-7 in the fifth to reach their first Wimbledon final, it meant Melo would displace Kontinen as the No.1 doubles player on Monday. It also means the Brazilian return to No.1 without holding a Grand Slam title in the past 12 months. And he’s not alone.
Following Andy Murray’s quarter-final defeat to Sam Querrey, the Scot was also left without any slams to defend, while retaining the No.1 ranking, and Angelique Kerber’s fourth-round defeat to Garbiñe Muguruza and Simona Halep’s subsequent quarter-final defeat meant Karolina Pliskova would rise to the No.1 ranking, also without a Grand Slam trophy.
Now consider this: regardless of whether Williams or Muguruza win’s Saturday’s women’s final, it will mean all four reigning women’s Grand Slam singles champions – Kerber, US Open; Serena Williams, Australian Open; Jelena Ostapenko, French Open – will currently hold zero WTA Tour titles. The only player – man or woman – to buck the slamless No.1 trend? Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the current holder of the US, Australian and French Opens. A glimmer of an upside to an otherwise horrrible Fortnight for the American, whose severe knee injury scuppered her bid to claim a non-calendar year Grand Slam with Lucie Safarova.