How to stop Djokovic
There may be the little matter of an England-Sweden collision occurring some 2,000 miles away in Russia. Yet in London SW19 today, there’s actually an Anglo-Swedish collaboration on Wimbledon’s Centre Court that also promises to make this quite the red letter Saturday for British sport.
Kyle Edmund, Britain’s No.1, and his Swedish coach Fredrik Rosengren have been enjoying plenty of good-natured banter about a certain game of football in Samara, but when it comes to working out how Edmund can stop the resurgence of the three-times champion Novak Djokovic here, the lads from Yorkshire and Växjö have been plotting in perfect harmony.
By the time he and the mighty Djokovic take to the court, Edmund should know whether or not he’s charged with lifting the mood of an entire nation. Either way, he sounds so chilled about the task ahead that it feels somehow reassuring when he shrugs: “At the end of the day, it's just a tennis match. You go out there and do your best.”
Well, Edmund’s best has been pretty, powerfully good enough so far but there have been spells this week when Djokovic, the man once described by coaching sage Nick Bollettieri as the perfect tennis machine, has looked as if all his previously malfunctioning bits - the rebuilt elbow, the serve and the old clear-headed ruthlessness - are again tickety-boo.
Djokovic, who did sound a mite concerned about a knee “twitch” he picked up during his last match, has kicked on significantly since Edmund beat him on the Madrid clay in May but that defeat made him recognise that “Kyle has the capacity and the quality to compete at the highest level.”
Teen hopes for De Minaur
Australia thinks the same of its latest young prospect Alex de Minaur, at 19 the youngest left in the gentlemen’s draw, who has a dream, nothing-to-lose rendezvous with world No.1 Rafael Nadal first up on Centre.
“He’s good. He's young. He's dangerous,” says Nadal, eyebrow raised. The two-time champion also hasn’t forgotten how another good, young, dangerous 19-year-old Aussie called Nick Kyrgios blew him away on Centre four years ago.
It’s almost comical to hear Kyrgios now sounding like the grizzled elder statesman at 23 as he cautions that De Minaur should not be saddled with too much expectation but, actually, he too thinks the teenager “could definitely cause a little bit of discomfort” for Nadal with his “nightmare” flat hitting.
Kyrgios himself tackles Kei Nishikori on No.1 Court and what a treat! One entertainer so perfectly eccentric that he’s even attempted two ‘tweeners’ in a row here versus another with such a delightful shot-making armoury that even Andre Agassi reckons the Japanese is one of the few players he’d pay to see.
The ladies' draw has been decimated in unprecedented fashion with eight of the top 10 seeds already out. Four non-seeds are already in the last 16 and six more take their chance today. “Anyone on a good day can beat anyone,” shrugs Alison Van Uytvanck, and who would know better than the 24-year-old Belgian after knocking out champion Garbiñe Muguruza, the sensation of the week?
Belgium bonus
Van Uytvanck will make the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time if she beats the Estonian prospect Anett Kontaveit on Court 12, a match that Andy Murray’s father-in-law Nigel Sears may have a say in now he’s taken over coaching the exciting No.28 seed from Tallinn.
After ending Jo Konta’s Wimbledon with a performance of thigh-slapping intensity, Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova is the one unseeded threat everyone should be desperate to avoid but Belgium’s No.15 seed Elise Mertens has no choice as she faces the unenviable task of subduing the former WTA tour champion on No.2 Court.
Centre Court also sees the attacking force of Japan’s rising star Naomi Osaka running into the ever-shifting defensive wall that 2016 finalist Angelique Kerber is so adapt at erecting.
This week’s ‘Seedageddon’ has most obviously opened up a golden opportunity for No.1 seed Simona Hale, but even in her current golden form she may not look forward to one of the most bewildering tests in tennis against wonderfully different Su-Wei Hsieh on No.1 Court.
This slight 32-year-old throwback from Chinese Taipei employs all sorts of slicey, dicey, spin-laden wiles, delicate two-handed lobs and drop shots to entice harder hitters to their doom like big bluebottles trapped in some crazy spider’s web. Opponents never quite know what’s coming, she smiles. More puzzlingly, neither does she.
“When the ball comes, I decide at the last moment where to hit, so sometime the girls say, 'Oh, I don't know where she hit.' But sometimes I don't know where I hit, too!” she beams. She calls it ‘Su-Wei’ tennis and it’s lovely; Halep may have another name for it.
