It is that day again, the afternoon for tennis aficionados to gorge themselves right royally with all the last-16 matches at the world’s greatest tournament rolled out. It has earned the descriptor ‘Manic’ Monday but this year perhaps Cori Gauff’s presence in the fourth round should demand we dub it as‘Miraculous’ Monday.
How on earth has this all unfolded? A 15-year-old, ranked No.313 in the world, arrives with a wild card for the qualifiers – what a good decision that was, by the way – storms into her first main draw in between school exams, and then starts writing ‘Coco in Wonderland.’
Was beating a Wimbledon legend Venus Williams not enough? Has winning from match points down on her Centre Court bow not sated her? Of course not! This is all far too much fun and, hey, she giggles, even Beyonce might be watching.
Simona Halep hasn’t been, though. While Gauff’s comeback against Polona Hercog on Centre Court was unfolding she still assumed she’d be playing the Slovenian next. “The young one, I never played against… I don't know a lot about her,” Halep shrugged, with the assurance of a champion who expects to play party pooper on No.1 Court.
Gauff’s three previous opponents were unseeded but Halep is the real deal, last year’s Roland-Garros champion who’s fresh from humbling Victoria Azarenka and feels a genuine contender for the vanquished Angelique Kerber’s title.
As does our very own Johanna Konta, who seems the model of calm as the last home singles hope. Which is probably just as well now her treacherous path runs into the two-time champion Petra Kvitova on Centre Court.
The Czech, who’s beaten Eastbourne’s finest in straight sets on the last two occasions they’ve met, thinks she is walking a tightrope here, playing increasingly well yet still praying that a tear in her left, playing forearm won’t force her to abandon.
Only four of the top 10 gentlemen’s seeds remain – the highest first-week casualty rate since 2008 – and guess who three of them are? Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal just loom over the rest like Mount Rushmore figures.
So, what a task then for 21-year-old Ugo Humbert and Matteo Berrettini, 23, the two youngest players left in a draw packed with a record nine 30-somethings.
How often must Federer, incredibly appearing on ‘Manic Monday’ for the 16th time in the last 17 Wimbledons, hear these days that he was once the childhood hero of an opponent? Berrettini, a boom-server who’s rocketed into the top 20, is the latest. But after his four hours, 19 minutes epic against Diego Schwartzman – the longest match to date of this year’s Championships – Federer grinned: “I hope he has no energy left.”
Djokovic tackles the impressive young French southpaw Humbert, a quiet, shy figure who beat the much-touted Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last round and reminded us all with a grin that, yes, he too was part of tennis’s “next generation”.
Humbert, whose parents run a famed gourmet charcuterie in Metz, is really coming into his own now after suffering problems with his growth as a boy which forced him to give up tennis. He took up the piano to assuage his sadness and now apparently can play to near concert standard.
Djokovic, meanwhile, remains the real thing on the tennis court, just like his fellow No.1 Ashleigh Barty, who’s taken only three hours to slice through her opening three matches, losing just 12 games and looking every inch the one to beat at The Championships.
Yet as Barty targets a 16th consecutive tour victory, she still remembers “vividly” the gutsiness of today’s opponent, American Alison Riske, who beat her in a Challenger three years ago. “She’s always up for the fight, going to make me play a million balls,” shrugs Barty. “I have to be at my best.”
Nadal looks to be close to his very best as he opens up on Centre against Joao Sousa, the first Portuguese to make the fourth round here and the man who broke Daniel Evans’ heart on Saturday night.
And so to Serena Williams, who’s been sharpening up with her ‘Ser-Andy’ mixed doubles campaign and likes to promise annually that the second Monday is when she becomes “all business”.
How discomfiting must that be for poor old Carla Suarez Navarro, the little Canary Islander who has a record against the seven-time champion that reads like something straight from the pages of Stephen King.
Six meetings, all lost in straight sets, no more than five games won in any match and a 6-0, 6-0 double-bagelling at the 2013 US Open. The horror! Still, you never know Carla, thisis miraculous Monday after all.
