Andy Murray tells The Guardian about the last time he cried.
“Driving home on my own, thinking about the last 18 months, which have been really difficult, and getting back to playing tennis again without pain in my hip. It was happy crying,” said the Scot. We also learn about Murray’s favourite smell, “paint and petrol,” while the trait he most dislikes about himself is that he is “too argumentative and too hard on myself.”
The Globe and Mail, of Canada, looks ahead to the fourth round match between Coco Gauff and former world No.1 Simona Halep, which “is likely to be one of the tournament’s most-watched.”
The 15-year-old American “had the highest-rated matches in the United States on all three days that she has played,” the paper said, citing US broadcaster ESPN. All of Gauff’s first three rounds were ranked inside the top eight of the British television ratings last week. Gauff’s dramatic escape against Polona Hercog in the third round, on Friday evening, attracted 5.2 million viewers in Britain.
While Serena and Venus Williams have won a combined 12 Wimbledon singles titles, the lawns of the All England Club have not been a happy hunting ground for American men in recent years.
Monday’s clash between Sam Querrey and Tennys Sandgren offers Wimbledon “a rarity,” according the the New York Times. “It will be the first time since 2000 that two American men will play each other in the second week of the tournament,” the paper said, adding no American man has reached a Grand Slam final since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in the 2009 Wimbledon final.
The New Yorker says lessons should be learnt from the excitement that surrounds the mixed doubles pairing of Andy Murray and Serena Williams. It comes to the conclusion that tennis is better off if the men and women are together. “The Serena Williams–Andy Murray Mixed-Doubles Match Shows the Future That Tennis Should Be Embracing,” it headlines, adding there should be more mixed doubles events at the sport’s biggest tournaments.
While the women’s draw is dominated by a hugely talented teenager, it is a different story in the men’s draw.
“When the championships resume on Monday, the men’s fourth round will feature more players older than 30 than younger for the first time in the Open era,” reports The Guardian.
French sports newspaper l’Equipe spoke to Cédric Raynaud, who has been coaching Ugo Humbert for five years. Although he is playing in his first Wimbledon, the 21-year-old has already claimed the scalps of fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils, the experienced Spaniard Marcel Granollers and the talented Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime.
He now faces defending champion Novak Djokovic for a spot in his first Grand Slam quarter-final. But Humbert is keeping a cool head, according to his coach. “There is serenity,” it quotes Raynaud as saying.
