Riske assessment
You would understand if Alison Riske's nerves were fizzing like a dropped bottle of Prosecco on The Hill. These are busy times for the unseeded 29-year-old from Pittsburgh in the United States: it's her wedding the weekend after next, and on Tuesday she will play Serena Williams for a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
But if Riske has been feeling any pre-wedding nerves, or if going deeper into the draw than ever before has been giving her the heebie-jeebies, she has been doing a fine job of hiding those anxieties. She is leaving most of the wedding planning to her fiancé, which helps. And three times in her first four matches, including in her last round against Australian top seed Ashleigh Barty, she came from a set down.
You don't hustle like that if you're in any way overwhelmed by your summer, or the occasion, or agonising over table settings. "Bring it on," Riske said of playing Williams - who is seeking a 24th Grand Slam singles title - as well as trying to become the first married champion here since Chris Evert in 1981.
A second Wimbledon semi-final for Konta?
"British people are very polite," Petra Kvitova observed before playing Johanna Konta in the fourth round. Though perhaps the Czech, the champion in 2011 and 2014, noticed that the Centre Court crowds undo their top buttons and become a little more vocal if any British players make the second week. With her win over Kvitova, following up a three-setter against American Sloane Stephens in the previous round, Konta is three more victories away from becoming the first British woman to conquer these lawns since Virginia Wade did so in 1977 in front of Queen Elizabeth.
For all the disappointment of losing in the last four of last month's Roland-Garros, Konta has moved on quickly, even if she did trip over her own foot against Kvitova. Victory over unseeded Czech Barbora Strycova would see her into a second Wimbledon semi-final, after her first in 2017, where she would play Williams or Riske.
First time semi-finalist guaranteed
Like Riske, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina and unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova, a main draw debutante this summer, are new members of Wimbledon's Last Eight Club. They play in the quarter-finals, meaning that the match will produce a first-time semi-finalist. This match comes just a day after the most exhilarating occasion of Muchova's tennis life, beating her countrywoman Karolina Pliskova 13-11 in the third set of their fourth round match (coming within a few points of being the first match to have a tiebreak at 12-12, under the new rules introduced this summer). Rebel Wilson, an Australian actress and a friend, has been part of Muchova's support team at The Championships.
Life after Coco
Who could have imagined, when The Championships began, that beating a 15-year-old qualifier would earn a former world No.1 such praise? Following a fourth round winner over Cori Gauff, Simona Halep isn't just the only woman in the bottom half of the draw to have won a Grand Slam title; the Romanian is also the only player in that half to have appeared in a major final. The 2018 Roland-Garros champion, and a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2014, Halep plays unseeded Shuai Zhang. Zhang is the fourth woman in this summer's final eight who is into the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time, and will be attempting to become the first Chinese champion.
SerAndy or MurRena?
Just as every celebrity romantic coupling needs a portmanteau, so do star-powered mixed doubles teams. The difficulty is Serena Williams and Andy Murray can't quite agree on what to call themselves. When Murray posted a picture of their first round match with the name SerAndy, Williams replied on Twitter saying she preferred MurRena. Whatever they are called, they play their second round match against the French-American pairing of Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo.
