Match(es) of the day
Take a bow, Barbora Strycova. In fact, take two. During the opening seven days of the tournament the Czech 33-year-old had been suggesting to the media that this year’s Championships might be her last.
After the shift she pulled on Tuesday, maybe she’ll reconsider. First she produced a performance full of variation and intelligent grass court tennis to unsettle and outwit British No.1 Johanna Konta 7-6, 6-1 on Centre Court.
That victory put her into her first Grand Slam singles semi-final at what is her 53rd major. And later as the light was fading on Court 12, she returned full of beans to combine with Su-Wei Hsieh to bank her second victory of the day, a third round doubles success over Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu.
Tweet(s) of the day
The Wimbledon Channel panel have drawn up their four-player shortlist for the Oppo Wimbledon Breakthrough Award. Click through to Twitter to place your vote:
Special mention
Last October, Wimbledon announced that at this year’s Championships a deciding tie-break would be played if any final set reached twelve games all.
After a handful of near misses during the opening seven days, at around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon we were in business. All eyes locked on live scores and pictures beaming from Court 12 and it was John Peers and Henri Kontinen who held their nerve to write themselves into the history books.
After splitting the first four sets and another 24 games of the final set against Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury up stepped the Australian-Finnish team to take the decisive breaker 7-2 and with it wrap up a 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 13-12 victory after just under four and a half hours on court.
Once they’ve recovered, they’ll be back to take on No.3 seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus in Wednesday’s quarter-final.
Freeze frame
Stat of the day
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Under the radar
Elina Svitolina had walked through the gates of the All England Club on the back of some patchy form as well as a persistent knee injury that she’d been managing on and off since February.
Had the No.8 seed from Ukraine slipped to defeat against her second round opponent Margarita Gasparyan – she was two points from crashing out before the Russian was forced to retire with a leg injury two games later – few would’ve even regarded it as much of a surprise.
Matches, weeks and seasons can turn around quickly as a tennis professional, however, and fast forward a week or so and the 24-year-old was preparing for her fifth quarter-final match on a Grand Slam stage against young Czech Karolina Muchova.
Having lost all four of those previous last eight encounters at the majors, this time it was different and Svitolina came through 7-5, 6-4 to move into the final four at a Grand Slam for the first time.
To think that it’s happened on grass, is as much of a surprise to Svitolina as it is to everyone else.
“I remember only when I played my first Junior Wimbledon,” she told the media. “I just won Roland-Garros. I was all confident coming here. Then I got destroyed in the first round. This wasn't a good start for me.”
Will the right-hander come full circle and finish the second week in style?
