Wimbledon reaches its crescendo on Manic Monday. Then, with the singles draw cut from 32 to 16 players, the Grounds quieten down considerably. The ladies are the first to return to the courts, for the quarter-finals. Here are four of the best from the last 40 years.

Venus Williams vs. Martina Hingis

With a new century came a new Wimbledon ladies’ champion.

Since making her debut at The Championships as a teenager in 1997, Venus Williams had been touted as a future Grand Slam champion. But it had been her sister Serena who had struck first at the 1999 US Open, while Venus had been stymied by the world No.1, Martina Hingis, at many big events.

This match, played on Independence Day in the USA, turned their rivalry around.

Williams and Hingis gave us higher-quality contests, but few were as tense or as hotly contested. Not only were they playing for a spot in the semi-finals, but Venus was trying to keep pace with Serena.

On Centre Court, both players made their share of errors, and both struggled with their serves; at one stage they broke each other eight straight times. But Venus found her serve when she needed it, at 5-4 in the third set, when she held at love and capped her breakthrough win with a 118-mph ace and a jump for joy. It wouldn’t be the last time we would see one of those from her on Centre Court.

“She was probably a little more hungry,” Hingis said. “We both wanted to win very much, but she was just a tiny bit better today.”

Venus had cracked the Hingis code, and she wouldn’t forget it. Later that week, she would go on to win the first of her seven Grand Slam titles.

Final result: 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 (2000)

Martina Navratilova vs. Billie Jean King

The 1980 edition of Wimbledon is best known for what some journalists coined ‘The War of 18-16’ between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. But ‘The War of 10-8’, which was played a few days earlier, deserves its own place in the history books.

It featured two of the most prolific Wimbledon champions of all-time, who also happened to be doubles partners that year. Navratilova and King had won the title together in 1979, and they would reach the semi-finals in 1980. But there were no punches pulled in their singles encounter. The Czech and the American spent the better part of two rain-interrupted days racing each other to the net.

From the start of her career, King had been known for her trademark glasses, but they never got in her way quite like they did on this day. First, she struggled to see through them during a drizzly opening set. Then, on the final changeover of the third set, they broke in her hands, and she had to put on a new pair. That, it seems, was enough to break her. After serving for the match at 6-5 in the third, and coming back from triple match point down at 6-7, King was beaten by a winning forehand return from Navratilova, which caught a sliver of chalk in the back corner of the court.

“I think that may be the single match in my career that I could have won if I hadn’t had bad eyes,” King would say later.

Final result: 7-6, 1-6, 10-8 (1980)

Zina Garrison vs. Monica Seles

Down a set to a 16-year-old phenomenon, Zina Garrison was already thinking about how she was going to describe her defeat to the media.

“I thought I was going to have to say afterwards that I’d been hit by something and didn’t know what,” Garrison said. “I saw no way to get back into this match.”

Her pessimism was understandable. Her opponent, Monica Seles, had won her last 36 matches, and had torn through Roland-Garros for her first Grand Slam title three weeks earlier. But after breaching the American’s defences in set one, Seles found herself flummoxed for the first time in months. With biting slices, surprising drop volleys, and relentless pressure, Garrison turned the tide.

“I’m playing within my older self,” joked Garrison, who was feeling like a veteran at 26.

Still, youth almost had its way. Seles, who seemingly had forgotten how to lose, bounced back from 1-4 down in the third set to reach match point at 7-6. Garrison responded with the shot of the match, and maybe her life: a forehand winner that skidded off the sideline. A woman who played it safe in the past had dared to be bold, and she won the next three games for the match.

“I just said to myself, ‘I’m going to go for it and if I make it, that’s great, and if I miss it, at least this time I went for it and didn’t try to be too careful',” Garrison said. 

Garrison would follow one breakthrough win with an even bigger one, over defending champion Steffi Graf in the semi-finals, before losing to Martina Navratilova in the final. A bold shot can take a player a long way.

Final result: 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 (1990)

Justine Henin vs. Serena Williams

Was there really a player who could consistently challenge Serena Williams at Grand Slam tournaments? Justine Henin was her name, and while the Belgian has dropped from fans’ radar screens since she retired in 2011, she was the rare woman who could be called a match for the American. In fact, after losing four of her first five meetings with Williams, Henin got the better of her at Roland-Garros in 2003 and 2007.

The Wimbledon quarter-final went to a full three sets. Looking back, that may come as a surprise, because Williams began it with her calf strapped due to an injury in an earlier round. But grass was still her surface, she was still a two-time Wimbledon winner, and she still made Henin nervous. When Henin tightened up in the second set, Williams, a set down, powered her way back into the match.

But Henin reasserted herself in the third set, moving Serena with her backhand and finishing points with her forehand. Again, though, Henin felt the nerves as she let a 5-1 lead turn to 5-3. But down 15-30 in the final game, she pulled off a deft drop shot and closed the door.

“It’s been tough on the nerves today,” Henin said. While she wouldn’t go on to win Wimbledon that year, she would beat Williams again on her way to a US Open title and a year-end No.1 ranking.

Final result: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 (2007)

Despite the absence of a Championships this year, there are still plenty of ways you can get into the Wimbledon spirit…

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