A need for speed
Scream if you want him to serve faster.
The newest ride in tennis is the All England Club Big Dipper, which has a top speed of 140mph, as that’s how quickly Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, a French lucky loser and rollercoaster enthusiast, has been serving this Fortnight. After just three matches, he has already slammed 105 aces through the grass. Slammed because there's been nothing delicate about it.
If Mpetshi Perricard wasn’t a tennis player, he would have liked to have become a theme park tester or a Formula 1 driver as he can’t get enough of adrenaline. But who needs rollercoasters or racing cars? And, at 6ft 8in (2.03m), he’s possibly too tall for a Grand Prix, but a fine height for Wimbledon. As the debutant now knows, nothing makes your adrenaline spike quite like being out there on the lawns.
You have to imagine that the last few days in London have given him the ultimate rush. Defeat in the final round of Qualifying was a sudden jolt, and then there was the enormous high of receiving a place in the main draw after another player’s withdrawal and now, after a few more ups and downs, he is into the last 16.
What could be a better way to celebrate turning 21 on Monday than beating Italian Lorenzo Musetti to reach the quarter-finals?
Fiery day at the office
Yulia Putintseva once described herself as being like “a gangster” on the tennis court and her fourth round opponent Jelena Ostapenko isn’t exactly a quiet and reserved figure either, which is perhaps why the Latvian is American actor Steve Carell’s favourite player.
This should be lively, especially as the Kazakh defeated Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1, in the previous round and will want to keep that grass court high going.
Magic numbers
If passing 1,000 Wimbledon aces was a significant moment for Novak Djokovic at the weekend – he’s only the sixth man in history to hit four figures – there are other numbers on people’s minds at the All England Club.
The greatest tennis player of all time is going for his eighth Wimbledon title, which would put him level with Roger Federer’s record and bring him what would be an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title.
There’s another number that’s relevant here: one. It was only one month ago that the 37-year-old, who plays Denmark’s Holger Rune in the fourth round, had a knee operation. Is Djokovic moving towards what would possibly be the most extraordinary of all his Slam wins?
Lovers rock
Fifty years after the ‘Love Double’ – when Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, who were in a relationship at the time, won the singles titles – and just a few weeks after Zendaya’s Challengers was in cinemas, is a new tennis power couple emerging at Wimbledon?
Jannik Sinner, the first Italian to be the No. 1 seed in the gentlemen’s singles, is through to the quarter-finals while his girlfriend Anna Kalinskaya plays Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion, for a place in the last eight of the ladies’ singles.
Danielle’s dream
The first time Danielle Collins (main picture, top) visited the All England Club, she became so emotional she had tears in her eyes, and the American’s affection for the place has only intensified.
In her final year on the Tour, Collins has reached the fourth round for the first time, where she will play Czech Barbora Krejcikova.
As Collins has been saying, she’s trying to “ride this thing out” until she achieves her Wimbledon dream: playing a singles match on Centre Court.
