Pump up the volume

Joao Fonseca, a new disruptive force in men’s tennis who has been tearing it up on the grass, has also been talking about the flowers at Wimbledon (how many other teenage boys, you have to wonder, would come to the All England Club and notice the hydrangeas?)

Playing in the main draw for the first time this summer, the 18-year-old Brazilian (main picture), who is the youngest man to reach the third round at Wimbledon since 2011, has been appreciating all the care that goes into the details. Everything is perfect, he has said, even the flowers. Well, this English garden party, in so many ways so lovely and floral and delicate, is about to feel – and sound – a bit like a South American carnival when the debutant plays Nicolas Jarry, a qualifier from Chile.

Brazilian fans are very loud, Fonseca has said, but so are Chilean spectators. In between admiring “the beauty” at his favourite Grand Slam, Fonseca has been thumping tennis balls and victory would take him into the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time. That would be huge. It would also be noisy.

Jarry vs Fonseca is scheduled to be the third match on No.2 Court

Danger of doing nothing 

Nothing balls. That’s what Emma Raducanu, in her own pre-match analysis, must avoid offering up to Aryna Sabalenka when they meet on Centre Court for a place in the fourth round of the ladies’ singles. But that doesn’t mean that the Briton, who defeated the 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova on Wednesday evening, will be trying to out-hit the world No. 1 in every point. With Sabalenka’s powerful game, that possibly wouldn’t end well for the 2021 US Open champion.

Raducanu can go for her shots but rather than trying to smack the ball, she thinks she also needs to be creative. If Raducanu can avoid the nothing balls, if she can defeat Sabalenka, that would be quite something.

For Raducanu, for the British tennis public, and also for The Championships – if Sabalenka loses, all of the top five seeds would be out before the middle weekend.

Sabalenka vs Raducanu is scheduled to be the third match on Centre Court

Osaka's long wait

Now that Naomi Osaka is getting over her fear of grass, she is understanding what she is capable of on the sport’s original surface, and away from the hard courts where she has won her four Grand Slams. If Wednesday was a happy day for the former world No.1 – her daughter Shai turned two and she made the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in seven years – Friday could be very significant too.

If the Japanese beats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova she would reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time since winning the 2021 Australian Open title and then becoming a mother.

Pavlyuchenkova vs Osaka is scheduled to be the first match on No.2 Court

Winning habit

All at once, Carlos Alcaraz is on two very long winning streaks. He last lost a tennis match in April. With the Spaniard’s titles in Rome, Roland-Garros and the Queen’s Club, plus his opening two victories at Wimbledon, he is undefeated in 20 matches,  the longest run of his career.

Alcaraz’s other streak is the number of matches he has won in a row at Wimbledon, which is 16. Beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round on Centre Court, and that would keep the sequence going. Hit 21 consecutive Wimbledon victories and he will have his third successive title here (that would also take him to six Grand Slams, or a quarter of Novak Djokovic’s record 24).

Struff vs Alcaraz is scheduled to be the second match on Centre Court

Norrie's low profile

With so much attention on Jack Draper this summer, Cameron Norrie has been able to go quietly about his business, and you suspect that’s been fine by him. Norrie is the only British player in the two singles draws to have gone deep into a Wimbledon Fortnight – he made the last four in 2022.

While he didn’t have a great time at the grass court tournaments leading into The Championships, losing in the first round at the Queen’s Club and in Eastbourne, he has an opportunity here, with a match against Italy’s Mattia Bellucci, to move into the fourth round. 

Bellucci vs Norrie is scheduled to be the second match on No.1 Court