Now we’re getting to the nitty gritty. Sundays at Wimbledon were once days of rest; today, they are days of tests, serious examinations of those who would be champions. Welcome to the second week, welcome to the start of the fourth round.

The good news? There are still two Britons in the last-16 draws. An old favourite and a bright new comet.

Doesn’t good old Cam Norrie (main picture) cut a solidly reassuring figure, still standing square after a week of carnage among the gentlemen’s seeds? And how exciting is the Centre Court bow of Sonay Kartal, our breezy bright ‘un from Brighton with her love of tattoos and ferocious forehands?

Asked if he’d prefer to be under the radar or in the sort of glaring spotlight he was in when he reached the 2022 semi-finals, Norrie shrugs: “I don’t care really.” Isn’t that classic Cam? No fuss nor flash, just get on with it. He even prefers his comforting No.1 Court to the dazzle of Centre.

He’s up against Nicolas Jarry, and what a comeback the tall Chilean qualifier is enjoying, having matched the feat of his granddad Jaime Fillol, who reached this same stage 51 years ago and who would bring 10-year-old Nico to Wimbledon as a boy.

Life has been a struggle of late for the 29-year-old Jarry, who’s been battling vestibular neuritis, a condition which can bring on vertigo and imbalance. He’s plummeted from world No.16 last May to No.143, so his win over the new wunderkind Joao Fonseca felt like “pure joy” again.

Kartal plays 2021 Roland-Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, whose athletic genes - dad was an international rower, mum a swimmer, brother another tennis pro and grandma a pro basketball player - have kept her near the top of the game for 16 years.

It’s a formidable ask, but Kartal seems buoyed with more confidence the further she advances into uncharted waters. “The show must go on,” reads one of her 14 tattoos, and if she wins today her next show will be as Britain’s No.1 woman player, ahead of both Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter.

Taylor Fritz's duel with Jordan Thompson on No.1 Court is a battle of two injured warriors who have ground their way through 28 sets between them to get here and, perversely, feel better by the day even while their bodies get increasingly beaten up.

Fritz, the American No.5 seed, has been coping with tendinitis while the hirsute ‘Thommo’, for whom the term ‘Aussie battler’ might have been invented, has been playing in a back brace to protect a sacroiliac joint problem.

He asked the other day: “You see me moving out there? You got snails move faster.” Mate, bloomin’ speedy snails Down Under then.

Carlos Alcaraz has reached this far without ever quite looking as if he’s hit the afterburners, but his latest challenger, the always delightfully honest Andrey Rublev, will tell you what it’s like when he does.

“The last matches, he destroyed me,” sighs Rublev. “You're playing the best players. They know how to do everything. They know how to hit. They know how to defend. They know how to be patient. They know how to be strong mentally. They know how to serve, how to return.”

Rublev is yet to make it beyond a Grand Slam quarter-final in 10 attempts. Should he make it to that stage by knocking out the defending champion, he may finally be ready to clear that monkey from his back.

After surviving the marvellous Emma Raducanu duel, world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka should now have another Centre Court battle on her hands against the eternally consistent and determined Elise Mertens.

The Belgian swears she must have been a fighter from the moment she survived being born two months premature. “My heart rate was so high I had to keep fighting. In tennis you need to fight — and I think that’s in me,” she has reflected, and she’ll need that resilience to overcome Sabalenka, who has beaten her nine times in a row.

The most unlikely last 16 encounter? That would be world No.101 Solana Sierra, the first ‘lucky loser’ ever to get this far after being knocked out in Qualifying, up against No.104 Laura Siegemund, a 37-year-old, super-bright psychology graduate from Germany’s University of Hagen who’s also fluent in English, French and tennis.

Siegemund is feisty, battle hardened and takes no nonsense, but even she felt 37 going on 16 when the nerves kicked in as she homed in on her biggest win, over Madison Keys, in the last round.

But as she told the crowd: "There are always nerves. If you don't have nerves in this moment, you're probably dead.” After one of the quotes of The Championships, we are happy to report Laura’s chances are very much alive and kicking.

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