Carlos calling the tune
Unofficially, Ibiza is becoming part of the tennis calendar. First a few days living it up on the White Isle after Roland-Garros and then – quick costume change – into your Wimbledon whites.
As ever in tennis, someone does something new and has some success and other players notice and want to see if it also works for them. The last couple of years, Carlos Alcaraz had a short holiday in Ibiza after Paris to clear his head before coming to London and winning Wimbledon.
This summer, the Spaniard returned to the island to decompress and now he is into the quarter-finals of the gentlemen’s singles once again, leaving him just three matches from winning a third title in a row.
Next up for Alcaraz, in a meeting of the new Ibiza set, is Britain’s Cameron Norrie, a former semi-finalist on these lawns, who was inspired by the Spaniard to visit the island himself before Wimbledon, with a trip he has been calling “the Carlos Method”.
Alcaraz downs Rublev to reach quarter-finals
Whatever happens on Centre Court on Tuesday, it promises to be a fine advertisement for the restoring pleasures of summer days and nights in Ibiza.
This match-up presents a challenge for the crowd. They are now so fond of Alcaraz – who has won his last 18 matches at Wimbledon as well as his last 22 on the tour – that it could test their loyalty to the Briton.
Norrie vs Alcaraz is scheduled second on Centre Court
Sabalenka a record breaker?
First to seven points. Before it breaks a tie, it can break a player’s focus. Are you wanting to know how a player handles the most intense and stressful moments on court?
Just look at their record in tie-breaks. Aryna Sabalenka has won the last 14 tie-breaks she has played, equalling a record for the Open era, and telling us much about her mental fortitude.
Each of her last three matches in the ladies’ singles have included one tie-break set and if there’s another in her quarter-final with Laura Siegemund, an unseeded German, the world No. 1 could make that record her own.
Victory would take Sabalenka into the Wimbledon semi-finals for the third time in her career, but her ambitions are bigger than that; she wants to go on to reach a first final here and to then lift the Venus Rosewater Dish for the first time.
Sabalenka vs Siegemund is scheduled first on Centre Court
Champagne super ’Mova
On her days off, Amanda Anisimova has enjoyed travelling around London on the Tube – it’s a thrill for her as there’s nothing quite like it in Miami where she lives.
On the court, she’s been playing some high-quality tennis during her time in the capital. She was so nearly the queen of Queen’s Club – she reached the final in Kensington – and now she’s on a run at Wimbledon.
If you’re in the crowd for Anisimova’s quarter-final with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she would very much appreciate it, as she has an opportunity here to go deeper into the Fortnight than ever before, if you could uncork your champagne during the changeovers.
The American had been on the baseline, preparing to start a point when her concentration was disturbed by a popping cork.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you could avoid opening bottles of champagne when the players are about to serve,” the umpire said during one of Anisimova’s matches earlier in The Championships.
Anisimova vs Pavlyuchenkova is scheduled second on No.1 Court
Seaside rock
No one plays better tennis at the British seaside than Taylor Fritz. Four times, including this summer, he has prepared for Wimbledon by winning the title in Eastbourne.
After swapping seagulls and salty sea air for south-west London, Fritz has kept that form going, reaching the last eight of the gentlemen’s singles for the third occasion, where he plays Karen Khachanov.
At last year’s US Open, Fritz played in his first Grand Slam final and perhaps he’s about to have a breakthrough here on the grass, as he has never reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon before.
Fritz vs Khachanov is scheduled first on No.1 Court
Hopes for El Salvador
El Salvador has never had a Wimbledon champion. That could be about to change this summer as Marcelo Arevalo and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic – who are the No. 1 seeds in the gentlemen’s doubles – are in the quarter-finals, where they play Monaco’s Hugo Nys and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Arevalo/Pavic vs Nys/Roger-Vasselin is scheduled second on Court 12