Bencic up to task
Look closely at the Venus Rosewater Dish, which will be presented to the Ladies’ Singles Champion on Saturday, and you’ll see a woman multi-tasking. It’s a mythological figure, Temperance, who is holding a lamp in one hand and a wine jug in the other, and is surrounded by a sickle, a fork and a heraldic wand.
As a mother, Belinda Bencic (main picture) says she’s “juggling a lot, just like any other mum, so, props to the mums”. This multi-tasking Swiss, who gave birth to her daughter Bella last year, has reached the quarter-finals for the first time, which means she could be days away from becoming the first mother to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish since Australia’s Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.
Serena Williams, the greatest female tennis player of all time, reached two Wimbledon finals as a mother, in 2018 and 2019, but was beaten on both occasions.
Bencic plays Mirra Andreeva, who turned 18 in April, and has ambitions of becoming the first teenager to lift the trophy since Maria Sharapova in 2004.
Andreeva vs Bencic is scheduled first on Centre Court
Strong arm Shelton
Tennis isn’t a contact sport like, say, American football. But it must almost feel like it is if you’re the other side of the net from Ben Shelton, who has been serving at almost 150mph this Fortnight.
Take a direct hit from one of Shelton’s first serves – or even one of his second serves – and you’re going to wish you had worn body armour, perhaps even a helmet with a grill, for the occasion.
In his youth, Shelton was a quarterback and all those hours of slinging the football have added to the strength in his arm. Into the quarter-finals of the gentlemen’s singles for the first time, the American plays Jannik Sinner.
Dimitrov injury sends Sinner through
No doubt Shelton took a close interest in the Italian’s fourth round match against Grigor Dimitrov, with the world No.1 trailing by two sets to love before the cruel moment when the Bulgarian injured a pectoral muscle, which meant he wasn’t able to continue.
Sinner vs Shelton is scheduled second on No.1 Court
Ignorance is bliss
Have you seen a woman in whites walking around the All England Club with her fingers in her ears? That could have been Liudmila Samsonova.
Ignorance can be a superpower. In this age of exhaustive pre-match data and video analysis – when there has never been more numbers and footage to help players work through their strategies – there’s one player who doesn’t even want to know the name of her opponent until the night before.
That stops Samsonova from over-thinking and over-analysing and “burning” out her mind. She asks people around her not to reveal who she will be facing in the next round.
It’s an approach that seems to be working well for Samsonova as she’s into the last eight of the ladies’ singles for the first time where – spoiler alert – she plays Iga Swiatek, a former world No.1 from Poland.
Overthinking is a concern for both women as earlier in The Championships Swiatek described herself as an intense character who tries to calm her mind down between matches. Two things are fuelling Swiatek – her favourite Wimbledon dish of pasta with strawberries, and a desire to win this title for the first time.
Swiatek vs Samsonova is scheduled first on No.1 Court
All-Italian semi?
What if an Italian man wins Wimbledon for the first time on Sunday and it’s not Jannik Sinner lifting the trophy?
That remains a possibility, as Flavio Cobolli has reached a first Grand Slam quarter-final.
If Sinner and Cobolli both win their respective matches on Wednesday, we will be looking at an all-Italian semi-final on Friday.
Cobolli is playing Novak Djokovic, who is seeking an eighth Wimbledon title and a 25th Grand Slam. If the two gentlemen’s singles matches on Wednesday follow the seedings, Djokovic will go through to play Sinner, which would be quite something.
Cobolli vs Djokovic is scheduled second on Centre Court
Power and creativity
Su-Wei Hsieh has described herself as “a freestyle player”. She brings artistry to the grass. Jelena Ostapenko can hit the ball about as hard as anyone.
Together they make for a very watchable ladies’ doubles team. They’re in the quarter-finals,
where they play Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya.
Hsieh/Ostapenko vs Cirstea/Kalinskaya is scheduled second on No.2 Court