Khachanov gets the job done

You can’t beat the value of experience in a Grand Slam setting – and Karen Khachanov, contesting his 33rd major tournament and his sixth Wimbledon, has used it superbly to advance to a second quarter-final in SW19.

The No.17 seed secured his latest milestone with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak. In full control from start to finish as he advanced on No.2 Court in less than two hours, a composed Khachanov recorded 44 winners, including 10 aces.

It was a pleasing contrast to his last two matches, with Khachanov requiring five sets to advance over Shintaro Mochizuki in the second round and Nuno Borges in the last 32.

“To be honest, after the last two matches best of five, especially the last one that I came back from 2-5 down in the fifth, sometimes you can feel more tired but at the same time, you feel more excited, more inspired,” he said.

Khachanov’s previous Wimbledon quarter-final appearance was in 2021, with more recent campaigns prompting the 29-year-old to question his relationship with the All England Club’s pristine lawns.

“Last year I was thinking ‘oh I don’t like the grass, I don’t want to come back again’,” said Khachanov, who lost in five sets to qualifier Quentin Halys in the second round last year. “But this year feels different, I’m starting to love grass again.”

A semi-finalist at the Australian and US Opens, plus a quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros, Khachanov will draw on those confidence-boosting experiences when he meets No.5 seed Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals. “You understand, ‘Oh, OK, I have confidence, I can do it’,” he said.

Experience trumps youth

With a 16-year age gap separating the two players, Laura Siegemund also utilised her experience as she defeated Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon quarter-final.

The 37-year-old German managed several rain delays, and the fast-improving Sierra, to add a Wimbledon quarter-final showing to her other Grand Slam quarter-final run at Roland-Garros in 2020.

Siegemund (main picture) fell in Grand Slam qualifying 10 times before making her main draw debut at that level at Wimbledon in 2015. In five previous All England Club appearances, she failed to progress past the second round.

“Not much has changed. I said it before. I felt like I could do better than reaching [the] second round,” said world No.104 Siegemund, who stunned No.6 seed Madison Keys in the third round this year. “I had some really good matches also in the last years, but I just didn’t get the win.

“And so you know, I came with no expectations and I just worked on some things in my game obviously and they seemed to work better this year.” 

Siegemund will face No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals. “I’m just focusing on me and on my job. That’s it. I don’t play against a name. I play against someone who plays in a certain style,” she said.

“Maybe that’s the secret why I play good against good people, I don’t know. For me, this week I’ve just been playing good tennis.”

Cruising through

Cruz Hewitt lived up to his name in his Wimbledon boys’ singles debut, as he ‘cruised’ to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Savva Rybkin in just 51 minutes. Many astute observers will of course note the 16-year-old Australian junior’s famous surname too.

Cruz is the son of former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt, who lifted the gentleman's trophy at Wimbledon in 2002. 

The Australian teenager is not the only famous offspring competing in SW19.

Jagger Leach, whose mother is 1999 Wimbledon ladies champion Lindsay Davenport, also advanced to the second round of the boys’ draw. So too did No.1 seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain, along with recently crowned Roland-Garros boys’ champion, Niels McDonald.

Top form

For No.1 seeds in the ladies doubles, Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, a three set win over Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Liudmila Samsonova kept hopes alive of defending their 2024 Wimbledon doubles title alive.

Siniakova also progressed to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles alongside Dutch partner Sem Verbeek.

Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic, the No.1 seeds in the gentlemen’s doubles, advanced to the quarter-finals with a straight sets victory over Czech pair Petr Nouza and Petr Rikl.

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