Key events
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Gauff beats Liu 6-3, 6-7, 6-2
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Krejcikova beats Bartunkova 6-3, 7-5
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Sabalenka defeats Ostapenko 6-4, 6-4
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Hurkacz defeats Paul 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2
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Daniil Medvedev beaten 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 by Jan-Lennard Struff
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Jannik Sinner beats Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4
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Djokovic beats Rinderknech 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6
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Iva Jovich beats Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
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Pegula beats Bouzas Maneiro 6-1, 6-3
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Osaka defeats Kasatkina 6-1, 6-3
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Bencic beats Kalinskaya 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6)
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Safiullin shocks Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3!
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Day four rewind
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Order of play (all times BST)
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Preamble
Thanks Katy, we swap just in time for Felix Auger-Aliassime to secure the first set 7-6 (7-1) with a domineering tie break and for Wimbledon to close the Centre Court roof.
Auger-Aliassime and Zheng have just started a first-set tie-break, but my day is done, so Tanya is here to take you through the rest of that match. Bye from me and hello again to Tanya …
“I’m glad I didn’t let the second set derail me,” says Gauff. “I don’t think I’ll be too tired [after back-to-back three-set matches], it’s grass so you’re not playing too many long points. I’m still young, I honestly don’t really wake up sore after a match. I’m not playing my best tennis yet, but I definitely feel more confident after the last two matches, and Belinda will be tough too.”
Gauff beats Liu 6-3, 6-7, 6-2
An unreturned serve from Gauff at 30-all brings up match point No 4. Unlike the others, this one is on Gauff’s racket, and even though she can’t find a first serve, her second lands, and Liu eventually prods into the tramlines! It was complicated at times, but Gauff ran away with it in the end, and she’s into the fourth round for a fourth time, where she’ll play the 2021 Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
But Gauff, a former US and French Open winner, has never gone further than the fourth round at Wimbledon, something few would have predicted when she first announced herself as a 15-year-old in 2019 by beating Venus Williams en route to that stage. Could this year be different? She’s definitely got the fight, but she may need to find another level against Bencic.
Gauff has held on to her headstart in the third set and now leads 3-2, 30-0 on serve. Apparently Liu was forced to check out of her hotel on Wednesday, having not expected to reach the third round as a qualifier, but her accommodation problems may not be an issue for much longer, because Gauff holds for 4-2 and is pushing on Liu’s serve at 0-40. Liu saved three match points in the second set and must now fend off three break points if she’s to avoid falling a double break down. She succumbs on the first. So Gauff will serve for the match – nearly an hour after she first did – at 6-3, 6-7, 5-2.
Gauff v Liu is one of only two singles matches still taking place as the sun starts to dip: Felix Auger-Aliassime v Michael Zheng is the other, with the third seed FAA currently level at 3-3 in the opening set on Centre Court against the American qualifier who got the better of Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the first round.
And some highlights for you:
Sean Ingle was watching Djokovic’s win earlier:
This hasn’t exactly been flowing tennis, with 23 winners and 40 unforced for Liu, and 15 and 22 for Gauff, with five double faults. But it’s absorbing nonetheless, though Gauff does immediately remove some of the third-set intrigue by breaking Liu to 30 before consolidating for 6-3, 6-7, 2-0.
Gauff and Liu are now into a tie-break. Gauff came within three points of defeat in the breaker in her second-round match, but that was in the third set, this is in the second, and Gauff has the comfort this time of knowing she won the first set.
Liu pulls off a one-two punch for 4-3, and then moves to 5-3 with some courage under fire at the net. Gauff replies with a one-two punch of her own … but Liu lasers a forehand for 6-4 … then chips long on the first set point … before Gauff’s sometimes brittle serve cracks and she double faults on the second SP! Liu takes the tie-break 7-5 and they’re going to a third! Which will be hard for Gauff to accept given she served for the match at 6-3, 5-3 and had three match points on Liu’s serve at 6-3, 5-4.
Krejcikova beats Bartunkova 6-3, 7-5
It’s all over on court 18, though, where Krejcikova has backed up her second-round win over Mirra Andreeva with victory over her fellow Czech, which became a little more complicated than expected when she was pulled back from 5-2 ahead to 5-5 after missing those three match points, before taking the final two games to get over the line. So the experience of the 30-year-old former Wimbledon champion wins out over the youth of the 20-year-old Bartunkova, and Krejcikova will face another Czech next, Karolina Muchova, who’s just ended the run of the qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew, 6-2, 7-6.
But let’s hotfoot it back to No 1 Court, because Gauff has advantage on Liu’s serve at 6-3, 5-4, and it’s her second match point. Gauff goes for the drop shot … Liu does the same back … Gauff charges forward and tries to pass Liu … but the qualifier is like an octopus at the net and puts away the volley! And Liu goes on to hold for 5-5, despite a third MP! This match isn’t over yet.
“She’s a really dangerous opponent,” says a smiling Sabalenka. “Last time she smashed me off the court [in Stuttgart last year]. So I’m so happy with the performance and the level.”
She’s then asked what it’s like to face an opponent who hits the ball as hard as she does – “Yeah, it’s really scary!” – and about watching that Nadal documentary. “It’s such an inspiration. I had goosebumps. He said the only thing you can control is your focus and motivation and it’s been in my head ever since. I don’t know if he’s watching, probably not, but thanks! It’s been an inspiration.”
And what of facing Osaka next, in a repeat of their recent French Open blockbuster? “Another aggressive player, very powerful match, and I’m ready to fight and do whatever it takes to get through.”
Sabalenka defeats Ostapenko 6-4, 6-4
Well, well. Gauff promptly falls 0-40 behind. And is broken to love when Liu puts away a smash! That went by in the blink of an eye – but Sabalenka’s service game is more prolonged, but the world No 1 eventually pulls away for 40-30 … and an unreturned serve gets the job done! Impressive from Sabalenka, who puts away a very dangerous opponent. If she keeps this up surely she can go one – or even two – better than her three previous semi-final appearances at Wimbledon. If she’s playing at the top of her game, I think only her nerves – or Elena Rybakina – can beat her.
Ostapenko, with only the spot where she is serving still in the Centre Court sun, foot faults before netting her second serve! It’s the most untimely double fault because it means Sabalenka has her first match point at 30-40. Sabalenka unleashes on the return … but misses! A reprieve for Ostapenko. And Ostapenko grasps it with both hands, bashing her way through the next two points to hold, just as Gauff finally gets the second-set breakthrough against Liu for a 6-3, 5-3 lead. Sabalenka and Gauff will serve for their matches at the same time …
Ostapenko holds. Sabalenka holds. It’s 6-4, 5-3 Sabalenka, with Ostapenko serving to stay in it. Meanwhile Gauff and Liu are still on serve in an attritional second set, with Gauff leading 6-3, 4-3.
Over on court 18, the 2024 champion Barbora Krejcikova, after her second-round win over the French Open champion Mirra Andreeva, is serving for the match at 6-3, 5-2 against her countrywoman Nikola Bartunkova … and three match points come and go before she’s broken! She needed seven MPs against Andreeva, though, so the clever and classy Czech won’t be panicking just yet. A third Czech is also in action right now, with Karolina Muchova, the 10th seed, a set up but a break down at 5-4 in the second against the qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew.
Sabalenka has done a superb job of keeping her emotions in check today – in sharp contrast to her recent French Open quarter-final defeat when she completely lost her composure from a winning position – and she isn’t screaming or shouting at herself here, despite handing back one of the breaks, when Ostapenko puts down the hammer with a backhand return down the line. So Sabalenka’a lead is shortened to 6-4, 4-2.
It could be game over on Centre Court, because Sabalenka has gone into lockdown mode after that blip in the second game of the second set, and she’s broken Ostapenko twice in the past three games for a 6-4, 4-1 lead with the double break.
Hurkacz defeats Paul 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2
The Queen’s runner-up is out, beaten by the Pole who ended Federer’s career at Wimbledon five years ago, when he went on to reach the semi-finals. So this isn’t a total surprise, but after knee surgery last year, this is the first time Hurkacz has reached the last 16 at a slam in a couple of years. Hurkacz will play Medvedev’s conqueror Struff next.
Some match reports for your reading pleasure:
Organisers appear to be giving Serena Williams until the very last minute to be fit for her first-round women’s doubles match alongside Venus, because tomorrow’s order of play is out, and they’re the only match listed on the schedule with a court “to be arranged”. Serena’s participation has been in doubt since she suffered a knee injury in her first-round defeat in the singles.
Gauff and Liu have traded breaks at the start of the second set, and it’s catching, because Sabalenka, having broken Ostapenko in the previous game, is head-scratchingly broken to love, in her only real lapse of the match so far! It’s Sabalenka 6-4, 1-1 Ostapenko* and Gauff* 6-3, 2-2 Liu.
I think the thing that struck me most watching that Nadal documentary, was has there ever been a sportsperson so willing to suffer for their success and fight so hard against their body while achieving so much? It’s ridiculous he was able to win 22 slam titles while playing in pain for perhaps 21 of those. But anyway, I’m getting away from matters at hand, because Sabalenka has two break points at 15-40 in the first game of the second set, but Ostapenko shuts her out on both. The world No 1 moves to a third break point after a third deuce, and doesn’t take this one either, but it’s a case of fourth time lucky as Ostapenko surrenders with a double fault and a weak second serve that gets the treatment it deserves. Sabalenka leads 6-4, 1-0 with the break.
Ostapenko is such a boom or bust player, you never quite know what to expect – so the best approach is to stay laser focused, which Sabalenka is, and that’s also what she said she was most proud of in her second-round win over McCartney Kessler, when she saved four set points in the second set before closing out a straight-sets win. Sabalenka revealed afterwards she was inspired by watching the Rafael Nadal documentary, in which he said the only thing you can control is your focus and motivation, and she’s certainly channelling her inner Rafa here.
Thanks Tanya, superb stuff. And it’s a timely moment to come back, as Sabalenka serves out the first set to love, sealed with an ace out wide, having kept hold of that break she secured in the fifth game. Sabalenka shakes her racket repeatedly in celebration, as well she should, given how tricky an opponent Ostapenko is. The world No 1 leads 6-4.
And with that, I’ll hand you back over to Katy as I take a little break.
Coco Gauff is playing fellow American Claire Liu on No. 1 Court. A tickle of a volley takes her to a 5-3 lead over a nervy Liu, who is in shorts, vest and sun visor – very Malibu Barbie, but in white. Gauff crouches and sways in the shadow at the back of the court to receive serve. Liu fights to stay in the set but her forehand misfires and Gauff wins the final point with a gorgeous drop shot to take the first set 6-3.
The shadows are starting to creep over centre court, the umpire’s chair now stretching over the tramlines. Sabalenka is a break up in this big-hitting power ballad, Ostapenko then has a break point on the Sabalenka serve, but can’t make the most of it. Sabalenka holds to lead 4-2 in this first set.
And hello to Gavriella Epstein-Lightman, whose email has landed on the Guardian doormat: “Venus Williams first competed at the Championships as a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old in 1997, losing in the first round. Now, almost thirty years later, it’s remarkable to see her competing in the mixed doubles. Whilst the movement may not be as sharp, her groundstrokes remain as deadly and penetrating as ever, and her volleys have the ease of a seasoned doubles player.”
Yes, I spotted her watching Serena the other day, she looks almost as fresh-faced now. We wait to hear if Serena will be fit for their ladies doubles match on Saturday, but alas Venus and Kevin Krawietz have lost their mixed doubles game to Lloyd Glasspooland and Tereza Mihalikova 6-4, 6-4.
Aryna Sabalenka has hit Centre Court, in a cute dress with a deep v neck and a cut out at the back, teemed with a heavy gold chain and devastating ground strokes. She’s up against Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who crushed the dreams of Brit Harriet Dart in round one, and has gone as far as a semi-final here. Sabalenka has rather laboured through her serve here, but wins the game to make it 1-1 in the first set.
Daniil Medvedev beaten 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 by Jan-Lennard Struff
A surprise over on No. 3 court, where 36 year old Jan-Lennard Struff has dispatched Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to reach the round of 16 for the first time. Always a shame to say farewell to the mad professor but a fabulous result for Struff.
