Sport360’s tennis expert has divided the opening seven days of the tournament into nine different categories – from the Most Impressive Men’s and Women’s Player of The Championships so far to the Best Point on the lush green courts at the All England Club.
People’s Sunday has certainly teed up the second week in south-west London nicely!
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Into the fourth round for a fourth consecutive major, American Keys has adapted nicely to her position as a new top-10 star. While other players like Simona Halep or Dominika Cibulkova may have had more routine victories en-route to the second week, Keys has had to fight through difficult three-setters in the second and third rounds, against very tricky opponents like Kirsten Flipkens and Alize Cornet. The 21-year-old is on an eight-match winning streak on grass, having captured the title in Birmingham before coming to Wimbledon. She has a monster test against Halep coming-up in the last 16 but her statistics so far suggest she could well progress further on the grass, having fired 109 winners against 83 unforced errors for a solid +26 differential.
MOST IMPRESSIVE ON THE MEN’S SIDE – NICK KYRGIOS
The Aussie has arguably the toughest draw in the tournament this year. He opened against all-court magician Radek Stepanek, then took out grass-court specialist Dustin Brown, before overcoming three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Feliciano Lopez. His path gets even tougher as he now faces a mission improbable against Andy Murray.
BIGGEST FLOPS
DOMINIC THIEM
The Austrian came to Wimbledon with 59 matches under his belt in 2016, including four titles – one on grass – and was definitely one to watch. He had a daunting opener against Florian Mayer, the man who beat him in the Halle semis, but he got past the German only to fall in straight sets to Jiri Vesely. Everyone has been critical of Thiem’s over-packed schedule – he’s practically been playing every week – and his second round loss at Wimbledon could perhaps force him to reassess his build up to the majors.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA
The Czech is leading the tour in aces hit by an enormous margin, has had a perfect build up to Wimbledon winning Nottingham and making the Eastbourne final, and was seeded No15 at the All England Club, yet crashed out of the second round to world No49 Misaki Doi, who is now in a grand slam fourth round for the first time in her career. Meanwhile, Pliskova is yet to reach the second week at a major.
NARROWEST ESCAPE – ANNIKA BECK
The German saved three match points against Heather Watson to beat the Brit 12-10 in third set in round one.
FEEL-GOOD STORY – MARCUS WILLIS
The British world No772’s run from pre-qualification to the second round has been told and re-told by every outlet out there and remains an inspirational tale that reminded us all what tennis and sport can really be about. His sense of humour was a wonderful added bonus and we hope his Wimbledon run pushes him to new heights.
MOMENT OF MADNESS – VIKTOR TROICKI
The Serb’s epic meltdown in his second round on Thursday against Albert Ramos-Vinolas will remain a viral moment circulating the internet for a long time. Troicki lost it completely, yelling and growling at umpire Damiano Torella over what he believed was the wrong call in the final game of the match. “Do you know what you did?” said Troicki. “You’re the worst umpire ever, in the world”. It earned Troicki a code violation for unsportsmanlike behaviour and a $10,000 fine.
BIGGEST CONTROVERSY – SCHEDULING
Between putting five-time champion Venus Williams on Court 18, to leaving two-time champion Petra Kvitova as the very last second round to be played on Saturday, while others already completed their third rounds the day before, Wimbledon officials certainly got many things wrong when it came to scheduling this past week. Granted the constant rain – is it monsoon season in London? – made things very difficult but it’s hardly fair when players like Andy Murray and Roger Federer get to play all three of their opening rounds on the roofed Centre Court while other former champions got exiled to roofless courts.
BIGGEST UPSETS
SAM QUERREY OVER NOVAK DJOKOVIC
It was an upset no one saw coming as Querrey ended Djokovic’s 30-match winning streak at the majors and dashed the Serb’s hopes of completing the Calendar-year Grand Slam.
JANA CEPELOVA OVER GARBINE MUGURUZA
After a tricky opener against Camila Giorgi, Muguruza’s draw theoretically paved the way for her to make the semis or final but the French Open champion was stunned by world No124 Jana Cepelova in the second round.
BEST QUOTES
“The All England Club has to have a culture where they want to have equality, as well. They need to want to pursue that. I would love to see where we don’t have to talk about this any more in the press conference.”
– Venus Williams once again shows that her biggest legacy will always be how she stood up for great values and gender equality.
“I got lucky to play Brits. Credit to myself for maybe winning as much as I did here in previous years that I do get put on either Centre Court or 1.”
– Roger Federer discusses his good fortune of playing all three of his matches on the roofed Centre Court, like only he can.
“He hit one through‑the‑legs dropshot, made me feel horrendous. He was hitting volleys that are spinning back over. There were times out there where you literally don’t want to play. You just want to put the racquet down.”
– Nick Kyrgios describes the challenge of playing Dustin Brown on grass.
BEST POINT – CHRISTINA MCHALE VS SERENA WILLIAMS
Serving at 4-4, 15-30 in the third set, McHale won a 25-shot rally with Williams that earned her a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd. She may have lost that match but that is a moment she said she’ll never forget.
"You'll never see a better point than that!"
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2016
Take a bow, @serenawilliams and Christina McHale...#Wimbledon https://t.co/kUmrQpHiIO
