NOVAK DJOKOVIC WAS on the brink of his 14th Wimbledon quarter-final on Monday as Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz prepared for a testing battle against Matteo Berrettini.
In early action, Russian teen sensation Mirra Andreeva lost to US 25th seed Madison Keys while defending women’s champion Elena Rybakina progressed when Beatriz Haddad Maia quit in tears.
World number three Daniil Medvedev reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final when Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka retired with an injury.
Seven-time champion Djokovic was two sets up against Hubert Hurkacz when play was halted on Sunday ahead of a locally agreed 11pm curfew.
The pair were set to resume on Monday with the winner to face Andrey Rublev for a place in the semi-finals.
Defending champion Djokovic is chasing a record-equalling eighth title at the All England Club and 24th career Grand Slam crown.
Top seed Alcaraz is seen as one of the few genuine threats to the defending champion, who has not lost a match on Centre Court for 10 years.
The 20-year-old has little experience on grass but won last month’s tournament at Queen’s to set himself up for a tilt at the Wimbledon title.
He comes up against the dangerous Berrettini, who reached the 2021 final, in the last match of the day on Centre Court.
Berrettini, ranked 38th, was forced to miss last year’s Wimbledon after testing positive for Covid and has subsequently struggled with an abdominal injury.
He is desperate to make up for lost time and said he was relishing the opportunity to take on Alcaraz, who won the Queen’s tournament on grass last month.
“In a way it’s what you want, right? You want to play against the best players in the world. Playing against Carlos, it’s always been like a pleasure, a fight, a great fight.”
- Fairytale ends -
The first result of the day was on No. 2 Court, where 16-year-old Andreeva’s fairytale run was brought to an end.
The teenager, who came through qualifying, looked set for a place in the quarter-finals when leading Keys by a set and 4-1 but the American fought back to win 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
The match ended in controversy when Andreeva was handed a penalty point for banging her racquet into the surface.
The sanction took Keys to match point.
In the first match on Centre Court, Rybakina was 3-1 up when Brazilian world number 13 Haddad Maia took a medical timeout to treat a lower back injury.
She limped back onto the court but was reduced to walking pace and was in tears as she saw out the fifth game before retiring.
“It’s never easy to finish a match like this. I hope it is nothing really serious, it is really unlucky for Beatriz,” said Rybakina.
Ons Jabeur set up a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final after booking a quarter-final date with Elena Rybakina.
Jabeur, the sixth seed, was beaten in the showpiece match as Rybakina won her first grand slam title 12 months ago but she will be out for revenge when they meet in the last-eight on Wednesday.
She got there with a demolition of two-time champion Petra Kvitova on Centre Court, dishing out a 6-0 6-3 hammering in little over an hour.
Men’s third seed Daniil Medvedev was 6-4, 6-2 ahead when 37th-ranked Lehecka, who had needed a medical timeout for a right foot injury, retired from their Court One clash.
American Chris Eubanks stunned world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon with the biggest knockout of his career.
The towering 27-year-old twice came from a set down to continue his fine run in south-west London with a thrilling 3-6 7-6 (4) 3-6 6-4 6-4 victory in just over three hours.
His impressive win over two-time grand slam finalist Tsitsipas follows success over British number one Cameron Norrie and sets up a last-eight meeting with third seed Daniil Medvedev.
World number six Holger Rune also progressed to the quarter-finals..
The 20-year-old Dane came back from a set down to defeat Grigor Dimitrov 3-6 7-6 (6) 7-6 (4) 6-3.
And finally, Carlos Alcaraz passed another test to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time.
Having been pushed to four sets by Nicolas Jarry in the third round, the world number one had to fight back from a set down to see off former finalist Matteo Berrettini 3-6 6-3 6-3 6-3.
This was a meeting of the last two Queen’s Club champions and undoubtedly a significant hurdle for Alcaraz, who is learning quickly on the surface and produced a very solid display.
Away from the action on court, All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton said there were no plans to issue a statement after Belarusia’s Victoria Azarenka was booed off court following her defeat by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
As has become common, Svitolina did not shake hands with Azarenka in protest over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Belarus is a key military ally of Moscow.
“Historically in tennis the decision on how a player reacts at the end of a match is entirely a personal decision for them and I think we don’t really want to start mandating what happens,” said Bolton.
– © AFP 2023 Additional reporting by Press Association
