It may be windy and it may be a touch chilly for the time of year but, hey, the rain is holding off and Wimbledon is steaming ahead like one of those magnificent transatlantic liners of old. Steaming into the second week with the finest programme of the fortnight, too.
These days Wimbledon stands alone among the four Grand Slams as the one which does not play on the middle Sunday - something welcomed by the players as well as tournament staff and we media folk - so this means that the fourth rounds of both men’s and women’s singles are due to be completed in their entirety in one day. Weather permitting, of course.
It is time for regrouping and reassessment; who among the seeds is still standing from the wreckage of the opening week and who is likely to be contesting the big one by the weekend? Let’s deal first with the ladies. Here, in the shape of two players, there is one name which stands out: Williams. While the big names around them have toppled, sisters Serena and Venus have needed not so much to stride forward as to just stand tall and play their game.
Both are rather good at that. Six times in the eight years which constitute our new century one Williams or the other has conquered Wimbledon: Venus four times, Serena two. Quite a statistic, isn’t it? No wonder their father, Richard, is already sporting a celebratory cigarillo.
The smoke should still be curling after today, too. Serena, the sixth seed who has not conceded a set so far, takes on a fellow-American, the only American, man or woman, not called Williams who is still standing. She is Bethanie Mattek, a 23-year-old ranked 69 who saw off last year’s runner-up, Marion Bartoli, in the last round. Serena won their only previous match, two years back in Cincinnati, at a cost of four games.
As for Venus, four-time winner and defending champion, progress has been even smoother, if possible, against opposition which did not rate as over-demanding. Now comes another name which has not illuminated the boards of the sport so far, Alisa Kleybanova, one of the horde of young Russians who are threatening to take the women’s tour by storm. Kleybanova is only 18 but already ranked inside the top 50. Venus, with a fifth reunion with the Venus Rosewater Dish in the forefront of her thinking, will have assessed all this and is ready to swing into action.
Jelena Jankovic, the second seed, is the highest-ranked woman still involved, albeit with a sore left leg after her laboured third round win on Centre Court. She did not even know who her next opponent is and when she was told “a Thai girl” she replied, “Tiger who? Tiger Woods?” No, not Tiger, but a 31-year-old Thai called Tamarine Tanasugarn, who has been playing tennis to match her bewitching name. However, if the Jankovic leg holds up, Tamarine could be destined for a Thai sunset.
Now the men’s draw, where the big three has been reduced to the big two with the departure of Novak Djokovic. Roger Federer, five-time champion and owner of the nicest gold-trimmed cardigan in town, booked his place in the last 16 on Friday with his third simple victory, but things may become a touch tougher today when he faces Lleyton Hewitt. The feisty Aussie, winner of the title in 2002, is the only other former champion in the field.
They go back a bit, these two. All the way to 1999 in fact, 21 matches in all. Federer has won 13, Hewitt eight, but none of the last 11. So Federer is favourite for the round dozen but, quite rightly, he points out that Lleyton does not belong on the same planet as the word “quitter”. That said, expect an entertaining battle and a win for Cardigan Man.
There is a frisson in the air over London and a spring in the step of most British who care for sport, since Andy Murray and his new curly hairdo have waltzed into the fourth round without undue fuss, matching his previous best at Wimbledon. Not quite time yet to start mentioning how long since a Brit won this thing (Fred Perry, 1936) but we are entitled to be getting a trifle excited. The level will be racheted up if Andy can surmount his next hurdle, the French number one and eighth seed Richard Gasquet, who was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon 2007.
Gasquet reckons he is playing “not my best tennis, but good tennis for sure” and says he is looking forward to taking on that hairdo on Centre Court. Murray’s attitude? Bring it on.
Looking forward more than one match is foolhardy, but let’s do it anyway and point out that if Murray gets past Gasquet he could meet Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals. First, of course, Rafa must himself see off the Russian, Mikhail Youzhny in today’s extravaganza of choice matches.
