.png)
6 hours ago
3
Key events
Paolini bursts out of the blocks with as much speed as she shows when charging around the court, racing to 40-0 and taking the game to 15. This match pits two of the best athletes in the women’s game against each other, and while Kostyuk possesses more power than the counterpunching Paolini, it’s Paolini who has the greater variety in her game, and also the greater experience at this stage of grand slams, having reached not only the Wimbledon final but also the French Open final two years ago. Which could be to her advantage, if this comes down to who handles the moment better.
Three more games, three more holds, but it’s been fairly tortuous on serve for Mertens, who has to save three break points to scramble to 2-2, just as Paolini and Kostyuk make their entrance on Centre. I’m really, really looking forward to this one … Paolini, after losing the opening set of her first-round match 6-0, has been a player transformed, finally rediscovering the form that took her to the 2024 final and made her a fan favourite, while Kostyuk, after reaching the French Open semi-finals last month, has carried her form from the clay on to the grass, and has won 20 of her past 21 matches.
On the doubles front, the defending men’s champions, Britain’s Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, are just getting under way in their quarter-final. Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, the top seeds, have already advanced to the last four in the wheelchair event, while there's also been a quarter-final victory for Andy Lapthorne in the quad singles, but defeat for Gregory Slade.
The Yonex racket, the blond, wavy hair, the constant fist pumps and the Aussie “C’MONS” … but no, it’s not the 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt, instead his son Cruz, who’s over on court 12 in the boys’ singles and is leading the second seed, Germany’s Jamie Mackenzie, 6-3, 3-3. His dad is watching in the stands, having won alongside Fabio Fognini in the men’s invitational doubles earlier.
Mertens did claim her win over Rybakina on this court, and the Belgian starts here as she finished off then, moving to 15-30 on Noskova’s serve with the help of a double fault and then 30-40, having chosen to receive first. Noskova beats Mertens for pace on the break point, before crashing down a smash at deuce, but can’t close out the game either. So here’s a second deuce … and from there Noskova holds for 1-0. That was a game full of errors, and both players will hope it can only get better.
Noskova and Mertens are winding their way through the No 1 Court tunnel, and tardily arrive on court just past 1pm. They look a little nervous – or perhaps slightly shy – as they enter; for both this is a first Wimbledon quarter-final, though the 21-year-old Noskova did get this far at the 2024 Australian Open and the 30-year-old Mertens three times before at other slams, but not since 2020. They more than deserve this moment in the Wimbledon sun, though, Mertens having taken out the former champion Elena Rybakina in the third round, and Noskova having impressively beaten the Eastbourne winner Madison Keys in the last 16.
One of Fery’s former coaches at Stanford University, Paul Goldstein, who’s flown to London to watch the quarter-final, is being interviewed on the BBC. “Arthur’s an even better human being than tennis player. He has an exceptional emotional maturity beyond his years,” he says, bravely standing in the 30C+ sun by the practice courts. There again he’s from California, this British heatwave is probably nothing to him.
Today's singles order of play
Centre Court (1.30pm BST)
Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine, 12) v Jasmine Paolini (Italy, 13)
Flavio Cobolli (Italy, 9) v Arthur Fery (GB)
No 1 Court (1pm)
Linda Noskova (Czech Republic, 9) v Elise Mertens (Belgium, 25)
Taylor Fritz (US, 6) v Alexander Zverev (Germany, 2)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the Wimbledon quarter-finals – Part II!
When the 19-strong British contingent suffered a near-wipeout in the singles first round, the idea that Arthur Fery, one of the few survivors, would go on to reach the quarter-finals seemed utterly outlandish. The 23-year-old, who was born in France but grew up less than a mile from the All England Club, had won only one match at Wimbledon before this year, and only two grand slam matches in his whole career.
But his path opened up with the exits of Ben Shelton and Jakub Mensik, and now here the most local of local heroes is, only the sixth British man to reach the last eight in the open era, after four comeback wins from a set down, including against Grigor Dimitrov. And perhaps what’s been most remarkable is the calmness he’s shown throughout; he’s not been fazed by his overnight fame at all. He looks as if he believes he belongs – even when playing the man once tipped as the next Roger Federer, in front of a watching Federer.
Now Fery must face his toughest task to date, against the lightning quick Italian with the flashy forehand and charisma to match, Flavio Cobolli, who’s having the summer of his life after reaching the French Open final last month. Could Fery’s ridiculous run continue? Well, he has beaten Cobolli before, in the first round of this year’s Australian Open …
Fery and Cobolli are second on Centre Court, after Cobolli’s fellow Italian Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up of two years ago who’s thankfully rediscovered her fantastico smile and high-energy hustle, faces the increasingly impressive Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who’s playing for something so much bigger than herself, after yet another Russian attack on her home city of Kyiv overnight.
No 1 Court opens with Linda Noskova, the latest in a long line of classy Czechs to thrive on the grass, against Elise Mertens, the 30-year-old Belgian and reigning women’s doubles champion, who reckons this could be her final chance to go deep in the singles.
And last but not least it’s the two most in-form players in the men’s game, Alexander Zverev v Taylor Fritz. Having finally shed his “best man never to win a slam” tag in Paris, Zverev must now erase another record, having head-scratchingly lost his past seven matches against Fritz.
Play begins at: 1pm BST on No 1, 1.30pm on Centre. Stay tuned!
