Day 9 at The Championships hosts the first four singles quarterfinals.

Six months ago in the men’s championship match of the Australian Open, Jannik Sinner came from two-sets-down to outlast Daniil Medvedev in five, and capture his first Major title.  That defeat was just the latest in a career full of Major heartbreak for Medvedev, who is now 1-5 in Slam finals, with three of those losses coming in five-setters.  On Tuesday, Daniil gets a chance to avenge that loss, though it comes on grass, a surface Medvedev does not prefer.

Day 9’s other gentlemen’s singles quarterfinal sees defending champion Carlos Alcaraz take on Tommy Paul, in an even rivalry that is split at 2-2. 

The ladies’ singles quarterfinals on Tuesday feature four surprising debutantes at this stage of The Championships.  Qualifer Lulu Sun has come out of obscurity to make a hugely impressive run, and now faces three-time Major quarterfinalist Donna Vekic.  The other quarterfinal includes two players who had never won a main draw match at Wimbledon prior to this fortnight: Jasmine Paolini and Emma Navarro.

And weather permitting, there will be plenty of doubles matches around the grounds.  Rain has wreaked havoc on the doubles scheduling thus far, so doubles play on Tuesday hosts anywhere from first round to quarterfinal action.

Throughout the tournament, this preview will analyze the day’s four most prominent matches, while highlighting the other notable matches on the schedule.  Tuesday’s play is scheduled to begin at 11:00am local time.

Lulu Sun (Q) vs. Donna Vekic – 1:00pm on No.1 Court

23-year-old Sun was a huge underdog in the last round against Emma Raducanu, yet walked onto Centre Court and struck 52 winners to win match in style.  It’s been quite a run for Lulu since the beginning of qualifying two weeks ago, as she’s already won seven matches.  And as Ravi Ubha reminded on Twitter, she even saved a match point in the second round of qualifying.  Coming into this event, Sun had never won a match at a Major, as this is only her second appearance at this level.  But Lulu is now 31-13 this season at all levels, with two ITF-level titles.

Vekic obviously has a huge edge in experience, as she’s consistently played in Majors since 2013.  Her prior quarterfinals came at the 2019 US Open, and the 2023 Australian Open.  But she lost both of those quarterfinals in straight sets, so will her experience help her or hurt her?  Often, the longer a player fails to go deep at a Major, the harder that is to overcome.  And this is the first Major quarterfinal where Vekic is the higher-ranked player, which places a lot of pressure on her shoulders.

However, grass may be Donna’s best surface.  Five of her career 13 WTA finals have come on grass, including the week right before this event in Bad Homburg.  And she is coached by a Hall of Famer who knows all about winning on this surface: Pam Shriver, who is a five-time Wimbledon champion in women’s doubles, and a three-time semifinalist in singles.

As impressive as Lulu has been these last few weeks, a letdown following such a monumental, emotional victory is almost inevitable.  And Donna has been striking the ball rather crisply through four rounds, enabling her to pull out a trio of three-setters.  Vekic is the favorite to achieve her first Major semifinal.

Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Daniil Medvedev (5) – 1:30pm on Centre Court

All 11 of their meetings have taken place on hard courts, and their history can be divided into two distinct eras.  Medvedev won the first six, between February of 2020 and March of 2023.  But within the past year, it’s been all Sinner, who has now beaten Medvedev five times in a row.  Jannik claimed three tight matches last fall, before his Australian Open victory in five.  And most recently, Sinner thumped Medvedev in the Miami Open semifinals by a score of 6-1, 6-2. 

This past January in Melbourne, Medvedev caught Sinner off-guard by playing extremely aggressively, as opposed to his usual counter-punching style.  And it worked for the first two sets, before Jannik made some adjustments.  And a depleted Daniil, who had already played three five-setters that fortnight, ran out of gas.  Medvedev tried to repeat that strategy in Miami, but Sinner was expecting it this time, and it failed miserably.

Both players should be fully fresh for this quarterfinal, as they’ve both lost only two sets thus far, and Medvedev only played eight games in his last round, as Grigor Dimitrov retired due to injury.  But this surface certainly favors Sinner, and the World No.1 has been nearly unstoppable this season, with a record of 42-3.  The Italian is a considerable favorite to defeat Daniil for a sixth consecutive time, and reach his second consecutive Wimbledon semifinal.

Carlos Alcaraz (3) vs. Tommy Paul (12) – Second on No.1 Court

All four of their prior meetings took place at Masters 1000 tournaments in North America between August of 2022 and August of 2023.  Paul prevailed in Canada two years in a row, both times winning a third set 6-3.  Alcaraz won in Miami and Cincinnati, in a two-setter and a three-setter.

Alcaraz is certainly the favorite in their rubber match, as he’s on an 11-match winning streak at SW19.  And along with Sinner and Djokovic, he has separated himself from the field as one of the three best men’s singles players in the world.  However, Carlitos has looked vulnerable during this event, both in a five-set win over Frances Tiafoe, and a four-set win over Ugo Humbert.

And Paul is one of the only ATP players who has the all-around skills to rival that of Alcaraz.  When he’s playing his best, which he has in comfortably winning his last two rounds, Tommy doesn’t have an obvious hole in his game.  So while I’m still backing Alcaraz to advance, I’m expecting a prolonged, entertaining battle.

Jasmine Paolini (7) vs. Emma Navarro (19) – Second on Centre Court

They have met three times, all within the past 12 months, and all three matches have gone to Navarro.  The American won in straights in both San Diego and Doha, while most recently winning in three just a few months ago in Miami, via a third-set score of 6-0.

However, Paolini is playing with more confidence now than ever, coming off her thrilling run to the final of Roland Garros, and picking up the first four Wimbledon victories of her career.  Jasmine claimed the first three in straights, while she survived a close call against Madison Keys in the last round, with Keys unable to close out the match due to injury, eventually retiring at 5-5 in the third.

Navarro has also dropped just one set, and appeared completely nonplussed during Centre Court upsets over two Major champions: Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff.  Emma was the more confident, consistent, and composed player in both of those matches, forcing errors and negativity out of both Naomi and Coco.

Based on those performances, as well as her rather dominant history against Paolini, I like Navarro’s chances of achieving her first Major semifinal.

Other Notable Matches on Tuesday:

Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend (4) vs. Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko (9) – This is a quarterfinal match in ladies doubles.  Siniakova is now an eight-time Major champion in women’s doubles, after winning the last Slam alongside Coco Gauff.  Townsend is a two-time Major runner-up, while Kichenok and Ostapenko were runners-up six months ago in Melbourne.

Su-wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens (1) vs. Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula (11) – This is another ladies’ doubles quarterfinal.  Mertens has reached the Wimbledon final in ladies’ doubles three years running, winning it in 2021 alongside Su-wei, who also won this event a year ago with Barbora Strycova.  Gauff and Pegula are one-time Major finalists as a team, while Coco has now reached three Major finals in women’s doubles.

Tuesday’s full Order of Play is here.

A day after two players had to withdraw from their matches due to injury, another unfortunate situation occurred in Elena Rybakina’s fourth round match at Wimbledon. 

The former champion was taking on Anna Kalinskaya in what started as a heavy-hitting encounter before the Russian started to struggle with her right arm which forced her to take medical time out. Play continued for less than 30 minutes before Kalinskaya retired when trailing 3-6, 0-3. Sending Rybakina into the last eight at SW19 for the third year in a row. 

“Definitely not the way I wanted to finish the match. She’s a great player and I know she was suffering with a couple of injuries.” Rybakina said on court.
“If it’s the wrist it’s difficult to continue to play and I just wish her a speedy recovery.”

Both players illustrated their heavy-hitting abilities from the onset with Kalinskaya being the first to draw blood as she broke in the opening game. However, the match momentum changed midway through the opener when Rybakina broke before her opponent was forced to take a medical timeout for treatment on her right forearm/wrist. Prompting concerned looks from her camp, which included boyfriend and men’s No.1 Jannik Sinner. 

When play resumed a couple of games later, Rybakina held her nerve during a tight service game where she failed to convert a quartet of set points before clinching the 6-3 lead. 

Kalinskaya’s problems continued into the second frame after she hit a backhand error followed by a double fault to drop serve once again. It was two games after that she called it quits. 

“My serve helps me a lot and especially when the roof is closed. There is no wind, no conditions and it is perfect for my game. I’m really happy the way I played the last two matches. I really enjoyed my time here.” Rybakina said on her form so far. 

The Kazakh is the only player remaining in the draw who has previously won Wimbledon, as well as the highest ranked.

“I don’t feel pressure,” she stated. “Every opponent is difficult and I know that I must always bring my best and that’s what I try to do form every match. 
“I’m just really enjoying every time I step out on the court and I am happy I am going fine in the draw and hopefully I can go to the end.”

Rybakina has reached 11 quarter-finals during the first seven months of this season. Something that was last achieved by Carla Suarez Navarro in 2015. Excluding today’s match, she has registered 10 wins against top 20 players already in 2024.

The injury-affected match is the third to happen in the past two days. On Sunday Madison Keys retired at 5-5 in the third set against Jasmine Paolini and Grigor Dimitrov had to pull out during the opening set of his clash with Daniil Medvedev. 

Rybakina will next play either Elina Svitolina or Wang Xinyu .

Boris Becker will be part of Sky Sports Italy’s team of commentators starting from the quarterfinals of the men’s singles next week.

interviewed by Federica Cocchi from the Gazzetta dello Sport, he said he was enthusiastic about a specific match  of this first week: 

“The match between Sinner and Berrettini was ‘a real’ match of excellent tennis. I was pleased to see that Matteo is once more competitive at last, but I didn’t have big worries about Jannik: he is confident like few others on the tour right now.”He said. 

“There is the eternal debate about the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ draws to me, as a player and then as a coach, it has always seemed a sterile discussion, it is the player who makes the draw a good draw. Personally, I always preferred to start with tougher opponents, because it prepared me mentally for the second week. I think Sinner’s victory with Berrettini has projected him fully into the tournament.” 

Becker, who won the Wimbledon title three times during the 1980s, goes on to explain the challenges of playing on grass are for players.

“Tennis on grass is a different sport from the tennis which is played on other surfaces,” explains the German, “the movements are much more complicated, I remember that the first few days I used to struggle to organise my footwork. The body has a different, lower position, the points are very fast and you have to be physically prepared and mentally reactive. If you drop your service on clay you still have the chance to regroup, if it happens to you on grass you have much fewer opportunities. Psychologically it is certainly the toughest surface to manage, you have to have a lot of confidence in your game and Sinner has it right now.” 

“I think Sinner is on the right track. He has been playing for months now at a very high level, and his greatest quality is consistency. If we consider the last period he has not yet played a “bad match”, let’s touch wood. On the one hand you can’t always win, but on the other he has always kept a very high level, more than any other player since the beginning of the year. This means that to beat him you have to do even better and that’s why this year he’s only lost a couple of matches.” 

Two of Sinner’s three defeats came at Indian Wells and Roland Garros to his friend, and seemingly lifelong rival, Carlos Alcaraz.

“We all have weaknesses, even Alcaraz! No, seriously, on the court he’s close to perfection, but sometimes he is a bit fluctuating in form while Sinner is more continuously consistent. When you see a match of Jannik today, you know exactly what to expect, with Carlos you don’t. Right now the Italian is mentally rock solid and this is evident on the court.”