Over the past 68 years at The Championships there have been 19 different Centre Court invasions, but only six times has non-paying intruders disrupted play. On the outside courts on Tuesday, a number of flying ants – attracted by the 29°C temperatures and little rain in London in recent weeks – briefly interrupted play at Wimbledon. “I’d never seen that before,” admitted No. 24 seed Sam Querrey, after he beat Nikoloz Basilashvili on Court No. 18. “Luckily it was 30 or 45 minutes. I don't know what it was, but they seemed to kind of go away after a while. If it got much worse, I almost wanted to stop because they were hitting you in the face when you...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the No. 12 seed, recorded his 30th match win (30-9) at The Championships on Wednesday for a place in the third round. It was his 600th tour-level match (413-187). The 32-year-old Frenchman capitalised on lapses in concentration from qualifier Simone Bolelli in a 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 victory over one hour and 55 minutes. Tsonga was largely in control throughout the pair’s fourth meeting, but Bolelli unravelled in a wild game of errors at 5-5 in the second set, culminating at 0/40 in one of his 14 unforced errors off his forehand. Tsonga converted five of his 13 break point opportunities and struck 32 winners. "Today, it was good because I won," said Tsonga, smiling. "That's the most important...
Tenth seed Alexander Zverev opened his Wimbledon campaign on Tuesday with a high-quality win against Evgeny Donskoy, not dropping serve to advance with a 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3 victory. Three other #NextGenATP players joined him in the second round by scoring their first main draw wins at the All England Club, including Russian Andrey Rublev and Americans Frances Tiafoe and Jared Donaldson. A single break of serve in the first and third sets is all Zverev needed to prevail in one hour and 50 minutes. The German finished the day with 31 winners to 20 unforced errors, while Donskoy hit 29 winners to 16 unforced errors. Awaiting Zverev in the next round is an all #NextGenATP matchup with Tiafoe after the...
There was a touching moment in the bowels of the All England Club on Tuesday, seen by only a few. As Yuichi Sugita sat and waited in the corridor for the start of his first press conference as a match winner at a Grand Slam championship, the great champion Roger Federer stopped by to congratulate the Japanese on his recent success. Sugita, who has plied his trade since 2003, was visibly touched. It was a sign of mutual respect between pros, one the winner of an Open Era record 85 matches at The Championships, the other starting to make his mark on the ATP World Tour in 2017. [ALSO LIKE] At 28 years of age, Sugita has been a solid...
Seven-time champion Roger Federer became the Open Era match wins leader at The Championships on Tuesday, earning his 85th match victory at Wimbledon when Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov retired due to a right ankle injury down 6-3, 3-0. Federer had been tied with Jimmy Connors of the U.S. at 84 wins. The 35-year-old Swiss reaches the second round at the All England Club for the 15th consecutive year and looked in form during the 42 minutes of action on Centre Court. Federer hit 10 aces and never faced a break point during the first-round match. He also struck 18 winners and broke Dolgopolov three times to improve to 4-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. With his 10 aces, Federer has...
