After Favorable Schedule and Easy Wins, Murray Arrives at a Test

WIMBLEDON, England - A heralded title defense that for four matches has practically been a stroll on the grass is about to become much more interesting and possibly threatening for Andy Murray. Well-rested, on schedule despite recent inclement weather and in fine form, he is looking at a quarterfinal against Grigor Dimitrov, a presumed star on the rise.

How high Dimitrov, 23, is actually ready to fly under what will be intensely partisan conditions against the Scotsman who ended Britain's 77-year men's title drought is impossible to know. But the intrigue makes his Wednesday showdown with Murray the most anticipated match of the tournament to this stage. And from the English perspective, in a country not quite ready for another blow to its wounded sporting ego, perhaps the most dreaded.

Though the fifth-seeded Murray had to work hard to snatch a third-set tiebreaker, he continued to play impressively in a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory over South Africa's Kevin Anderson, the 20th seed.

Dimitrov, the No. 11th seeded Bulgarian and boyfriend of Maria Sharapova, has been on his own grass-court roll. After losing in the first round of the French Open, he has won nine straight matches in England, winning the Wimbledon tuneup at Queen's Club and four more at Wimbledon, including Monday's 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2 takedown of Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

In other men's matches in the top half of the draw that has already established its quarterfinal matchups, No. 1 Novak Djokovic handled 14th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (5); and Marin Cilic of Croatia continued his nice run with a 7-6 (8), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jeremy Chardy of France.

In the schedule-challenged lower half, fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, 12th seeded Kei Nishikori and 19th-seeded Feliciano López won third-round matches. López sent the last American, ninth-seeded John Isner, packing with a 6-7 (8), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), 7-5 victory. Combined with Madison Keys's retirement from her suspended third-round match Monday, Isner's loss meant that there would be no American men or women in Round of 16 singles here for the first time since 1911.

The bottom half of the draw, which includes Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, will play its fourth round Tuesday and have to come back Wednesday without a day's rest for the quarterfinals. Wawrinka, López and Nishikori would have to play three days in a row if they reach the quarters. They will get no sympathy from Murray.

'Sometimes the scheduling works in your favor, sometimes the weather works in your favor,' he said. 'It's worked against me many times and many other players. You just have to deal with it. Someone told me the other day that Navratilova once played 17 matches in the second week, so I think we shouldn't really worry about it.'

He could have plenty to worry about, anyway, in Dimitrov, who beat Murray in a third-set tiebreaker in their last match, played in Mexico. Murray won the previous three meetings. They know each other well, having practiced several times, with Dimitrov, no social wallflower, calling Murray 'a cool dude.'

Dimitrov had his athleticism and skills set compared early in his career to Federer, which he said was 'kind of funny.'

'But, you know, at some point when I started to establish myself as a player on the tour, this thing was starting to get a bit out of hand,' he added. 'Of course, at the time it put a little bit of pressure on my shoulders.'

By Wednesday, Dimitrov will merely be dealing with all of the Britain rooting, or praying, for him to surrender his most inviting Grand Slam breakout opportunity. From two days away, he did not sound all that intimidated.

'It's not a new opponent for me,' he said. 'I know him. There's nothing major that I need to be aware of.'

Pressed by British reporters on his relationship with Murray, Dimitrov was amused, more accustomed to such questions about Sharapova.

'The relationship?' he said, laughing. 'I think we get along pretty good. I mean, what can I say? I have no hard feelings.'

But he added, 'One thing is off the court, other thing is on the court.'

Murray, meanwhile, acknowledged that the draw might not have been as generous to him as the schedule.

'He's a more mature player now,' he said. 'I mean, watching him play, his strokes and stuff, technically he hasn't made many changes to his game. But he's playing higher percentage tennis, making better decisions. That adds up to winning many more matches.'

Hometown fears aside, any match that pits an established champion against a potential future champion creates the potential for a change in dynamic, one thing lacking in recent years with the dominance of the Big Four. Federer's 2001 fourth-round upset of Pete Sampras, going for a fifth straight Wimbledon title, comes to mind.

Murray is not Sampras, but he is not the typical defending champion.

'I'm not going to step back,' Dimitrov said. 'I just want to come out with my big game and play my aggressive tennis.'

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Withdrawal Sets Up a Final 16 With No US Women

WIMBLEDON, England - Madison Keys arrived to her third-round match at Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon with a seven-match winning streak and a small amount of white tape on her right thigh.

'That was just precaution,' Keys said of the tape. 'It was tight. I didn't want it to go.'

But in the middle of the second set against Yaroslava Shvedova, the pain switched to her left leg, perhaps because of compensation.

'I was thinking, you know, 'Try to get through the set, maybe it could finish, have the next day to recover, try to get better,' ' Keys said.

The match was called for darkness before a second-set tiebreaker was to begin, and Keys was helped off the court by a trainer. Even in the limited light, tears shone off her face, borne from a mix of the injury and her uncertainty about what would come next.

'It was definitely mostly pain,' she said. 'But it was also realizing, you know: This hurts really badly; I don't know what's going to happen.'

Two days later, Keys warmed up with heavy taping but decided she could not continue. She pulled out with a left adductor injury just before her match was scheduled to resume Monday morning, giving Shvedova a spot in the fourth round with a 7-6 (7), 6-6 victory.

'I had so much tape on me I could barely walk,' said Keys, who won her first career WTA title on the grass at Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon began. 'It just wasn't happening.'

That was true of the whole American contingent at Wimbledon. Five American women - Keys, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Alison Riske and Lauren Davis - reached the third round, but all of them lost.

No American woman will be in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon for the first time in 101 years, since 1913. That year, only one of the 42 women in the field, Elizabeth Ryan, was an American (there were 40 British women and a German). Ryan, who was born in Anaheim, Calif., but lived most of her life in Britain, lost in the first round to Dora Boothby, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Last year, no American man reached the third round for the first time in 101 years, ending a streak that had lasted since 1912.

This year, John Isner reached the third round, resetting the streak of Americans reaching that moderate milestone back to one. But Isner, the No. 9 seed, lost his postponed third-round match against No. 19 seed Feliciano López on Monday, falling, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), 7-5.

López, a strong server who has excelled on grass, had done well at two Wimbledon warm-up events, reaching the final of the Queen's Club and winning Eastbourne. Isner was disappointed that his match was not played Saturday as planned. He thought he might have had an advantage against a possibly fatigued opponent.

'At the time he needed it a lot more than I did because I didn't need it at all,' Isner said of the delay. 'I was feeling great. On top of that, he's won so many matches on grass already, including this tournament and the previous two tournaments. As far as guys seeded 17 to 32, he's maybe the toughest guy there is.'

Isner, along with the rest of the American contingent, now returns to the American hardcourt circuit. Doctors have told Keys that recuperation should take only two weeks. She said she hoped to continue her breakthrough summer on the hardcourts in Washington a month from now.

But this is the first time since 1911 that no American men or women reached the Round of 16 in singles here.

Isner was indifferent when told of yet another new low point in recent American tennis history.

'I didn't know that,' he said. 'Don't really care, either.'

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Murray, Dimitrov To Face Off In Wimbledon QFs

WIMBLEDON 2014

Wimbledon, Great Britain

by ATP Staff

|

08.06.1914

Andy Murray is into his seventh consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final.

Defending champion Andy Murray advanced to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the seventh year in a row on Monday as he defeated Kevin Anderson in straight sets. The players were escorted back to the locker room for 27 minutes with Murray leading 3-0 in the second set as rain caused the Centre Court roof to close. While Murray was able to return and close out victory, his quarter-final counterparts, Grigor Dimitrov and Leonardo Mayer playing on No. 1 Court, are still waiting out the rain delay, with Dimitrov up 6-4, 6-5 on serve in the second set. The third-seeded Murray is yet to drop a set in four matches at The Championships. The 27-year-old Murray ended Great Britain's 77-year wait for a homegrown male Wimbledon champion last year as he beat Novak Djokovic in the final to lift his second Grand Slam championship trophy. The Dunblane native had been runner-up to Roger Federer in 2012 and has a 41-7 event record.

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Teenager Nick Kyrgios has armoury to ruin Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon

Nick Kyrgios of Australia is the first wild card to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon since 2009. Photograph: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

When Nick Kyrgios, the 19-year-old Aussie gunslinger playing in his first Wimbledon, was asked whether he could really beat Rafael Nadal the reply was as short as most of his points. 'Sure,' he said, with the matter-of-factness of someone being asked if they would like sugar in their coffee.

The world No144, whose career earnings total just £138,000, believes it too - even though on Tuesday he is facing a 14-time grand slam winner and a five-times Wimbledon finalist who has amassed over £40m in prize money. He is not alone. Kyrgios's fellow Australian Peter McNamara, who won two Wimbledon doubles titles and knows about potential having coached Grigor Dimitrov, is no doubt of his talent. 'Nick's got something special,' he says. 'And he's come of age here.'

But can he really triumph in this intriguing clash of the generations? 'If he plays with no fear, as he has done, he has a chance,' says McNamara. 'Nadal's been pretty slow so far. He was nearly two sets down against Lukas Rosol and Kyrgios plays a little bit like Rosol. Bang, boom-boom-boom.'

Kyrgios is the first wild card to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon since Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2009. Last year he improved his ranking from 828 to 186 and when he was asked about his ambitions last week he said he wanted to break the top 100 by the end of 2014. His weapons do not wear a disguise: he has a big serve, huge forehand and a fearlessness that raged brightly when he saved nine match points in a five-set comeback against the No13 seed, Richard Gasquet, in the second round. But he knows Nadal, the world No1, is on another level entirely.

'Rafa is probably the fittest guy on tour, and one of the strongest, too,' he says. 'He will have no worries. But I thrive on those opportunities to play in front of a big crowd. I love it. I will be interacting a bit with them. It's going to be really exciting.'

Most expect Nadal to be better in the second week, when the dew should have been warmed out of the grass and the bouncier surface will be more pliant to his wristy groundstrokes. But Tennis Australia development manager, Scott Draper, has no doubts Kyrgios will cope with the biggest test on the biggest stage of his life.

'Is Nick going to hit some shots and play a style that will worry Rafa? Absolutely,' he says. 'Nick enjoys the limelight, the big moments and backs himself under pressure. He definitely has the weapons and he genuinely believes he's got the game, then you've got someone who can create havoc.'

And Nadal, too, is a little wary of the unknown. 'Young players are very dangerous as always the young players have something special,' he says. 'They are able to play with no pressure. They are fresh.'

Fresh - and dangerous.

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Czech Women Continue Wimbledon Onslaught

The Top 10 women's tennis players in the world hail from 10 different countries, which is why the surge of Czech players into the second week of Wimbledon is an unexpected curiosity.

For the first time in the Open era, four women from the Czech Republic - and none from the United States, Great Britain, Spain and Italy, among many others - reached the round of 16, all of them in the same half of the draw.

On Monday, as the field began to narrow to the quarterfinals, three Czechs marched on. At least one will reach the semifinals, because two Czechs play in one quarterfinal.

Another player in the final 16, Zarina Diyas, was born in Kazakhstan but moved to Prague when she was 5 and was raised there.

Given that there are no grass courts in the Czech Republic, and most players spend winters playing on indoor hard courts and summers on clay, this is a bit of a Wimbledon anomaly.

'Good, right?' Barbora Zahlavova Strycova said late last week of the Czech Republic's success, which was not matched by the men, none of whom reached the fourth round. 'We are great. It seems like we feel good on grass. I'm very happy. We're such a small country. We have really good players.'

Czech women certainly have a strong history in tennis. The lineage is anchored by Martina Navratilova, who was born in Prague and later became an American citizen, winning 18 Grand Slam singles titles along the way, including nine at Wimbledon. Other world No. 1s, such as Hana Mandlikova and Jana Novotna, the 1998 Wimbledon winner, followed.

The current wave is deeper, but not extraordinarily so. Only No. 6 Petra Kvitova is ranked in the Top 23, and only five Czech women are in the Top 100.

Kvitova, the best of the Czechs and the 2011 Wimbledon winner, beat unseeded Shuai Peng on Monday, 6-3, 6-2, in a match delayed by midday rain for a couple of hours, like all others not played under the retractable roof of Centre Court.

Kvitova will meet Zahlavova Strycova in the quarterfinals. Zahlavova Strycova continued her surprising burst through the tournament, following her third-round victory over Li Na with a fourth-round one over Caroline Wozniacki, the former No. 1.

At the same time, No. 23 Lucie Safarova beat her countrywoman Tereza Smitkova in two sets to make the quarterfinals, too. The 6-0, 6-2 match took just 48 minutes.

The Czech players have uncommonly close ties. Kvitova's warmup partner is Smitkova, and she trains at the same facility as Safarova and No. 6 Tomas Berdych in Prostejov. Success has proved contagious. Czech women won the Fed Cup in 2011 and 2012; Czech men won the 2013 Davis Cup, though none of them advanced past the third round here.

More than any of the women, Zahlavova Strycova, 28, has become an unlikely emergent star . A longtime Top 100 player, she has with one career tournament victory, at Quebec City in 2011. She arrived at Wimbledon in familiar fashion -- unseeded and ranked 43rd. The only sign that her game was on the upswing was a runner-up finish on grass at Birmingham, her best result of the season.

Her victory over Li was her first over a Top 13 player. Beating Wozniacki, currently ranked 16th, on a stage such as Wimbledon might now be as her second-best win.

Wozniacki had another disappointing Wimbledon, where she has never reached the quarterfinals. She was dogged last week by questions about her May breakup with the golfer Rory McIlroy, but smiled through most of them. Days after the split was made public, he won a tournament, and she lost in the first round of the French Open, leading to suggestions that the fracture had affected her game.

Late last week, Wozniacki politely but pointedly said that she was not a victim, hoping to end the lingering fallout. Her absence from the rest of Wimbledon will stop the questions, if only temporarily.

In February 2013, Zahlavova Strycova was handed a six-month suspension by the International Tennis Federation for violating anti-doping rules. Tests the previous fall found a positive result for the banned stimulant and weight-loss drug sibutramine, banned in the United States because of worries about side effects that can include heart attack and stroke.

Zahlavova Strycova denied any intent, but was required to return prize money and lost ranking points. The suspension was back-dated to the time of the test, and Zahlavova Strycova considered retiring. In the end, she said she found time to round out her interests, allowing her to appreciate tennis.

'I'm not happy what happened, but I took off and I didn't focus on tennis at all,' she said. 'I didn't follow any results. I also lived a normal life. It was good for me.'

Given what is happening at Wimbledon, it was good for her whole country.

The soft spritz of rain that washed out about six hours of play on Saturday was long gone, but its effect was still evident on Monday's schedule. Remnants of the third round had yet to be completed, a concern to those on both sides of the divide to the fourth round.

For those with third-round matches to complete, it meant the possibility of playing five matches in seven days should a championship run occur. For those already into the fourth round, they had to await the stragglers - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal among them. I t meant an extra day off on Monday, and the possibility of a compressed schedule beyond.

Kei Nishokori, seeded No. 10, finished off Simone Bolelli, and Stan Wawrinka beat Denis Istomin.

Two women's matches, cut short on Saturday, came to quick conclusions. Sabine Lisicki, last year's Wimbledon finalist and a grass-court powerhouse, reached the quarterfinals, as she has her previous four appearances, with a three-set victory over No. 9 Ana Ivanovic. Lisicki's middling results the rest of the season kept her undervalued as a contender, and she arrived as a sneaky No. 19 seed.

Canada's rising star Eugenie Bouchard, seeded 13th, ended the run of France's Alize Cornet with a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory, to claim another quarterfinal slot. Cornet, seeded 25th, had knocked out No. 1 Serena Williams in the third round.

Madison Keys, the last American woman remaining in the tournament, withdrew after warm-ups before resuming her match with Yaroslava Shvedova.

Keys, 19, had sustained a thigh injury midway through the second set late Saturday, bringing her to tears, and Sunday's day off was not enough to heal what was diagnosed as an adductor strain. Keys had lost a first-set tiebreak, and was about to begin a second-set one, when darkness stopped play.

Keys said the injury is not serious, but Sunday was not enough time for it to heal.

'It's definitely not how I want to be leaving Wimbledon, but it happens,' she said. 'You know, you just have to take it in stride, just accept it, just try to get better.'

American women, including Venus and Serena Williams, were 0-5 in the third round.

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Wozniacki On Fourth Round Loss

Associated Press

LONDON -- Madison Keys of the United States has withdrawn from her uncompleted third-round match at Wimbledon because of a left thigh injury, allowing Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan to advance.

The two were scheduled to resume their third-round match in a second-set tiebreaker on Monday.

After Shvedova won the first set 7-6 (7), the two were level at 6-6 in the second set when darkness suspended their match on Saturday.

The 30th-seeded Keys won her first tour title at the Eastbourne grass-court Wimbledon warm-up.

Copyright 2014 by britaandroid.blogspot.com

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For Women, a Bigger Share of the Brightest Stages at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England - Lindsay Davenport has been coming to Wimbledon, the world's most prestigious tennis championship, for more than 20 years, but she had never seen anything quite like the second day of this year's tournament.

Davenport, a champion at Wimbledon in 1999, played the tournament 13 times before retiring in 2009 and had come to expect that women would consistently be given less time on the tournament's biggest stages. Each day of the first week of Wimbledon, with few exceptions in recent decades, three matches are scheduled for each of the two largest show courts: Centre Court (capacity 14,979, according to the media guide) and No. 1 Court (capacity 11,393). Customarily, two are men's matches and one is a women's match.

The distribution is more equal at the other three Grand Slam events.

'As a female, I was very aware of those kind of things, that there's only two women's matches on Centre and No. 1 Court,' Davenport said. 'If you didn't have a tough opponent, even if you were No. 1 or the defending champion, you most likely weren't going to go on those two courts.'

But Tuesday, the ratio flipped unexpectedly: Two women's matches and one men's match were assigned to each court.

'The second I saw the schedule, I was thinking, What is going on here?' Davenport said.

Figures regarding court placement are not readily available, but according to the archive of daily programs in the Wimbledon library, the favoring of men's matches on the largest courts is a longstanding tradition. In 1968, the first year Wimbledon was open to professionals, the two main courts featured three men's matches and one women's match.

The number of matches scheduled on those courts each day gradually decreased to three from four, and the pattern of two men's matches and one women's match per day through the first four rounds of the tournament held, with few exceptions.

Venus and Serena Williams, both five-time singles and five-time doubles champions of the event, have sporadically been sent to the tertiary Court 2 (capacity 4,063). Roger Federer, the seven-time men's champion, has not played outside the top two courts since winning his first Wimbledon title in 2003; his chief rival, the two-time champion Rafael Nadal, has not done so since 2004.

'We'll play anywhere - as long as it's equality,' Serena Williams said. 'That's what it's all about. It's not about treating someone better because they're a different sex. We've all been working hard since we were 3 or 4, and we all deserve equality.'

Although women still played one match per day on Centre Court during the first week of this year's tournament, they were twice given two of the three spots on No. 1 Court. By the end of the tournament's first week, 16 women's matches had been scheduled for the two main courts, an increase from the usual 12. Four additional women's matches were moved onto the courts when scheduled play finished early - an unusually high number - achieving a total of 20, which equaled the number of scheduled men's matches.

The schedule for Monday's fourth-round matches put two men's matches and one women's match on Centre Court and one men's match and three women's matches on No. 1 Court; one of the women's matches is the completion of a match postponed on Saturday, and another is a doubles match featuring the Williamses. ( Venus Williams lost on Friday in the singles draw, and Serena was eliminated on Saturday.)

Stacey Allaster, chief executive of the WTA, said she first raised court placement with Wimbledon in 2002, but she said that she believed the effort reached a turning point the Saturday before this year's tournament. That was when a meeting was held between Wimbledon executives and the WTA Player Council, which includes the longtime member Venus Williams.

'I had my own sit-down, but there's nothing like the message coming direct from a Wimbledon champion - a five-time Wimbledon champion,' Allaster said.

Williams praised what she called the progress the tournament had made in player amenities and prize money before asking for a more even distribution of men's and women's matches.

'The tone of the conversation wasn't really, 'Oh, you didn't do this and that,' ' Williams said. 'It was: 'Thank you for all the things you've done, and you've been so wonderful about listening to the players - both men and women - that we'd like to voice our concern on this arena.' '

She added: 'I think the situation has to be win-win for everyone. No one likes to be pushed around, whether it's a group or a person. I think if everyone can find a way that makes sense, then it's a win-win. No one should feel like they've lost at the end of the day. I like to make friends.'

Allaster called Williams's tact 'brilliant.'

'The message was received,' Allaster said. 'There didn't need to be much more dialogue, because now we can look at Wimbledon's actions. They were listening.'

Williams, who reached the third round this year before losing to Petra Kvitova in three sets, said that her focus had been more on on-court successes.

'I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to win,' she said. 'It's twofold - being on the council and being a player. Obviously, when I saw the schedule on Tuesday, it was extremely unexpected. It was a breath of fresh air. It was a really proud moment, being a player at Wimbledon.'

Williams had also been instrumental in representing women's tennis players in discussions leading to Wimbledon's decision to pay equal prize money to male and female competitors. The pay gap was closed completely in 2007, 34 years after the United States Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to pay men and women equally.

Richard Lewis, the chief executive of the All England Club, said that the increase in women's matches on the show courts this year did not necessarily reflect 'a dramatic change in policy' but rather was an adaptation to a women's draw in which several top players were clustered on the same half.

'It's not like we've ever had a two-and-one formula that we just follow as a straitjacket,' he said. 'There's lots of other things we take into consideration.'

Regardless, Williams said she believed the founders of the WTA Tour, the nine women who accepted $1 contracts to turn professional in 1973, led by Billie Jean King, would be proud of the continued progress.

'Equal prize money was huge, and then this also, I'm sure, means a lot to them as well,' Williams said. 'Because it's just a progression to where we all should be - standing on equal ground.'

Williams also suggested that the issues women faced in tennis could reflect those in society as a whole.

'Unfortunately, the world is a place where there's always inequality everywhere; there's always someone looking to dominate someone else,' she said. 'I'm not saying that that's the case in tennis, but in general. So it's not easy, especially when it comes to women, or minorities, in any country. It's going to be a little bit more challenging. Hopefully, at some point it will just turn around, and we'll all just want to be equal. But I think we've got a long way to go before that happens.'

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Serena Williams loses in 3rd round at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England - Alize Cornet sent Serena Williams tumbling out of Wimbledon's third round on Saturday, beating the five-time champion 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on a soggy afternoon.

It was Williams' earliest loss at Wimbledon since she exited in the same round in 2005.

'I cannot believe it that I did it myself,' Cornet said to BBC TV shortly after kissing the grass on Court 1. 'Wow, me!'

Cornet, the 25th seed from France, could barely find her legs when the players returned from a several-hour rain delay locked at 1-1, 40/40.

No. 1 Williams rolled off the next five games.

But the emotive Frenchwoman, her belief growing with every stroke, fired away on returns and groundstokes and mixed in the occasional short ball as an agitated Williams failed to find the form that has earned her 17 Grand Slam titles.

In the next two sets, the 32-year-old American fell behind 5-0 and 5-2, looking tentative and passive and failing to employ the ferocity and power that have marked her career.

She closed to 5-4 in the final set, but an emboldened - and soon-to-be ecstatic - Cornet served out the final game at love.

'I think everyone in general plays the match of their lives against me,' said a sullen Williams afterwards, suggesting that opponents raise their level and swing with nothing to lose 'as if they're on the ATP Tour.'

'It's never easy, you know, being in my shoes,' she added.

Her vaunted serve didn't bail her out, either.

Williams, who hit a Wimbledon record 102 aces on her way to the 2012 crown, fired just three against Cornet while committing seven double faults.

She landed only 66% of her first serves and won just 30% of her second-serve points in the match.

Cornet had already beaten Serena Williams once in 2014 in the semifinals at Dubai. But this was a much bigger stage.

'Well, it's amazing because beating Serena two times in a row, it doesn't happen very often, so I'm glad,' said Cornet.

Alize Cornet celebrates her upset victory.(Photo: Susan Mullane, USA TODAY Sports)

Williams, who won a career-best 11 tournaments last year, including the French Open and U.S Open, has now failed to advance past the fourth round four of her last five majors.

This year, she lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Ana Ivanovic and in the second round of the French Open to Garbine Muguruza.

Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said it was evident Williams was not in the right frame of mind when she trailed early in the second set.

'The fact that there is zero reaction is a very big indicator that she's not there at all,' he said. 'She's pushing the ball, expecting mistakes. She's not going to win like this, I know.'

Mouratoglou, who runs an academy outside Paris and teamed up with Williams when she lost in the first round at Roland Garros two years ago, dismissed talk that her opponents had more self-belief, that her serve needed re-tooling or that last year's heavy schedule had taken a toll.

He said she was not in a good 'space' and he didn't know why.

'Definitely since January she is not there,' he said. 'She's not herself. She's an average player if she doesn't have the mindset that she usually has on the court.'

PHOTOS: BEST OF DAY 6 AT WIMBLEDON

Williams, with three titles at Brisbane, Miami and Rome in 2014, had plenty of reasons to be motivated.

Last year eventual finalist Sabine Lisicki ousted her in the fourth round here. Williams is one major from tying Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who each have 18 Grand Slam titles in singles.

Williams admitted that reeling in Evert and Navratilova was off the radar because she hadn't been close enough in recent months to feel that kind of pressure.

'I don't think it's been that much on my mind,' she said.

Cornet, 24, said she once disliked grass but finally decided to embrace it and improve her forehand, which had been a weakness on the surface.

The Nice native, whose previous best result at a major was reaching the last 16 at the 2009 Australian Open, said she was not intimidated by any player, even Williams, and stuck to the same tactics she had used in Dubai.

'I think maybe she doesn't like so much the way I'm playing,' she said. 'I'm pretty creative on the court, doing some different things.'

While Williams leaves London with plenty of questions and shaken confidence, Cornet hopes to pucker up again if her run continues when she plays No. 13 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada next.

Her first smooch of a tennis court was no hollow peck.

'I think it's very symbolic because it means now I love you grass and I didn't before,' she said.

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Nadal, Federer Remain On Collision Course: Wimbledon Round Of 16 Preview

WIMBLEDON 2014

Wimbledon, Great Britain

by ATP Staff

|

29.06.2014

Roger Federer is seeking a record eighth Wimbledon title.

The Round of 16 picture will be completed on Monday at the Wimbledon Championships, with three third round matches yet to be finished in the bottom half of the draw. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and seven-time champion Roger Federer have already confirmed their places in the fourth round, with eighth-seed Milos Raonic blasting into the second week as well.

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. [WC] Nick Kyrgios (AUS) FedEx ATP Head2Head: First meeting

One of the ATP World Tour's brightest rising stars, Nick Kyrgios, will be thrust into the spotlight when he duels with two-time champion (2008, '10) Rafael Nadal in his first Grand Slam fourth round.

At World No. 144 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Kyrgios is looking to become just the second player ranked outside the Top 100 to upset a World No. 1 at a Grand Slam. Andrei Olhovskiy, ranked 193rd, previously stunned Jim Courier as a qualifier at Wimbledon in 1992. Only seven players ranked lower than Kyrgios have accomplished the feat at the tour level.

In just his second main draw at a major, the Aussie is looking to become the first player to reach the quarter-finals at SW19 on their debut since Florian Mayer in 2004.

Read: Kyrgios 'Overwhelmed With Happiness'

He will face a monumental task against Nadal, who recorded his 700th match win with a first round defeat of Martin Klizan last week. The Spaniard remains on course to take over sole possession of second place on the all-time Grand Slam titles list, with 15.

Nadal is also bidding to become just the second man in the Open Era to win the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double on three occasions, joining Bjorn Borg, who completed the clay-grass Grand Slam double from 1978-'80. Nadal won both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010.

'Young players are very dangerous as they always have something special,' Nadal said of Kyrgios. 'They are able to play with no pressure. They are fresh. He has a great serve. He's an aggressive player.'

[4] Roger Federer (SUI) vs. [23] Tommy Robredo (ESP) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Federer leads 10-1

Federer will be seeking revenge on Robredo after falling in straight sets in their most recent meeting, at the US Open last year. It was the Spaniard's first victory in 11 FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters.

A win for Federer would see the Swiss pass Jimmy Connors for most Grand Slam quarter-finals reached in the Open Era (42). He is in third place on the Open Era list for most match-wins at Wimbledon with a 70-8 FedEx Win-Loss record, and will overtake Boris Becker for second should he reach the semis.

Robredo, meanwhile, advanced to his first Round of 16 at Wimbledon in his 13th trip to the All England Club. Their encounter will complete a set of Grand Slam meetings, having faced each other at the 2007 and 2011 Australian Open, 2007 Roland Garros and the 2009 and 2013 US Open. As an added incentive for defeating the 17-time Grand Slam champion, Robredo is bidding for his 100th Grand Slam match win.

Rain-Delayed Third Round Matches To Be Completed No. 8 seed Milos Raonic awaits the victor of the in-progress five-set battle between fellow young gun Kei Nishikori and veteran Italian Simone Bolelli, who are locked at 3-3 in the decider. Bolelli, a lucky loser, is a combined 22-6 in 2014 with a trio of ATP Challenger Tour titles, in his comeback from a seven-month wrist injury absence. He is bidding for his first Grand Slam fourth round at age 28. Nishikori, who forced the deciding set after snatching the fourth set tie-break, is eyeing his first Round of 16 berth at Wimbledon in his sixth appearance.

The lone third round matches that have yet to commence pit fifth-seed Stan Wawrinka against Denis Istomin and No. 9 seed John Isner against a red hot Feliciano Lopez. Wawrinka, the reigning Australian Open champion, has never reached a Wimbledon quarter-final, while Istomin is eyeing his first Grand Slam fourth-round berth. Isner, the last remaining American in the draw, finds himself in his first third round at the All England Club. He faces Lopez, who has won 11 of his previous 12 tour-level matches on grass, for the fourth time.

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Serena ousted at Wimbledon; Nadal, Sharapova advance

This is the earliest Wimbledon exit for five-time champ Serena Williams since 2005. (Getty Images) LONDON -- Five-time champion Serena Williams lost to 25th-seeded Alize Cornet of France 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round of Wimbledon on Saturday.

It's Williams' earliest exit at the All England Club since 2005, when she also was beaten in the third round.

The No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Williams owns 17 Grand Slam titles, but she now has departed before the quarterfinals at four of the past five major tournaments. That includes a fourth-round loss at the Australian Open in January, and a second-round loss at the French Open in May.

But of Williams' five total losses in all tournaments this season, two have come against Cornet, who also beat the American at the Dubai Championships in February.

Rafael Nadal once again lost the first set of his match but came back to win the next three, beating Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the fourth round.

Maria Sharapova followed Nadal's victory under the closed roof on Centre Court by winning the last 11 games of a 6-3, 6-0 victory over American Alison Riske.

They were the only two matches completed by 6 p.m. Play everywhere else was suspended due to the inclement weather and there were more than 30 matches, mostly in doubles and juniors, postponed.

Organizers resumed some of the suspended matches with weather improving in the early evening, including top-seeded Williams against Cornet. They were at 1-1, 40-40 when play resumed.

The postponements included two singles matches involving Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka and American John Isner and doubles matches involving top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan and Serena and Venus Williams.

One match guaranteed of being completed was the final one scheduled under the roof at Centre Court -- seven-time champion Roger Federer played Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.

Rafael Nadal, who also dropped the first sets in the first two rounds, overcomes Mikhail Kukushkin. (USATSI) Nadal turned his match around by winning eight consecutive games and 14 of 15.When it ended, Nadal threw his wristbands to the crowd, giving one of them to a group of vocal supporters dressed in yellow and sporting Spanish flags.

He then looked up to the Royal Box and gave a thumb's up to David Beckham, who was standing and applauding.

It marks the first time Nadal is into the second week at the All England Club since he was the runner-up in 2011. He lost in the first round last year and the second round in 2012.

In his first-round match this year, Nadal lost the opening set to Martin Klizan of Slovakia. It was the same start in the second round against Lukas Rosol, the Czech player who beat him in five sets here in 2012.

In fact, Nadal lost the first set of the French Open final to Novak Djokovic, and then won the title in four sets. So that's four Grand Slam matches in a row in which he's lost the first set and rallied to win.

''I finished all the matches playing better than (how) I started, and that's always very positive,'' Nadal said.

''At the beginning he was playing really long, no mistakes, very aggressive,'' Nadal added. ''And I had a few mistakes ... I made a few unforced errors with that second serve. In the tiebreak, I didn't serve my best.''

Kukushkin said he felt confident after winning the first set.

''I thought I could at least win one more,'' he said. ''But the way Rafa started to play in the second set, until the end of the match, I just had no chances. He just started to play at another level.''

So did Sharapova. She was broken in the first game of the match, fell behind 3-1 then shut out Riske the rest of the way, clinching the match with a stinging forehand passing shot.

Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion and who won the French Open earlier this month, lost in the second round at Wimbledon last year.

''I felt better as the match went on,'' Sharapova said. ''Alison's a great grass-court player. She's had some of her best results on this surface, so I knew that it was going to be a challenge today. I had a little bit of a slow start.

''I'm just happy to be in the second week after last year's result. I wasn't satisfied. I was looking forward to coming back very soon and here I am, giving myself another chance.''

Sunday is a scheduled off-day at Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam tournament that takes a break midway through.

Nadal is looking forward to getting back on court after the break.

''Playing well, good speed, good tactics on court every day,'' he said. ''Fighting for every ball and trying to find the right solutions during the game. ''

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Wimbledon: Cornet d. S. Williams

Alize Cornet was given the ultimate task for a player of her type, one who has frequently had trouble controlling her nerves and has built a résumé as former prodigy who has not completely realized her abundant talent.

Cornet was asked to serve out a match against Serena Williams on the biggest stage of them all, Wimbledon. And she was asked to do it after she had failed in the same assignment just two games earlier in the third set. At stake: Just her second trip to the fourth round at a major.

Cornet answered that call with verve and poise, playing a rock-solid game to usher Williams out of Wimbledon in the third round-the earliest the five-time champion has been eliminated there since 2005. Cornet won this wildly fluctuating, interruption marred match in a little over two hours, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The result must seem surreal to anyone who abandoned watching or following the score after Williams, returning to No. 1 Court after a four-plus hour rain delay with a break in hand and even at deuce in the third game, rolled through the remainder of the first set. She won the first five games after the resumption, but in a blink of an eye she had given up the same number to leave Cornet up 5-0 in the second set.

Williams would avoid the shut-out by snapping to life and ripping off the next three games, but Cornet then put to rest the notion that Serena had merely fallen asleep at the switch for the bulk of the second set. She quickly built a 40-15 lead when she served at 5-3, then closed out the set by following a serve to the net and putting away an on-the-run forehand volley. It was a shot, and a statement, that raised eyebrows.

Up to this point, the developing theme had been that Williams was struggling to get her usual dividend from her serve. She was also hard-pressed to hit her expected number of winners, partly because her opponent was getting to many of her most penetrating rally shots, but also because Cornet herself was playing for keeps. Who would have guessed that at the end of this clash, Cornet and Williams would have struck the same number of aces, and so few of them-just three apiece?

If that ace stat seems unusual, so does the one tracking winners. Williams had 29 for the match, just one more than Cornet.

Still, Williams watchers probably assumed that hitting a speed bump in the second would only inspire her to gather her game and lay down the hammer in the third. And when Williams struggled through the nearly 12-minute first game of the set to emerge with a hold-fending off four break points in the process-her most ardent fans must have braced for the punishment phase of Cornet's trial.

But Cornet held the next game with relative ease, and it was at that point that it began to sink in that Williams really was in trouble. Williams challenged in that game, but in a position to take it to deuce she made one of her numerous (on this day) service-return errors. Williams generated so little racquet-head speed on that one that for a moment it looked like it had been hit by Agnieszka Radwanska. Two more holds followed to make it 2-2.

It was Williams who blinked first in the third set. Once again, Cornet was pressing, and she parlayed three winners into a 15-40 lead against Serena's serve. She was unable to capitalize on either those break points thanks to a terrible, anxiety-born forehand error and a Williams backhand winner.

But Cornet kept plugging away in that game. She reached advantage, but made a backhand service-return error, bringing her break-point conversion rate in the set to 0-7. She persisted, though, and booked her eighth break point a moment later. She finally cashed in on that one with an unreturned servicee return from the forehand.

Cornet managed a hold and then broke Williams again, as the commentariat soberly realized that the Frenchwoman, seeded No. 25 and still just 24, was not about to fold. She pressed Williams again in the seventh game, hitting two winners that helped bring the score to 15-40. Williams helped Cornet out then, surrendering the break point at the first chance with a backhand error.

Cornet served for the match at 5-2, but Williams made a push and created a break. Serena then held for 4-5, and the challenge to Cornet was obvious: It's your match-if you have the guts to take it. Cornet did just that.

Willliams made a whopper of a backhand error to lose the first point. Then, after a Cornet forehand ticked the let cord during a rally, Williams drove an inside-out forehand wide. The next point produced another rally but, increasingly desperate, Williams unwisely attacked the net behind a down-the-middle approach. Cornet hit her pass right at Williams, who was unable to handle the pace and dumped the backhand volley into the net.

That made it match point. Cornet then played a forehand drop shot-fitting, for she had used the shot to great effect all day. Williams reached it, but was unable to dump back over the net. Just like that, it was over, and Cornet had every right to declare her mission accomplished-with flair.

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Wimbledon: Nadal d. Kukushkin

Photo by Anita Aguilar

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND-Through much the first set of Rafael Nadal's 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win over Mikhail Kukushkin on Saturday, coach and commentator Brad Gilbert kept telling us that everything would be different once Nadal broke serve. His early nerves would vanish, his defensive play would turn offensive, and his opponent, who was lasering the corners, who begin to misfire. And that's exactly how it went. Nadal's third-round win came in two eras: BB and AB. There was before the break, and after.

Before the break, Kukushkin, like Nadal's previous two opponents, Martin Klizan and Lukas Rosol, was slapping flat winners with the freedom of a man with nothing to lose and a couple of hours to enjoy himself on Centre Court. He pushed Nadal back, ran him side to side, and took advantage of some weak Nadal serving to sneak through 7-5 in the tiebreaker. At 1-0 in the second set, Kukushkin, just as Klizan had, threatened to break serve. At 15-30, though, Nadal finally found the right length on his forehand for a down-the-line winner and went on to hold. No one knew it then, but the first era of this match was at an end.

Nadal has talked this week about having to 'restart' on grass, to adjust his game to it again after virtually three years away. He has done that with his serve, which has become more of a weapon this week than it has been all year-Rafa had nine aces today, and seemed to have a little extra bend on his slice up the middle (though perhaps that was for the benefit of David Beckham, who was watching from the Royal Box today).

In this match, you could also see Nadal adjusting his return game, moving forward and taking the ball earlier, a move that finally paid off at 2-1 in the second. In the middle of the game, from the ad side, Rafa stepped in and drove the ball for his first winning backhand return. The shot seemed to free Nadal up. He did the same thing a few minutes later at break point. The After Break era had begun.

Jailbreak might be the better term-Nadal ran wild from then on. He would lose just two more games, and he had break points in both of them. Behind by seven in the winner count to Kukushkin after the first set, he finished up by nine, with 41. He played with freedom and aggression, but also accuracy; Rafa finished with just 12 errors. That count is probably skewed low by Wimbledon's scorers, but Nadal himself said afterward that he was happy to 'play with very few mistakes.' For good measure, he added a clip to his personal highlight reel at 4-1 in the third set, when he backpedaled furiously into the alley on his forehand side and launched a surface-to-surface inside-out forehand missile for a winner.

Best, though, was Rafa's backhand. After that return winner early in the second, he began to lean in and flatten it out with depth and aggression. This may have been the best he's hit his backhand this season, and it reminded me of the way he cracked it during his first championship run here in 2008. No wonder Kuku spent the fourth set with a thousand-year stare on his face-he'd been pummeled from all sides.

The worrying news for Nadal, who plays the winner between two up-and-comers, Nick Kyrgios and Jiri Vesely, is that he's lost the first set in each of his three matches here (as well as two of his last three at the French Open). How many times can he force himself to come up with the goods under pressure? The better news is that in each of the last two matches, Rafa has worked himself back into something close to his top form-if nothing else, he's getting his grass-court practice in. The best news for Nadal may be that in each of the six previous times he's reached the second week at Wimbledon, he's gone either to make the final or win the tournament. He's in the second week again.

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Wimbledon: Sharapova d. Riske

There was just one question left in the wake of Maria Sharapova 's 6-3, 6-0, third-round win over Alison Riske in the Wimbledon thunderdome today. Where did the No. 5 seed find the time to belt 25 winners in a match that lasted barely over an hour (1:08, to be exact)?

The only difference between the two most commanding performances of this fortnight-this one and Andy Murray's demolition of Roberto Bautista Agut yesterday-is that it took Sharapova a few minutes to dial in her big game. And once she had it properly calibrated, there was nothing Riske could do.

From 1-3 down, Sharapova's racquet poured forth an astonishing, variegated stream of winners: Sharply angled passing shots, unreturned serves, down-the-line placements, stinging service returns, and pinpoint groundstrokes that had Riske, one of the better scramblers in the game today, huffing and puffing, unable to keep up. Even when Riske did manage to stay in a rally, it inevitably ended badly for her.

It was difficult to foresee how this could happen at the outset of the match. A forehand unforced error by Sharapova on break point gave Riske a 1-0 lead, after which the American expertly pulled the Russian off the court with her own serve a few times and rallied with precision to hold for 2-0. By then, one of Riske's strategies seemed clear: Instead of trying to move Sharapova around the court, she would hit down the middle.

That's a good idea, at least in theory. For one thing, it can make an opponent uncomfortable because of its sheer novelty. For another, it drastically reduces the angles available to an opponent. And few players are as dangerous as Sharapova when the court is opened up, and she has the full array of angles to exploit.

While I don't think sticking with this strategy would have worked today in any event, it will certainly be worth trying again, perhaps on a day when Sharapova isn't quite as sharp.

Riske built her lead to 3-1 with some eye-opening serve-and-volley tennis, another element of her game plan that seemed apt. Of course, the withering nature of Sharapova's passing shots, especially when she loads up on the forehand side, introduce a certain element of Riske (sorry!) into the equation. But if you have the volleying skills and a reasonable powerful serve, the time-honored serve-and-volley strategy is always worth trying.

Sharapova began to get her game in gear in the next game, an easy hold. She then produced a break in the next game, which featured five deuces. It's hard to say what might have happened had Riske managed to cling onto that game. But following the next deuce, Riske hit a double fault and it was 3-all, and the beginning of the end.

Quickly building a 40-0 lead in the next game, Sharapova lost two points to give Riske a glimmer of hope. But she doused that light with another forehand winner to take a 4-3 lead. The next game was critical, for Sharapova was coming on strong and Riske needed to stop her in her tracks. She couldn't manage it, thanks mostly to Sharapova's skill.

From 30-all, Sharapova took one of those previously effective wide serves and blasted it back for a return winner. She then forced Riske into a long rally that ended with a backhand error, leaving Sharapova serving for the set. Sharapova closed it out 6-3, and then broke immediately to start the second set. The rout was on, and little more need be said about it.

The score will make it look like another routine crushing, but in truth, Riske showed a lot of promise and had no reason to feel ashamed of how badly she was beaten by a woman enjoying one of the finest days of her career.

For complete Wimbledon coverage, including updated draws and reports from Steve Tignor, head to our tournament page.

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Alize Cornet stuns Serena Williams

Associated Press

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LONDON -- Maria Sharapova won the last 11 games to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over 44th-ranked Alison Riske of the United States.

Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, got broken in the first game and fell behind 3-1 before overwhelming her opponent.

Saturday's match was played with the roof closed on Centre Court, while rain held up play on the outside courts.

Sharapova, who won the French Open earlier this month, lost in the second round at Wimbledon last year.

Copyright 2014 by britaandroid.blogspot.com

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A World Cup Juggling Act in the Wimbledon Schedule

LONDON - The way the Wimbledon referee Andrew Jarrett remembered it, his conversation with David Nalbandian was quick, funny and to the point.

Eight years ago, Nalbandian, who was passionate about representing Argentina in the Davis Cup, did not want to miss his country's tantalizing World Cup soccer quarterfinal against host Germany.

With the kickoff set for 4 p.m. London time, Nalbandian sought an early start for his third-round match at Wimbledon against Fernando Verdasco.

'David came, he wanted to watch Argentina play, and I think the chat went something along the lines of: 'We'll do the best we can. It might be that you don't play on as big of a court as you might have done,' ' Jarrett said.

'I forgot the exact line, but his reply was something like, 'I don't mind if you play me on the practice courts.' '

Wimbledon obliged, giving Nalbandian a noon slot.

While Nalbandian, then ranked No. 3, was not relegated to the practice courts, he played on the now-defunct Court 13. He was not there for long, however, losing in straight sets.

Nalbandian dropped the first two sets in tiebreakers, and the theory went that he did not much care to stick around in the third, which he lost by 6-2.

The English part of his news conference was speedy, too, with Nalbandian offering answers of two words or fewer - or a nod - to about half the questions. Argentina, adding to Nalbandian's woes that day, lost on penalties to Germany.

His request, and interest in the World Cup, was not unusual. Tennis is awash with soccer fans, whether they are experts obsessing about every game in Brazil, novices or those somewhere in the middle.

In appropriate symmetry, the World Cup showcases 32 teams, and the men's top 100 in tennis featured 32 nationalities when the soccer extravaganza began.

Rafael Nadal fervently roots for Real Madrid and his nation, Spain.

Nadal even flew to South Africa in 2010 to watch Spain beat the Netherlands in the final. He was not in the stands for Spain's games in the group stage this year, which probably suited Nadal because the Spaniards, the defending champions, were eliminated in the first round.

Nadal's public relations manager, Benito Perez Barbadillo, said that Nadal never requested a particular start time so he could watch his team play but that he 'clearly prefers that his matches don't interfere' with Spain's games.

'Everyone really follows the games,' the German coach Jan de Witt said as he surveyed the scene in the players' lounge at the Aegon Championships in London, a Wimbledon tuneup. 'There's a lot of talk about where to watch them - and a lot of trash talk.'

English tennis players are often an easy target given that their country has an unenviable record of exiting major soccer tournaments on penalties, de Witt said. Like Spain, England exited this World Cup after group play.

Mike Bryan, an American, does not claim to be a soccer aficionado; he is a casual follower. His attempt to immerse himself in the sport, he said, was not helped when, in the lone game he attended, Arsenal and Stoke City played to a goalless Premier League draw in 2012.

'But I think soccer is the secondary passion for most of these players,' Bryan said. 'When they're out there, they're playing soccer in the service boxes.'

'The American guys, we don't have the foot skills like some of these guys like Rafa, Novak and Andy,' he added, referring to Nadal, Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Andy Murray of Britain. 'They're all really talented.'

When Murray, the defending Wimbledon champion, was asked at the French Open to name an all-star lineup of soccer players composed of tennis professionals, Djokovic (left back), Nadal (midfield) and Murray himself (striker) made the cut.

There was no place for Roger Federer of Switzerland, who nonetheless hoped to catch all of his country's games on television.

Federer, seeking an eighth Wimbledon title, habitually takes in World Cup games at the home he rents near the tennis grounds. He tweeted about the Swiss team during its recent 3-0 victory over Honduras.

'In years past, it's been a great way to get the team together and have some fun watching different games,' Federer's agent, Tony Godsick, said.

Brazil played Croatia in the opening game of the World Cup, on June 12. That week, the Brazilian André Sá and the Croatian Marin Cilic were doubles partners at the Aegon Championships.

'Even when I take a shower, my shampoo has the Brazilian flag on it,' said a smiling Sá, who was born in one of the World Cup's host cities, Belo Horizonte.

Sá, 37, is accustomed to watching World Cups from England, having played at Wimbledon in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. In 2002, he faced the Englishman Tim Henman in the quarterfinals two weeks after Brazil eliminated England, 2-1, in the World Cup quarterfinals.

'So I wake up the morning of the match, I go to have breakfast at a coffee shop, open up the paper, and on the front page it was Henman with the haircut of Ronaldo, saying, 'Revenge,' ' Sá said, referring to the headline and a doctored photograph of Henman.

'I was like, 'What?' I said, 'I'm keeping this paper for sure.' The match was unbelievable. People were getting into it so much because of what happened at the World Cup.'

On that occasion, England did get its revenge.

At Wimbledon, Victoria Azarenka, who is from Belarus, professed her fondness for Lionel Messi and Argentina, painting her nails in the country's colors, sky blue and white. Germany's Andrea Petkovic rooted for the United States because she was a fan of its German manager, Jurgen Klinsmann.

Wimbledon did not add televisions in the players' lounge, and it is not providing World Cup updates to spectators inside the grounds.

As for requests like Nalbandian's, Jarrett said he would do his best. With knockout-round matches during the rest of Wimbledon starting at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time, his task is made easier because play at Wimbledon usually ends before 9.

'When we do the order of play each day, it's like doing a Rubik's Cube,' Jarrett said. 'We have lots of different factors that come into why a match is positioned on a certain court at a certain time.

'We have a lot of players from a lot of countries. Is everyone going to be able to see every match they want to? No. But we're human beings, and we'll try to help if we can.'

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Andy Murray ready for Wimbledon hell after walk in the park

Andy Murray played for a total of 302 minutes in his three straight sets wins during Wimbledon's opening week. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Andy Murray could hardly have ordered up an easier first week in defence of his Wimbledon title, dropping 19 games in nine sets and three matches. The challenge for him over the next seven days is to ignore these excellent, very quick wins and prepare for four matches that could take him to tennis hell.

'Sometimes I've had tough first weeks and gone on to do well and sometimes I've had easy first weeks and had equally good tournaments,' he says. 'I don't think it makes a huge difference.

'Last year I was coming to the tournament having not played at the French Open and missed quite a bit of tennis. Because of the grass it was important for me to get a good start in the tournament because maybe physically I wasn't in my best shape. This year I don't see that being a problem.

'I don't really look back and compare,' he added, talking of not only the first five days here but his gilded progression when he made history 12 months ago. 'There are different opponents, and some matches are just going to be longer, based on game styles of your opponent.

'But it's a new year, a completely different tournament and I take each match as it goes. It's been one of the best starts I have had here, that's for sure.'

In fact, the best. The 302 minutes Murray has spent on court in his first three workouts at this tournament represent his quickest advance to the second week in his nine visits. He took two hours and three minutes to beat David Goffin, 84 minutes against Blaz Rola and 95 accounting for Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday. Nobody around him in this campaign has advanced more swiftly.

While Murray dismisses the notion that past performances have any relevance to his current form and prospects, he concedes that conserving energy in the first week does help.

'The only way that could become a problem is if you are not mentally prepared for the matches to get more challenging,' he says. 'If you just think everything will be the same as it was in the first week and you are playing well enough, then you will have a problem because you are complacent.

'I'm aware next week against Kevin [Anderson] things will be a lot tougher. There are going to be harder moments in the second week.'

As the champion rests this weekend in preparation for his fourth-round match against the towering power server Anderson on Monday, he will take some comfort from the fact his workload has been lighter than that of the most dangerous players on his side of the draw, Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov.

If, as expected, Murray beats Anderson - who has battled through 556 minutes and 12 sets nursing a back strain and a troublesome knee that flared against Fabio Fognini on Friday - he is most likely to face Dimitrov, the game's acclaimed rising star, in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Beyond that, in all probability, lies the monster that is Djokovic, whom he crushed in three sets to win the title and who has swung between the imperious and the flickeringly vulnerable in 10 sets.

Dimitrov, meanwhile, was having a relatively untroubled time until Friday when he ran into the awkward Alexandr Dolgopolov, who dragged him through a five-setter, ramping up his court time to 379 minutes for the first week.

He is in a great frame of mind, however, coming off his title win at Queen's, his third on a different surface this year.

As for Djokovic, like Anderson he has a minor injury worry: the left shoulder he banged on the turf towards the end of his otherwise straightforward win over Gilles Simon on Friday. The tournament favourite and world No2 began the week in an 88-minute blitz but had to labour through a four-setter against Radek Stepanek before his win over Simon, for a total of 418 minutes of court time.

It is likely, also, that Djokovic will have a more demanding workout against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Monday than Murray will against Anderson, whose main weapons are his bazooka serve and strong ground strokes from deep, but who does not exactly move his 6ft 8in frame around the court like a gazelle.

Murray, one of the game's most astute analysts, has computed all these numbers but he also has the professional's suspicions of favourable intelligence. He knows what he has achieved here since his debut in 2005 and agrees Wimbledon has been the place where he has enjoyed the most success: 40 wins, seven defeats, one championship, two finals, four semi-finals (the same as Tim Henman) and, finally, the adoration of the public.

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Maria Sharapova beats Alison Riske to keep alive her Wimbledon dream

Maria Sharapova on her way to a straight sets victory over Alison Riske in the third round at Wimbledon. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

If someone had told Maria Sharapova when she won the title here in 2004 that 10 years on she would be chasing a French Open-Wimbledon double, she probably would have laughed in their faces. But after marching into the fourth round on Saturday with another authoritative performance, the Russian looks like a woman on a mission.

Her 6-3, 6-0 win over the American Alison Riske sent her into the last 16 for the loss of just seven games, her best start to Wimbledon in 12 attempts. There will be tougher tasks ahead but Sharapova is doing what she does best, focusing on herself and getting the job done, even if she is far too seasoned to get ahead of herself.

'I'm just happy to be in the second week,' she said, having slipped out of the tournament in the second round last year. 'After last year's result, I wasn't satisfied and I was looking forward to coming back. So I am very excited to be through.'

You have to go back to 2002 to find the last time a woman completed the French Open-Wimbledon double, when Serena Williams followed up her first Roland Garros crown with her first victory at Wimbledon. But the manner of her three wins so far suggests that Sharapova believes she can match the American's achievement and extend her grand slam tally to six.

Things didn't look that great when she dropped her serve in the first game on Saturday, in a match played entirely indoors after the roof was closed following morning rain which continued well into the afternoon. Riske, the world No 44, is a player who loves to take the ball early and her flat hitting caught Sharapova on the back foot as she extended her lead to 3-1.

At one stage last year, Riske had the bizarre record of all 11 of her career wins coming in the same tournament, on the grass in Birmingham, while she was winless in 13 matches elsewhere. She has climbed the rankings in the past 12 months, though, and is something of a grass-court expert, serving smartly, moving well and denying Sharapova time to crack her ground strokes.

But from 1-3, Sharapova cut out her mistakes and after breaking back in a long sixth game to level, she broke again two games later and served out the set. Riske had missed her chance and with her tail up, the Russian, seeded fifth this year, reeled off another six games to make it 11 in a row and claim a convincing victory, all in front of a royal box full of sports stars including David Beckham.

'I felt better as the match went on,' Sharapova said. 'Alison's a great grass-court player. She's had some of her best results on this surface so I knew it was going to be a tough challenge. I had a bit of a slow start but I am happy I am through.'

Switching from clay to grass is the first challenge in moving from Paris to London but Sharapova said there was also a mental effort required, not least in getting back down to earth after the high of a grand slam triumph.

'On a grand slam stage, when you're playing seven matches within those two weeks, you're always kind of rolling with each round,' she said. 'You're going to the next one. Once you get to another [grand slam], one of the toughest things is you start from scratch, you start from the first match. Mentally that's always a bit more difficult because you achieve some great success, then you get on the train, come here, and right away the mentality switches, you've got to start from the first round on. You don't get any free points or any byes.

'You know the physical aspects of the surface, they're much tougher than they were many years ago. That transition has always been quite tough for me. Every year I try to maybe find a better formula towards my body and what will get me enough rest and enough practice and matches and all that.'

Sharapova's first week has been almost perfect; now she takes on the winner of Saturday night's match between Germany's Angelique Kerber and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, a semi-finalist here last year. 'I'm quite happy with the way I've gone about things so far. You never know what to expect. Each match poses different challenges.

'But I'm happy I've gone further than last year, erasing those memories and trying to form new ones.'

Should Sharapova go on to win the title, and she will fancy her chances after saving her energy in week one, she might be tempted to vault into the stands and celebrate with friends and family, a la Pat Cash, Goran Ivanisevic and, last year, Andy Murray. A gate has been installed to aid access to the players' box, which some feel has ruined a great tradition of clambering over the heads of fans. Sharapova, typically, does not care.

'I heard you can open the gate,' she said, to laughter. 'I'll worry about it if it happens. That will be a great problem to have.'

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Wimbledon 2014: Day 7 Schedule, Matchups, Predictions for London Bracket

Serena Williams is out as things come to a head in London at the 2014 Wimbledon, but other stars and a fresh wave of young talent will make her and other fallen favorites such as Li Na and David Ferrer afterthoughts on Day 7.

Monday's action is ripe with elite talent set to partake in Round 4, which features a hobbled Novak Djokovic, a surging Maria Sharapova and plenty of sleeper contenders for good measure.

The slate even has room for some matches from Round 3 thanks to time-of-day postponements from Saturday, as Live Tennis notes:

Feliciano Lopez v John Isner & Stan Wawrinka v Denis Istomin have been cancelled for today - will be played on Monday.

- Live Tennis (@livetennis) June 28, 2014

So strap in, as things are about to get taken up a notch by the world's best with a spot in the quarterfinals up for grabs.

Day 7 Viewing Info

SI.com

Day 7 Schedule Novak Djokovic vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

With names like Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, among others, still in the running, it may seem the odds are stacked against Djokovic after he fell and sustained a shoulder issue in his most recent match.

Djokovic hit the turf hard in his third-round match with Gilles Simon, recovered through a 10-mintue medical pause and proceeding to destroy his opposition, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. After the fact, he sounded relieved to emerge relatively healthy:

'It was a scary fall and for a minute or two I thought my shoulder might have been dislocated,' he said, via Mick Cleary of The Telegraph. 'In that split second it was not a pleasant feeling. It would have been the worst way to go out. But there is no damage. It will not affect my preparation.'

Sang Tan/Associated Press

But the issue took place in the third set, so it is hard to know if the previously dominant Djokovic that disposed of Andrey Golubev (6-0, 6-1, 6-4) and (6-4 6-3 6-7 7-6) will remain to form.

This is especially the case against a more than game Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who suffered through two five-set affairs before getting to form and easily dispatching of Jimmy Wang, 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.

It's a bad time for a potentially hobbled Djokovic to encounter the booming forehands of Tsonga. That said, Djokovic holds a 12-5 head-to-head advantage, with the French star owning just one victory over him since 2011. It was a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 victory for Djokovic the last time they met, at Roland Garros this year.

Djokovic may not be at his best, and he has had some strange concentration lapses at time, but he'll be able to pull away as long as the shoulder does not inhibit him too much.

Prediction: Djokovic def. Tsonga, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 Angelique Kerber vs. Maria Sharapova

Ben Curtis/Associated Press

Maria Sharapova knows a thing or two about failing in London. It has been a decade since she emerged the winner of the bracket and just 12 months since she left with her head down after a second-round defeat.

So no, Sharapova doesn't need to look at Serena Williams' third-round loss to Alize Cornet for a lesson on being complacent, but she should look at it as inspiration considering her path to the finals just got a whole lot easier.

Instead of a bout with Williams in the quarterfinals, she'll dance with one of Cornet or Eugenie Bouchard. But first things first-Angelique Kerber is no slouch. The No. 9 seed is behind in the head-to-head department against the Russian (4-1), but minus a few lapses, has looked relatively strong with wins over Urszula Radwanska (6-2, 6-4), Heather Watson (6-2, 5-7, 6-1) and Kirsten Flipkens (3-6, 6-3, 6-2).

But Sharapova's recent form has been nothing short of elite. Victories over Samantha Murray (6-1, 6-0) and Timea Bacsinszky (6-2, 6-1) embody this, and winning 11 games in a row after a quiet start to upend Alison Riske 6-3, 6-0 puts an exclamation point on her tournament thus far.

Journalist Nick McCarvel provides the final highlight to Sharapova's jarring performance so far:

Insane that Sharapova has dropped just SEVEN games in three matches. Will face either Kerber or Flipkens next #Wimbledon

- Nick McCarvel (@NickMcCarvel) June 28, 2014

End goal in hand with the likes of Li and Williams out of the running and a stellar form that reaches as far back as a triumph at the French Open, and it's hard to see Sharapova faltering against an opponent that has had plenty of hiccups to this point herself.

Prediction: Sharapova def. Kerber, 6-4, 6-3

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Nick Kyrgios hopes to blow a few fanatical minds at Wimbledon

Nick Kyrgios will meet Rafael Nadal in the last 16 if he can beat Jiri Vesely in the third round at Wimbledon. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

As the players wound down their knock-up on Saturday, a dozen Australians - and one Austrian - in the crowd stood up, linked arms and belted out a tuneless, albeit heartfelt, rendition of Advance Australia Fair. Everyone on Court 17 at Wimbledon patiently waited for them to finish, at which point 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios, the object of their affections, shook his head good-naturedly and mumbled a word that sounded like: 'Ridiculous.'

If you have recently attended a sports event featuring Australia - or, say, the running of the bulls in Pamplona or Munich's Oktoberfest - you have probably already met the Fanatics. Created in 1997 as a travelling fan club for Lleyton Hewitt, it is now a 'sport and party tour company' with a membership of 50,000, known for sitting in a block wearing a uniform of yellow shirt, green cap and Oakley sunnies. Collectively, they are a group that makes those Channel 4 Foster's idents look like fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

Australian fans have not had a lot to cheer at Wimbledon since the primes of Pats Cash and Rafter, and Hewitt himself. The emergence of Kyrgios, a former junior world No1, has therefore become a matter of significant national interest. For his third-round match against Jiri Vesely, a 20-year-old Czech, on Saturday, the Fanatics joined the Wimbledon queue on Friday afternoon at 5pm and dashed through the gates to secure ringside seats.

Under sky the colour of congealed bacon fat, Kyrgios made a sleepy start against Vesely, despite the rousing national anthem. He lost his first service game and scarcely laid a racket on Vesely's left-handed bombs before the rain sent them scurrying with the first-set score at 4-2 in the Czech's favour. It was an ominous beginning: Vesely, 6ft 6in and chiselled, has the dead-eyed stare of the clones in Nike's animated World Cup adverts. He was also a junior world champion and accounted for Gaël Monfils earlier in the tournament.

In fairness, it is not just Australians who are becoming excited about Kyrgios. After he won the ATP Challenger event in Nottingham earlier this month, Andy Murray called him 'the next big Aussie star'. Roger Federer flew him out to Switzerland to practise before this year's French Open. On Thursday, when he beat Richard Gasquet, the No13 seed, over five, classic sets - Kyrgios saved nine match points, the most ever in a grand-slam match - in the second round, the Frenchman noted that his opponent was a future top-five player and major winner.

Kyrgios, whose father is Greek and mother is Malaysian, was unfazed by the compliment. 'My goal is to become the No1 player in the world,' he said on Thursday. His game backs up the talk, with a 130mph serve and impatient, violent ground strokes. He certainly looks the part, too: arriving on court wearing pink Beats by Dre headphones, a diamond stud in one ear and showily bouncing the ball between his legs before his ball toss, like the basketball player he might have otherwise been.

The Fanatics certainly played their part in the Gasquet match, where Kyrgios came back from two sets down. Led by Danny the Austrian - 'an honorary Australian' who is so enamoured of Hewitt that he has a tattoo of Rusty's trademark exhortation 'C'mon!' - they had a repertoire of chants to inspire their man during changeovers. These included: 'Hey Nicky, you're so fine/You're so fine you blow my mind, hey Nicky ...' to the tune of Toni Basil's Mickey.

'He loves it; it hypes him up,' said Amy, one of the Fanatics. 'He was singing along with us and laughing.'

It definitely helps me,' Kyrgios agreed after the Gasquet match. 'Knowing they are going to tough it out with me really gets me going. I just enjoy having a big crowd, trying to entertain them a bit. I think you just got to refuse to play bad out there for the crowd. You got to find your best tennis sometimes.'

More reserved, but equally passionate, are the Japanese fans who fill the stands for the matches of the men's No10 seed, Kei Nishikori. There are no chants or matching outfits, but at the end of his matches, there is a scrum for autographs and selfies the like of which you will not see anywhere else at Wimbledon. Nishikori, who has been called Japan's Justin Bieber, is the best tennis player his country has ever produced. As the solitary hope of a nation - with the pressure and media scrutiny that goes with it - he is probably one of the few athletes who know what Murray endures.

If the 24-year-old Nishikori, who was due on court on Saturday for his third-round match against Italy's Simone Bolelli, is shouldering the hopes of 127 million people, he rarely seems flustered by the attention. 'Nishikori's not very typical of Japanese people: he is open-minded and relaxed,' says Kaoru Takeda of Tennis Magazine Japan. 'In Britain, I think you know tennis a little better and you understand that it is not always possible to win. In Japan, it is just: 'Win, win, win!'

'But Nishikori is different. When he plays, he enjoys it. Winning, losing - maybe it is the second matter for him.'

In one sense, Nishikori has already exceeded expectations. As his career took off, he targeted Project 45, with the goal to drop his ranking below that number. That became Project 10, and now his ambition is to win a grand slam title.

At 5ft 10in, he is one of the smallest, slightest players at the top of the men's game, but he makes up for it with dazzling footwork and tactical acuity.

Against the 6ft 8in Frenchman Kenny de Schepper in the first round, Nishikori was bombarded with vicious serves, like an England batsman on a tour to the West Indies in the 1980s. But he took the blows and came through in straight sets.

'You know sushi?' Takeda asks. 'It is about being precise, and that's how Kei plays tennis. He is small, and not very powerful, so he has to be very smart.'

Both Kyrgios and Nishikori will need their support if they are to make deep progress through the bottom half of the draw at Wimbledon. If Nishikori beats Bolelli, he is likely to face Milos Raonic and then Rafael Nadal ... unless Kyrgios defeats Vesely and pulls off the shock of the tournament to this point by beating the Spaniard in the last 16.

One thing's for sure: if Kyrgios does make it, the Fanatics will be there front and centre.

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Wimbledon rain decision threatens Stan Wawrinka's title hopes

Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland has had his ambition to win Wimbledon severely impaired by a scheduling decision. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

Wimbledon was on Saturday night facing criticism over a scheduling decision which may have ruined the chances of Stanislas Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, of winning the title. After rain interrupted play for the first five hours, officials cancelled the third-round matches between Wawrinka and Denis Istomin and Feliciano López and John Isner at 5.12pm, leaving them the unlikely task of winning five best-of-five-sets matches in seven days to win the title.

After the rain cleared, all but one of the other outstanding third-round matches were able to completed, leaving Wawrinka the highest-profile player to be affected and leaving his coach, Magnus Norman, furious.

'Rain today. Got cancelled. No play Sunday because [of] tradition. Now the bracket with Stan has to play three days best of five if want to go through,' he said on Twitter.

Tournament organisers moved a number of matches on to outside courts but two doubles matches were played on courts that could have been used for Wawrinka against Istomin and Isner against López. Having cancelled the two matches, however, they could not bring them back and since Wimbledon is the only one of the four grand slam events that does not play on the middle Sunday, the four players will have to return .

Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were all unaffected and will play their fourth-round matches on Monday, as scheduled, with the winners then playing again on Wednesday. But Wawrinka's chances of a first Wimbledon crown look dead in the water, a problem Federer acknowledged.

'I guess Stan's section and Isner's section, they have to play three straight days now,' said Federer, who escaped a delay of his own when his next opponent, Tommy Robredo, finished off his third-round match well after 9pm. 'There could be 15 sets right there, long sets. You don't know what's going to happen. It's a bit of the unknown. I mean, these guys are all fit enough to handle it, but it can have an impact, no doubt.

'I don't consider myself lucky or anything like that,' he added. 'But it was definitely good to play today, to finish today, and to stay in a normal sort of schedule now. You can't choose always. It is what it is and you have to adapt to it.'

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Nadal, Sharapova but rain delays much of Wimbledon

Serena Williams of the United States walks off court as the rain causes a delay in play during her Ladies' Singles third round match against Alize Cornet of France on day six of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon on June 28, 2014 in London, England. (Steve Bardens / Getty Images / )

Rain halted play on most Wimbledon courts after only about 15 minutes of tennis.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal is playing No. 63 Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan under the retractable roof of Centre Court, followed by 2004 champion Maria Sharapova and seven-time winner Roger Federer.

The forecast is for heavy, slow-moving showers in the afternoon with some sunshine in the evening, according to the Met Office.

Top-seeded woman and five-time winner Serena Williams was tied one game all with France's Alize Cornet, who beat the top-seeded American this year, when light rain halted action.

Soccer players David Beckham and Sir Bobby Charlton and India's record setting cricketer Sachin Tendulkar are among the guests in the Royal Box today along with British Olympic cyclists Sir Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton.

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At Wimbledon, Ana Konjuh Spun Her Tale of Faith

WIMBLEDON, England - Ana Konjuh has a tattoo on her left wrist that reads, 'Fate.' Perhaps it was fate that drew her to her sister's tennis practices, where she first fell in love with the sport at 5. Perhaps fate again played a role in driving her from her quiet hometown, Dubrovnik, Croatia, to Zagreb at 10, leading her to her mentor, the former French Open champion Iva Majoli.

'I got it when I won the Australian Open juniors last year,' she said of the tattoo. 'It means a lot to me. I believe in the power of fate. It helps me because, sometimes, when it's hard in a match, you have to have faith in yourself that you can do it.'

Now 16, Konjuh became the youngest player to reach the third round of Wimbledon since Jelena Dokic in 1999. On Friday, she lost to Caroline Wozniacki, 6-3, 6-0.

'It's not easy to be on the opposite side of the court from such a big name,' she said. 'You go in against Caroline knowing that she's so consistent and you have to do so much to win a point. It was frustrating, but it's a great experience. I had my chances early in the first set, but I didn't go for it, while she took everything she could.'

Konjuh was not yet born when Serena Williams turned professional in 1995, but Konjuh's physical presence and booming serve belie her youth. The only indication of her age came when she admitted to struggling with fatigue after winning through three rounds of qualifying before two lengthy three-set matches earlier this week.

Few 16-year-olds are capable of fighting through the intense, all-or-nothing atmosphere of the qualifying tournament at nearby Roehampton, especially on roughly hewed courts, which she jokingly compared to a soccer field.

But Konjuh has always been exceptionally driven to make it as a pro tennis player, ever since she followed her older sister Andrea to her practices as a young child.

'I would be collecting the balls, and my father would shout, 'Move on, you're disturbing the practice,' ' she said. 'I was like, 'You'll see in the next year what I'm going to do.' '

Konjuh proved to be a natural, and soon she had outgrown what Dubrovnik had to offer in the way of practice partners. So at 10, she told her parents that she had no choice but to move to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

'To keep improving, I had to move,' she said. 'I know that myself. When it was raining, I had to take a day off as there were no indoor courts at all in Dubrovnik. Nobody has ever pushed me at all with tennis. I've just always wanted it. My mum was like, 'No, please don't go.' But my father said: 'If you want that, then we have to let you go. It's your life, you have to decide.' '

So Konjuh left to live with Andrea, who is eight years older.

'At first, I missed my parents a lot, but I had to grow up fast that way, which helped me a lot,' Konjuh said. 'Now, it's freedom.'

At 14, she was discovered by Majoli at a national tournament, and she has been imparting her wisdom to help prepare Konjuh for a life in the spotlight.

'We're really close, and she's always there in my box to watch and support me,' Konjuh said. 'She went through it all herself, so she tells me what to expect in these big tournaments.'

Since then, her biggest obstacle has been the International Tennis Federation's age eligibility rule, which restricts the number of tournaments female players can compete in before they reach 18, an attempt to reduce the burnout that affected prodigies like Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati.

'I'm allowed to play just 16 tournaments a year,' she said. 'That's just one or two a month. They don't want 16-year-olds winning Wimbledon anymore, which is fine, but it can be frustrating because you have to be really clever with your scheduling. Otherwise, if you lose first round a lot, you're not getting many matches and you don't feel the ball so well.

'I think it's nearly impossible for a teenager to win a Grand Slam because you don't get to play the top players at an early age, so you don't know what to expect. But if you're good enough, you'll make it in the end.'

Konjuh may eventually appreciate the current limits. She has already had surgery for an elbow problem, which kept her out for four months earlier this year. The career of her sister, once also a promising player, was ended by injuries at 18.

'She had to stop, but now she has a baby and a new life, so she's happy,' Konjuh said. 'We used to practice together in Zagreb, and today, she reminded me, 'Remember when I used to beat you with my left hand?' It feels like a long time ago. I don't think she'll be able to beat me with her left now.'

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Jo

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga celebrates winning his third-round match at Wimbledon against Jimmy Wang. Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga booked his place in the fourth round with a straight sets victory over the qualifier Jimmy Wang - and finally earned himself a breather. Having endured two interrupted matches, each stretched over two days, the No14 seed has been forced to ply his trade every day this week.

His match with the opponent from Taiwan was something of a reunion. Both men are now 29 years old. They last played 15 years ago as 14-year-olds. Thereafter, their paths diverged significantly, with Tsonga established as one of the top players in the world and Wang appearing at Wimbledon for the fifth time as a qualifier.

The chance to reconnect on Friday was relatively brief. Tsonga won 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 in just under two and a half hours. It wasn't quite one-way traffic. Wang, conqueror in the previous round of the No17 seed Mikhail Youzhny, found himself able to rally with Tsonga for long periods on a basis of parity. He struck some blows with sharp groundstrokes, notably a ferociously whipped forehand. But for the most part, Tsonga had the last word. He could end the rallies with cleverer angles and heavier shots.

The real difference, however, established over 15 years was Tsonga's serve. He won double the points of his opponent on his first serve. Add to that the endless succession of serves from Tsonga that Wang reached but just couldn't return. Either they died on Wang's racquet or he returned them long.

Tsonga didn't serve with much variety. Most went down the middle, but with a ferocity Wang could not cope with. The qualifier had three break points early in the second set but saw them disappear in a blizzard of aces and service winners from the Frenchman.

The third set was the most competitive. Tsonga, clearly keen for a victory and a rest, raised his game to secure a break but had to wait until the 11th game to achieve it. Once it came, his service game was a formality.

By the time Tsonga had completed his now traditional victory dance, Wang had quietly disappeared from Court Three. Off to his different life and to ponder what the next 15 years might bring. Tsonga, meanwhile, milked the crowd, handing one fan his cap and gifting his towel to a spectator he earlier struck with a wayward serve. At the top, they are forgiven everything.

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Venus Williams Flashes Old Form at Wimbledon, but It Is Fleeting

WIMBLEDON, England - It has been six years since Venus Williams last won a Grand Slam singles championship, here at Wimbledon. At 34, an age at which nearly every other top tennis player has retired from the sport, she shows up and, more often than not, is dismissed in an early round. Her stately presence remains, but her staying power is a fraction of what it once was.

So it seemed that Williams had little chance against a Wimbledon champion of a more recent vintage. Petra Kvitova, the 2011 champion and the No. 6 seed, is a six-footer in Williams's mold, an imposing figure of strength and reach.

The two traded two sets and unflinching service games deep into the third before Williams blinked. Seeded 30th but playing as if she might just have another championship in her, she was quickly broken by three consecutive mis-hit backhands, the last on match point. Kvitova escaped with a 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-5 victory.

The match was on Centre Court, the familiar site of five Williams triumphs from 2000 to 2008, and the scene of Kvitova's coronation three summers ago. It had all the heft of a pivotal match, the type played in the second week, not the first Friday. The bracket ahead of them was smoothed by other upsets, giving each a chance to dream of a deep run.

Kvitova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, moves on to play unseeded Peng Shuai in the fourth round. The toughest potential opponent in the quarterfinals would be Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 16th, thanks to the upset loss suffered by second-seeded Li Na, to unseeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

For Williams, it will be remembered as an opportunity lost. As the years continue to click past, it is reasonable to imagine the possibility of it being her final performance on Centre Court. She left with a smile and a proud wave.

She has gone six years since her last Wimbledon title, but has divulged no plans to retire from the game. Williams has always been a difficult read, her tennis career perpetually distracted by outside interests, like fashion and interior design. In 2011, she said she received a diagnosis of Sjogren's syndrome, an immune-system disorder, often accompanied by others, that causes dryness of the eyes and mouth and debilitating stretches of fatigue.

'Unfortunately, it's not something you had; it's something you have,' Williams said this week. 'So, on a daily basis, I'm trying to get the best out of myself. That's all I can ask, is to get the best out of me. I never compare myself to anybody else.'

Williams, ranked fifth at the end of 2010, fell to 103rd a year later. While she made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2011, she has not lasted that long in a Grand Slam tournament since. Friday represented her best opportunity.

Early on, she sported a balky but powerful first serve, and a nimble willingness to move forward, pressing the points against the more robotic Kvitova. Williams tried to move Kvitova around the baseline, preventing her from hammering her strong, left-handed ground strokes that, when working effectively, paint the corners like an artist and test the eyesight of the line judges.

Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011 as the eighth seed, beating Maria Sharapova in the final. It was no fluke. Since emerging as an unknown, unseeded semifinalist in 2010, she established a habit of long stays, reaching the quarterfinals, at least, in each of the past four years. She had six victories in 2011, and reached No. 2 on Oct. 31, 2011.

But Kvitova struggled over the past year, finding herself mired in so many three-set matches - a tour-high 37 - that she earned a respelling of her name: P3tra.

'It's funny,' Kvitova said this week. 'I prefer to have a '2' over there, but still.'

She remained in good humor though she has not reached a final this year, and was knocked out of the Australian Open in the first round and the French Open in the third. But she was part of an amorphous group of favorites at Wimbledon.

Williams won the first set by shattering Kvitova's final service. But Kvitova showed the steadier nerves and more reliable serve in a second-set tiebreaker, sending the match to a deciding stanza.

In a groove, each stayed on serve until the 12th game, with Williams serving. She hit a backhand into the net, and the crowd shifted with unease and shouted encouragement. A backhand hit long created match point and, with little drama, the next point ended with another backhand into the net.

Williams gave Kvitova a smile and a handshake, and did the same for the chair umpire. Within a minute, she was gone, off Centre Court, making room for others.

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