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In the coming months and years, tennis fans and historians will recall just one match from the first Saturday at Wimbledon in 2016: Sam Querrey’s four-set, Slam-ending stunner over Novak Djokovic.
When a player who has won four straight majors is beaten by the world No. 41, everything else takes a back seat. Or is left behind entirely.
But contrary to what you may read on Sunday, there were other matches and other happenings around the All England Club on Saturday. A lot of them, in fact: After a week filled with rain delays, every court on the grounds was busy from 11am until sunset. Before those matches are relegated to the dustbin of tennis history forever, here’s a look at a few of the highlights from a day that started under cloud cover, but ended in vintage golden Wimbledon sunlight.
Ekaterina Makarova beat Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6(5)
It used to be that no matter how up and down Kvitova’s season had been, no matter how many head-scratchingly inconsistent performances she had put on, she could always count on Wimbledon to clear her head and settle her game. There have been dozens, if not thousands, of players over the years who have considered this tournament and its grounds their second homes. But I don’t think anyone has ever loved it more than Kvitova. The problem is, Wimbledon hasn’t loved her back lately. The two-time champion made 43 errors on her way to her second straight first-week exit. When it was over, Kvitova looked the way she always looks when she loses here: red faced, glum, and slump-shouldered. She knew she had the draw to go far again. But she didn’t have the game.
Steve Johnson beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2
During the first eight games of the first set, Johnson could do no wrong. The 29th-ranked American was the man in the middle of the court, pounding balls to the corners and running his more talented opponent from side to side. Then, as it so often does at the most inopportune moments, reality set in. Serving for the set at 5-4, Johnson couldn’t put a ball in the court; he made four unforced errors and was broken. A few minutes later he had lost the set.
If this match had been played during any week of the year except this one, a dispirited Johnson would probably have lost the next two sets as well. The American got off to a slow start this season, and if anything, he only slowed down more from there. But last week in Nottingham, Johnson turned it all around by winning his first career title, on grass. What a difference a week can make. Against Dimitrov, Johnson went right back to dictating the rallies, and won the next three sets. On Monday he plays Roger Federer; as Johnson’s doubles partner, Sam Querrey, showed today, stranger things have happened.
Dominika Cibulkova beat Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-3
Speaking of what a difference a week can make, Cibulkova, like Johnson, also won a grass court tune-up last week, in Eastbourne. And like Johnson, it has vaulted her all the way into the second week of Wimbledon. That’s good news for tennis fans, because the more Cibulkova wins, the more we get to see her celebrate winning. The jolt of emotion, the dive straight down the court, the hands to the face, and then, after the handshake, the jazz-hands wave to the crowd: nobody revels in victory as spontaneously and infectiously as Domi.
Milos Raonic beat Jack Sock 7-6(2), 6-4, 7-6(1)
In the moments after Querrey beat Djokovic, speculation immediately began about how the result might affect Djokovic’s biggest rival in his half of the draw, Roger Federer. The consensus was that Federer was doing his happy dance in front of his TV set as we spoke. But what about the highest-seeded player in Djokovic’s quarter, Milos Raonic? What did this mean for him? How would he handle a wide open path to the semi-finals? Judging by the way he played his third round match against Sock, nothing has changed for the Canadian.
As he usually does against Sock, he won a match of many tie-breaks that was both razor-close and seemingly never in doubt. Raonic now moves on to play David Goffin in one of the more intriguing contests, and opportunities, of both players’ careers. The winner will face the winner of Querrey vs. Nicolas Mahut for a spot in the semi-finals. On the one hand, I like Raonic’s chances because of his serve and his size advantage over the Belgian. On the other, I don’t like his chances as much because of his approach. As Goffin may show on Monday, there’s still a lot of work to be done there.
Lleyton Hewitt vs the Dashas
By late afternoon, the side courts were filled with doubles matches, and the sun was slanting across them. There’s no golden hour like the golden hour at Wimbledon. Among these small courts, and the mostly anonymous players in white who hustled around them, you could see a generational torch being passed. On one court, there was Lleyton Hewitt, who had come out of retirement to play doubles with his fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson.
In typically Hewitt-esque style, their first match lasted nearly four hours, with Hewitt holding serve to end it 19-17 in the third set. As Hewitt was taking his bows before a standing-room-only audience, Daria Kasatkina and Daria Gavrilova were walking on to a nearby court. The 19-year-old and 22-year-old Dashas, the sport’s future, picked up right where its past, in the form of the 35-year-old Hewitt, had left off. At eternally green-and-white Wimbledon, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
