On this quarter-finals day in the ladies’ singles, the new holder of the Venus Rosewater Dish still looks fiendishly difficult to predict. Could it be the great five-times former champion? Or the sport’s new shooting star? Or the potential next world No.1?
Then again, could we be looking at a storybook winner who has rebounded improbably from injuries? Or the one with a coach who won here 30 years ago? Or the victor that British tennis has been searching for this past 40 years?
This last option concentrates our minds on Centre Court. Johanna Konta, the first British woman in the last eight since Jo Durie in 1984, has so far met each fresh challenge as tournament favourite with admirable sang froid. She doesn’t get too high, handles the pressure with equanimity and is happy to oblige media interrogators with news of her white chocolate and raspberry muffins.
Yet the obstacles keep getting more formidable as she seeks to emulate Virginia Wade, the 1977 champion. Simona Halep, the Romanian who could end the week as both a first-time Grand Slam winner and the world No.1, awaits her.
When they last met, in Halep’s hometown of Constanta, it proved a difficult day for Konta. With acrimony in the air during that weekend’s Romania-GB Fed Cup tie, home captain Ilie Nastase was thrown out for his infamous behaviour and the local heroine and national idol won 6-1, 6-3.
Halep, who has lost in two other tight contests on hard courts with Konta, was adamant she hadn’t been carried on a wave of emotion that day; and she won’t be today, either. “I don't expect emotional. I expect battle,” she says, all steely-eyed.
You have to pinch yourself that Venus Williams, our quintuple champion and the oldest quarter-finalist here since Martina Navratilova 23 years ago, has been handing out lessons here to youngsters who weren’t even a twinkle in the eye when she made her professional debut.
She has defeated a 21-year-old and two teenagers but still the young hopefuls keep snapping at her heels and, in 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko on Centre Court, Venus recognises a cherubic-faced young champion who has forgotten what it’s like to lose. Eleven straight Grand Slam wins have taken her to the French Open title, her maiden tournament triumph, en route.
“She’s riding on the momentum of that amazing moment,” noted Williams but, at 37, she doesn’t spend time these days bothering to study the kids, although she’ll know that Ostapenko’s 121 winners and 115 unforced errors tell of a young opponent’s fearless spirit.
Winning never gets old at any stage of your career
Venus just concerns herself with winning, because “winning never gets old at any stage of your career,” she replied, when asked how she maintains the extraordinary motivation.
Whatever happens, we’ll be hearing more of the splendid Ostapenko. She advises us that back home in Latvia, she enjoys being known by a name other than Jelena. As one wag put it, she must be the new Garbo, telling everyone: “I want to be Alona…”
Another welcome tonic for the women’s game is America’s CoCo Vandeweghe, whose grandma was Miss America 1952, whose grandad was a New York Knick and mum an Olympic swimmer.
She’s a big character with a big grass court game - no one has hit more winners than her 125 - who’s found a big coach, former champion Pat Cash, to take her to the last eight for the second time in three years, where she will seek to end the remarkable adventures of Magdalena Rybarikova on No.1 Court.
“This is like a fairy tale because last year I had to go for two surgeries (on wrist and knee) and didn’t play for seven months,” smiles the incredulous Slovakian, whose elegant throwback of a game has seen her bullet from No.453 in March to No.87.
The other quarter-final pits the 2015 finalist, Garbiñe Muguruza, who looked perhaps sharper than anyone in ousting current world No.1 Angelique Kerber, against the evergreen Svetlana Kuznetsova, whose all-court game brings her back to the quarters for the first time in a decade.
The Russian, at 32 still one of the most delightful characters on the circuit, believes she has a third Grand Slam in her. And if not, she says, she’ll find solace back home with a 23-kilo American Bully hound.
“He's my ‘emotional support animal’, like a service dog,” she says. “Humans judge you. If you lose, your team go a little bit sad. If you win, happy. My dog is always happy. Always the same!” Good boy, Dulce!
Finally, because of the epic fare last night when Gilles Muller outlasted Rafael Nadal 15-13 in the last set of their unforgettable marathon, Novak Djokovic’s fourth round contest with Adrian Mannarino has been put back to today. An unexpected treat indeed for the Centre Court crowd.
