Key events
Also going on:
Nor is that our only controversy. It turns out that while Taylor Fritz was coming back from a two-set deficit to beat Alexander Zverev, members of his box were, according to the German, going “over the top” in their support.
Later, Morgan Riddle, Fritz’s girlfriend, posted a video – now deleted – on her Instagram story captioned “when ur man wins 4 the girls” and during the match posted a photo – also now deleted – of the court, with the caption “cheer loud ladies”.
“His team is extremely respectful,” Zverev said. “I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful.
“I think there are some other people that maybe are in the box that are not maybe from the tennis world, that are not maybe from particularly watching every single match.
“They were a bit over the top.
“That’s okay. No issues. No drama. He fought back from two sets to love, so they’re obviously all excited, very pumped up, yeah.
“But no issues with Taylor. I think Taylor is a great guy. I have absolutely no issues with him.”
Fritz, meanwhile, said:
“I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me,” the American said.
“Honestly, I can’t hear. I don’t know. Like, no big deal. He said it’s nothing towards me or anything like that.”
Fritz added: “I don’t really hear my box when I’m playing like that.
“I didn’t hear anyone being, like, extremely loud.
“He’s totally allowed to be annoyed if they were being annoying.
“That’s one of the things I asked him at the net, Who was it? Yeah, I mean, again, it’s not a big thing. It’s all good.”
I was blogging this match, and I must say I didn’t appraise anything untoward. There are phonic similarities between Ruuuuuune and booooo, it’s true, but Ruuuuune seems like a fairly obvious way to support a player called Ruuuuune – especially in England, where chants of Ruuuuuuud and Rooooot have been commonplace for decades now. It may be that those involved were enjoying the opportunity to boo without actually booing – as if they were saying boo-urns – but I’m not sure how anyone could know for sure. I guess if I thought I was being booed, I like to think I’d introspect to wonder why – Novak Djokovic is the greatest player of all time but not everyone vibes with his persona. Other hand, I’m certain he’ll play even better as a consequence, so.
Of course, we’re still processing yesterday’s controversy…
Preamble
The great Mike Costello tells a story that after he did his first boxing commentary he was given some advice by an old pro: always leave yourself somewhere to go. Or in other words, if you get too excited too early, when the really big stuff happens it necessarily sounds like everything else that’s gone before.
Easier said than done: over the last eight days, we’ve seen some fantastic matches, incredible comebacks and ridiculous shocks. But now, as we begin our quarter-finals, we’re free to let it all out because that really big stuff is upon us.
As is often rhapsodised in these pages, women’s tennis is the most unpredictable sport in the world. So just as it would’ve been impossible to predict that Jasmine Paolini would meet Emma Navarro and Lulu Sun play Donna Vekic, so it is impossible to guess which pair might make the semis.
We’ll dig into the hows and whys later on, but for now, we have four players in terrific form who know that these are the days of their lives. They may reach this stage again or they may not, and with that comes pressure, intensity and emotion – for our delectation. So we can expect these matches to be moving, affirming and – given two of them must lose – distressing. What more could we possibly want?
On the men’s side, meanwhile, we begin with a repeat of the Australian Open final, the last thing Daniil Medvedev will want to remember. For two sets he played celestially, only for Jannik Sinner to steal the title – his first major – to fortify an already brilliant game with confidence and legitimacy. It’ll take something special to stop him not just today but between now and Sunday teatime.
To call Carlos Alcaraz merely special, though, is to insult one of the most inspiring talents in all sport. The energy, creativity and aggression he brings to court is unlike anything we’ve seen before, but there’s a sense he’s not quite at his best – unlike Tommy Paul, winner at Queen’s and in the form of his life. Like Taylor Fritz yesterday, if he stays calm and in the moment – easier typed than achieved! – he’s a chance.
Play: 1pm BST on No 1 Court, 1.30pm BST on Centre