Older is Better

Nine of the 16 men’s players in the 4th round are over 30 – Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Bautista, Paire, Verdasco, Kukushkin, Querrey, Sousa.  Two youngest are Matteo Berrettini (23) and  Ugo Humbert (21).

Idols are not forever

Berrettini, grew up idolizing Fededer like: “I kind of stopped cheering for him when I first saw my name and his name in the same draw. I realized I had to stop cheering for him.”

Interesting 4th round matches on the women’s side:

Kvitova vs. Konta
Halep vs. Gauff (Halep should get it done without drama)
Bary Vs Riske (Barty should win, but Riske is the grass court specialist)

Interesting 4th round matches on the men’s side:

Federer vs Berrettini (Berrettini has been on a hot run, Federer has struggled a bit)
Querrey vs Sandgren (the fact that they are here in the 4th round is good news for US tennis)
Djokovic Vs Humbert (Humbert won’t be too much trouble for Djokovic but the 21-year old has a promising future.

Is Nishikori Okay?

Kei Nishikori has almost perfected the art of wearing himself out in the first week and then losing badly in the second week.  That has not been the case at this Wimbledon.  The new Mr. Efficient won all his matches in straight sets.

You can’t wait forever

Roger Federer: “Took me two years to find a date for Match of Africa 6, was trying to be as little annoying for Rafa as possible, but at some point of time I had to force it a bit and say, give me a date now“

Big name players on both the men’s and women’s draw were upset in the first the first round at Wimbledon.

Former Champion Venus Williams was beaten in straight sets by 15-year old Coco Gauff.

 “I don’t really know how to feel, this is the first time I’ve cried after a match, after winning,” Gauff told the BBC. World No. 313 added: “I never thought this would happen. I’m living my dream right now, not many people get to say that.” The world No. 313 added: “I never thought this would happen. I’m living my dream right now, not many people get to say that.

Defending US Open and Australian Open champion  and second seed Naomi  Osaka fell to Yulia Putintseva, 7-6 (4), 6-2. This defeat coming after her disappointing French Open left Osaka in tears as she clearly struggles to handles the pressures that come with being a top player.

On the men’s side, Stefanos Tsitsipas‘ big hopes for a Wimbledon title came crashing down as he fell to Thomas Fabbiano  6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3.

 Sixth seed Sascha Zverev had never lost in the first round at Wimbledon before Monday, but he still described his 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 loss to Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely as “typical”.  “One or two things don’t go my way, and everything kind of a little bit falls apart,” Zverev said. “It was kind of a typical Grand Slam match for me.”

“I’m not very high on confidence right now. When I get to the important moments, I had, what, five, six break points in the fourth set alone? Can’t take any of those. I had a 0/40, a 15/40. I’m down one break point myself and he takes it immediately, where I miss an easy volley,” Zverev said, describing match point in the fourth set. “I didn’t lose this match on tennis. It’s just my confidence is below zero right now.”

French Open finalist Dominic Thiem was upset by big serving Sam Querrey. The American won 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-0 in two hours and 29 minutes