Sabalenka is beatable, as shown by her recent encounter with Diana Shnaider. She fell apart and lost the 3rd set 6-0. It looks like Osaka has recovered her mental toughness; I’d love to see her beat Sabalenka.
And Iga Swiatek, 3rd seed and defending champion, fell to 32nd seed Alexandra Eala. The odds-makers and columnists expected Swiatek to win (several of them said in straight sets) but when fans were polled, they heavily favored Eala.
Apropos of nothing, and not liking to say this, but ever since Roger retired I haven’t been following this sport anywhere near as closely as I used to.
Oh, me too. I’m a longtime fan. I began watching in the mid 1980s when USA put tennis on in the summer while I was on summer vacation.
I find myself…sort of retiring along with Nadal and Federer. And soon enough, Djokovic.
I’m sure I’ll come around again. I know there are new guys out there who are great. I’m not sure if we’ll ever see an era as good as Federer-Nadal-Djokovic. If so, I’ll be back on board.
Osaka beats Sabalenka in straight sets in win over no. 1 women’s player on the world. First time in a long time Sabalenka didn’t reach the quarters at a major, loses a tiebreak for the first time in 1,100 days, as well as the first time she loses a major match in straight sets in 2100 days.
That was an amazing streak.
Good for Osaka, though.
Glad to see Canadian compatriot Alex Auger-Aliassime advance to the quarters with a five set win (6-1 in the fifth tho) over Spaniard Davidovich Fokina, but now has to meet Djokovic next. 
Two players I’ve liked watching (Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic), but missed their match today. Interesting that Coco won the three-setter with two minutes before 11 pm curfew. And well blow me away there was such a thing, the 11 pm curfew - always been completely ignorant of that. Guess I’m used to crazy midnight starts at the US Open. (which I think is abominably bonkers, but players seem to deal with it, I spose)
Saw a good five-setter between Grigor Dmitrov and wildcard (who grew up new All-England Club) Arthur Fery. Good see-saw match, impossible to get a sense of who will come out on top, which probably explains why it went to tiebreak in the fifth.
Off to the quarters. Will be rooting for him.
Buncha matches I checked out yesterday and today.
Osaka/Muchova - after upsetting Sabalenka, Osaka had a harder time against Muchova, who was playing absolutely lights out, defeating Osaka 7-6, 6-4, outserving one of the stronger servers in the game.
Finally gotten the chance to sit down and see a full Jannik Sinner match - see what all the fuss is about. Too bad it was against unseeded German Jan-Leonard Struff (who btw at 36 is the oldest player since the Open Era to reach the quarters in a major). I’ll get a better idea of what JK’s all about against Djokovic in the upcoming semis match. After watching him I understand why JK has a whopping 13,450 ATP tour points (with Alcaraz way back in 2nd with 9,460), however, in spite of his incredibly solid all-around game, I thought he was a sort of boring to watch, almost looking like an apparition out there. Perhaps I’ll get more used to him with repeated viewings.
Djokovic/Aliassime - Infuriated that I ran out of PVR recording space just as they were closing the roof after one set apiece. Turns out I missed the longest quarters match in Wimbledon history (5 hrs, 15 min.), the score ending up 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (10-4). Quite pissed I couldn’t see the whole thing. Djokovic (39 years and 38 days) is the oldest player to reach a men’s singles semi-final at Wimbledon since Ken Rosewall (39 years and 234 days) in 1974. He’ll be playing Sinner, 14 years his junior. I feel this should have been the final.
Gauff/Pegula - First time watching Pegula, seeded fourth, who made a formidable impression in the first set, and I figured she’d take this, but Coco tightened up her game with only 3 double faults and only 15 unforced errors over the following two sets to win. The only seeded player in the semis, she will meet Muchova next. Coco has had struggles on grass. Hope she wins it all.
All the semi finalists on the women’s side are seeded. Gauff #7, Noskova #9, Muchova #10 and Kostyuk #12
Did you mean “only grand slam winner” in the semis?
Thank-you, yes.
Hmm. Wait, didn’t Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic reach quarters of majors at 36 and older?
Isn’t Novak in this year’s semi-finals at age 39?
Again, I think he meant FIRST TIME quarterfinalist.
UGH. Again.
Correct.
Apologies.
Arthur Fery, ranked 112th in the world, beat 9th-seeded Flavio Cobolli in the quarters, winning the third set 6-0.
The Brit is only the second wild-card to make it to a Wimbledon semi-final. Apparently the crowd likes chanting “Arthur! Arthur!”. Too bad I missed this game but hoping my PVR will catch his semi today against Alexander “yaaaay I finally won a grand slam!” Zverev. For many reasons wanting Fery to win this all, but definitely not putting any money on it.
Coco Gauff had been the comeback queen this tourney, having won matches after forfeiting the first set (along with her ten wins this season after being down a set), as well as coming back from being broken in the third set’s tirebreak, only to squander her only match point on a failed drop shot, while Karolina Muchova, playing an excellent tournament so far, prevailed in that tiebreak, despite constantly jabbing her fingers into her stomach to quash a stitch (in the two previous games as well).
First two sets were one-sided and soon predictable, but the third was infintiely more entertaining with held serves throughout and some great slugfest rallies and sending each other to all corners of the court. Muchova had this interesting way of chasing down and retrieving lobs with a sort of overhead stroke that proved quite effective. Coco was attempting too many (often failed) drops.
Any talk of Novak retiring? He’s still making it deep into Grand Slams, but he is more consistently losing to the top few players. I presume on some level, his age is making his game slip a bit.
I would keep going if I were him. He really could win the 25th Grand Slam if things go his way.
But I also wouldn’t be surprised if he left. Roger left, realizing it was never coming back. Nadal, same.
Djoko is a phenomenon, still able to reach the semi final in Wimbledon at age 39, but the clock works against him. I just read from a press conference or interview that he probably doesn’t think that he will ever make it for the 25th Grand Slam, and that it’s not his biggest motivation. He has all my respect playing at that level at his age.
He definitely thinks he can win a 25th. He is not going through all this to prove he can make deep runs in the slams.
I’d say its 50-50 if he wins another. Those are pretty good odds, actually.
He’s a master bullshitter. He’s even bullshitting himself. Trying to take the pressure off. But deep down he believes he can beat anyone on the right day.
So far the men’s final is a display of serving prowess. Splitting two tie breaks. I was saying this morning on the tennis court that Zverev will need to serve at 80% to win this match. He’s managed that so far for over two hours. And he’s lost one of those sets.
Will Sinner have fitness issues if this goes long? It’s 27C at 6:20 BST (5:20 real time) so maybe not hot enough for that.
ETA: the commentators pretty much said exactly this while I was typing this. Sorry to agree with John McEnroe.