From an Italian perspective, the main interest in what Middle Sunday has ceased to be since 2022 clearly concerns Jannik Sinner. The blue number 1 is hunting for the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the second time in his career: to reach them, he will have to beat the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galanat his best moment of his career.
One the previous one between the two, played in the Davis Cup finals (or rather, their Kosmos version, which will still resist for this year despite this group no longer being involved) of 2021. Then it was 7-5 6-0 for Sinner , and here too it is quite clear that the South Tyrolean is the favourite. Galan has so far been good at exploiting a very favorable corridor, beating the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, the German Oscar Otte and the Swede Mikael Ymer (who can easily eat his hands). Of course, the sensational 6-0 6-1 trimmed to Tsitsipas in the first two sets at the US Open at first round level, with victory on the ninth match point, may come to mind, but this is totally another story. In fact, Sinner lost a single set against the French Quentin Halys, on a day that was not too favorable. What is there is the condition: the impression is that, after last year’s blossoming on the grass, Jannik has inserted a sort of mission mode into his mind. All this even after the fact that the Colombian, year after year, spends one more round at the Championships. An opponent like this, however, has not yet faced him.
There may be on the horizon Denis Shapovalovexpected in comparison with Russian Roman Safiullin and, above all, the realization of his chance: the Canadian has never fully convinced so far, but his level of tennis should be enough for him to reach the quarterfinals. What’s more, “Shapo” benefits from the two previous wins (one with difficulty in the ATP Cup 2022, when Safiullin showed the best tennis of his career, the other in Adelaide this year). Two prominent comparisons in the lower part, both with many reasons and as many possible budding stories. Novak Djokovic challenge Hubert Hurkacz: the Pole still failed to beat the Serbian, but once he came close (at Paris-Bercy) and another, in 2019, took away a set right at Wimbledon, at third round level. There should be a good show also considering Hurkacz’s form; show that we will see to a large extent also between Andrey Rublev e Alexander Bublikin a real revenge of the final in Halle won by the Kazakh over the Russian, which the locker room radio brings back to the center of tensions with his other compatriots for having more than once expressed very clearly his thoughts on the war in Ukraine: “Peace”.
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In the women’s field, however, every match really has an important story behind it. For Every Swiatekstaying on the subject of Poland, there is Switzerland Belinda Bencic. It was the best possible confrontation on the eve, and such it becomes. And it is also the first real risk that the world number 1 runs, although in the previous three the Swiss’ only victory came in the round of 16 of the US Open 2021. It may be true that this is another story, but we are from faced with the absolute test to understand how much Swiatek has really digested the herb (promising signs, however, he sent them against the Croatian Petra Martic). Mediatically noisy, but technically difficult to predict, the challenge between Victoria Azarenka ed Elina Svitolina. Both the Belarusian and the Ukrainian do not have the best one in the British Slam, one because in practice she has two semifinals and two quarterfinals, reached in the best years, the other because in addition to the 2019 semifinal she had only reached the round of 16 in 2017; for the rest only first or second rounds. The condition seems to favor Svitolina slightly, but it is true that Azarenka eliminated the Russian Daria Kasatkina (not that we are talking about a pure herbivore anyway).
In the second section of the upper part, on the other hand, the Czech derby between two unexpected events should undoubtedly be highlighted, Marketa Vondrousova e Marie Bouzkova. For the former Roland Garros finalist (2019) an enviable path so far, with two seeds (Kudermetova and Vekic) eliminated; for the number 32 seeding, on the other hand, the objective is to reconfirm the quarterfinals of a year ago, as well as the various good sensations encountered so far by closing the career of the Estonian Anett Kontaveit and the hopes of Caroline Garcia, with the French again forced to postpone the slam dreams. The last precedent (2-1 Vondrousova), from Indian Wells 2023, clearly went to Sokolov’s native, not far from the border with Germany, with a double 6-1. The corresponding eighth, which will determine the challenge of the quarterfinals, will be played by the number 4 in the world, the American Jessica Pegulaand ukraine Lesia Tsurenko. If one comes from the 6-4 6-0 against Elisabetta Cocciaretto and from an almost flawless tournament, the other ended up in the middle of history, both for the 20-18 of the third set super tie-break against the Romanian Ana Bogdan that for all the outbuildings and related. This match, in fact, turned out to be the third longest of the WTA season, with the decisive tie-break lasting, alone, 35 minutes (within 3 hours and 40). Nonetheless, this turned out to be the longest tiebreak by points in the history of Wimbledon and the Grand Slams, coming close to breaking the all-time women’s record. Precedents between Pegula and Tsurenko: 0-1 (2nd round of Indian Wells 2019), but the balance of power was reversed.
Photo: LaPresse
2023-07-09 07:00:30
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