There is a prevailing view that the unpredictability of the women’s game discredits it and that what Wimbledon needs is a sustained rivalry and familiar faces. Perhaps that would be fun, but surely not as enthralling as what unfolded in the quarter-finals here.
On No1 Court the crowd were desperate to witness up close the continued remarkable run of Lulu Sun, who was on course to become the first qualifier to win Wimbledon. But as the world No123 from New Zealand faded, understandably tired after shattering Emma Raducanu’s dreams in the previous round, the manner in which Donna Vekic, ranked No37, turned a match she was struggling to comprehend into a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory gained their admiration.
Theirs was an astonishing match packed with power, pace, resilience and dramatic uncertainty. Later on Centre Court there was less tension as Jasmine Paolini blitzed her way past Emma Navarro to reach the semi-finals, but she made history in becoming the first Italian woman to reach this stage of the Championships even though, until last week, she had not managed to ever win a match at the tournament.
Every player has a story, and let’s face it, we did not mind that Raducanu came through qualifying to win the US Open three years ago. Fairytales do not belong just to British players.
Iga Swiatek is the world No1 but struggles on grass and was knocked out in the third round; Coco Gauff, the No2 seed here, fell at the fourth round, immediately telling us that seeding counts for little; and Aryna Sabalenka, the third seed, had to withdraw on the eve of the tournament owing to injury. But that has not diluted the quality on display.
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Elena Rybakina, as the No4 seed and a former champion, is favourite to prevail in her quarter-final on Wednesday against Elina Svitolina but the crowd will urge on the Ukrainian, who won her fourth-round match while horrified by the Russian missile attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv that had happened that very morning.
One fascinating aspect to Vekic’s win was how the crowd were clearly rooting for the underdog but were then gradually won over by the Croatian’s tenacity in a gruelling contest. She lost the opening set, in which the pair traded blows in quite spectacular fashion before Sun sealed it with a drop shot. It took just over an hour. It was breathtaking and Vekic looked shattered.
To illustrate how nerve-racking it was, Vekic, who owns a scented candle company, threw in five double faults as she served for the second set, but kept the game alive with some fine shot placement and was less bogged down by nerves as Sun served to stay in the set.
Vekic took it with a drop shot, just as her opponent had taken the first set. It was a quarter-final that deserved a third set in which Sun’s long haul through the qualifying rounds finally caught up with her physically. They were both shattered. “I felt like I was dying out there in the first two sets,” Vekic, 28, said.
Vekic revealed after her victory that she wanted to quit the sport just before the French Open. Results were not in tune with her efforts but she found a way to turn disappointment into motivation and her reward was to earn her first grand-slam semi-final after twelve years and 43 tournaments of trying.
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And who isn’t intrigued by an athlete prepared to put in the hard work to become a top-20 ranked player when they are the daughter of a billionaire? Navarro’s father, Ben, who was in the players’ box cheering her on, is the founder and chief executive of Sherman Financial Group and is reportedly worth $1.5billion (about £1.17billion).
She certainly oozes confidence and attacked the Italian’s serve with calm intelligence to score an early break but, visibly smarting, Paolini broke back immediately. They traded blows with alacrity. It was whack-a mole tennis and the pace suited the scurrying, darting No7 seed, who raced through as if the Centre Court roof was threatening to spring a leak.
Navarro remained composed but it must have been like facing Tigger. Her serve was broken in the fourth game of the second set and then the sixth. The American began to display signs of exasperation at her opponent’s retrieval rates. Paolini had looked business-like throughout but after securing a 6-2, 6-1 victory could not stop smiling. Neither could the crowd.
