No2 seed Coco Gauff beaten – Wimbledon 2024 day seven as it happened

Navarro, 23, is not an outlier as the No 19 seed. She has impressed on the regular tour over the past 14 months, rising from outside the top-100 into the top-20. Earlier this year she won her first WTA title at the Hobart International.

This is the biggest win of Navarro’s career in her first appearance on Centre Court. She will now contest the quarter-finals of a grand-slam tournament for the first time, facing the Italian No 7 seed Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday.

“I am just really grateful to be out here on Centre Court,” Navarro said. “It is a tournament with so much history and tradition that so many legends have played on before, It’s a real honour.”

It is strange that Gauff has struggled to produce her best at Wimbledon, with three failed attempts to get through the last 16. She possesses a game that has suited the grass ever since she qualified for the tournament at the age of 15 in 2019.

Gauff’s forehand was the problem on Sunday. She struggled on this side, leaking 16 unforced errors against a solid opponent who looked more confident on the court.

“Coco’s obviously an amazing player,” Navarro said. “I have a ton of respect for her and what she’s done at such a young age is amazing. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy on me tonight but I wanted to play aggressively and push back against her game and I think I was able to do that.”

The order of play for Centre Court and No1 Court have been announced for Monday:

Centre Court (1.30pm)

(4) E Rybakina (Kaz) v A Kalinskaya (Russ)
(13) T Fritz (US) v (4) A Zverev (Ger)
(15) H Rune (Den) v (2) N Djokovic (Serbia)

No1 Court (1pm)

A Fils (Fr) v (9) A de Minaur (Aus)
Y Putintseva (Kaz) v (13) J Ostapenko (Lat)
(11) D Collins (US) v (31) B Krejcikova (Cz)

Speaking on court after the match, Lulu Sun told the BBC: “It was a great match against [Raducanu]. I really dug deep to get the win.

“I really had to fight tooth and nail because she obviously going to run for every ball and fight until the end. I’m just incredibly — I don’t even have the words right now.”

Stuart Fraser writes A day after Emma Raducanu withdrew from a Wimbledon mixed doubles appearance alongside Andy Murray to focus on her singles campaign, her tournament came to a sudden and surprising end with a fourth-round defeat by a qualifier ranked No 123 in the world.

There were no signs of the right wrist stiffness that Raducanu cited as a reason for pulling out of the mixed, but she struggled to replicate the high level of play that had taken her through to the last-16. In a tough battle lasting two hours and 50 minutes, she lost 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to New Zealand’s Lulu Sun.

Raducanu looked completely out of sorts right from the off. She made a poor start on serve in the opening game and was broken with a forehand drop shot by Sun. Minutes later, Raducanu was a double break down at 3-0 after hitting a forehand wide.

Sun handed one of the breaks back with a double fault in the next game, but it was one of the few mistakes she made in the first set. A stunning forehand drive volley put her back up a double break at 5-2 and she held serve to end Raducanu’s streak of six consecutive sets won this fortnight,

Raducanu steadied the ship in the second set but still struggled to make the necessary breakthrough. Two opportunities to break at 2-1 were missed, before she then crucially saved two break points on her own serve at 3-3 when the match looked as if it could slip out of her hands.

The pivotal moment came with Sun serving to stay in the set at 6-5 down. Suddenly she looked a little tight under pressure and Raducanu took full advantage, firing a forehand winner down the line to bring up a set point. When a Sun backhand landed long to take the match to a decider, the Centre Court crowd erupted.

Raducanu’s momentum came to a swift halt when she slipped during the the third point of the final set. With her left foot skidding across the grass as she came tumbling down, a medical timeout was required for the physio to work on her left ankle, left knee and back.

Understandably, Raducanu looked a little tentative when she returned and subsequently dropped serve to go 1-0 down. By contrast, Sun looked comfortable moving around the court and held serve twice in the next three games to take a 3-1 lead.

Raducanu battled hard but could not get back on top. She gifted a double break to her opponent with a double fault to go 5-2 down and this gave Son the cushion to go on and serve out the biggest win of her career.

Just as we highlight the need for the Briton to break serve, Lulu Sun wins on Raducanu’s to go within a game of victory.

Emma Raducanu’s injury problems do not seem to be having too much of an impact now, but she is yet to break the serve of Lulu Sun in this final set, and the New Zealander is now just two games from victory.

Raducanu had a chance at 3-2 down, when she went 0-30 up on Sun’s serve, but the Kiwi qualifier held her nerve and won four straight points convincingly to hold.

Elgan Alderman writes The match on No 1 Court has ended much earlier than expected. Grigor Dimitrov, the No 10 seed, has had to retire in the first set, giving Daniil Medvedev, the No 5 seed, swift passage into the quarter-finals. After a medical timeout following a slip, Dimitrov tried to keep going but he could hardly move. Medvedev will face Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals, a repeat of the Australian Open final.

While Centre Court has hosted two matches today — and the second has not even finished yet — No 1 Court has fielded two retirements out of three thus far. Madison Keys withdrew right towards the end of her thrilling match against Jasmine Paolini, not long after she had been unable to serve out victory.

Emma Raducanu slipped early in the final set lunging for a shot and appeared to hyper extend her knee. A medical time out was called and the Briton was treated by a physio.

CLIVE BRUNSKILL/GETTY

After a significant break play resumed, and her serve was broken by Lulu Sun. The New Zealander did not appear to lose concentration during the delay. They were nervy moments for Raducanu, but she appears to be moving fine now and held her next service game.

After losing the first set convincingly 6-2 to qualifier Lulu Sun, Emma Raducanu has fought back to win the second 7-5. The New Zealander’s forehand has been brilliant all match, but 22 unforced errors in the second set are too much against a player of Raducanu’s quality.

To the final set we go!

Elgan Alderman writes Awaiting Emma Raducanu or Lulu Sun in the quarter-finals is Donna Vekic. The world No 37 from Croatia has finally triumphed over Paula Badosa 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 on a wet-dry-wet again day on the outside courts. There were only 97 minutes of play and yet the fourth-round encounter finished more than seven hours after the scheduled start.

“We arrived here at 8.30am, it’s now almost 7pm so it’s been a long day, it’s been a stressful day,” Vekic, 28, said. “To be in the last eight of my favourite tournament, it’s really special.”

This will be Vekic’s third appearance in a grand-slam quarter-final but her first at Wimbledon, and she has had to work to get here: three of her four victories have required every set.

In her post-match interview, Vekic mentioned her familiarity with British weather. She spent much of her teenage years in London, turning her into an anglophile who viewed Boris Bikes as “the greatest invention ever”. After winning a match at the Australian Open as a 16-year-old, there was gossip of her switching allegiance to the UK but she never entertained such notions and stuck with Croatia.

Badosa has taken heart from her week at these championships. She suffered a stress fracture in her back last year and had to retire from her second-round match here, which was the last time she took to a court in 2023. She returned in Australia in January but has had to retire injured from matches three times this year. The 26-year-old Spaniard battled to a three-set win in the third round over Daria Kasatkina, the No 14 seed who had taken the title at Eastbourne.

Alyson Rudd writes Jannik Sinner glided his way into the quarter finals past an opponent who threatened through sheer impetuosity to cause the World No 1 a few problems.

Ben Shelton had walked onto court wearing headphones which gave him the air of someone with other places to be and the 21 year old served like he was in a rush too with a startling degree of power. Sinner refused to be the least intimidated and broke early in the first set to set a high bar which his opponent could not reach and the Italian took the opening set in a flash.

“We’re back, big dog,” Shelton had said after defeating Denis Shapovalov in the previous round. He was referring to the fact his father Bryan, who is also his coach, reached the round of 16 at the Championships in 1994. The interactions between the pair have been a source of delight to fans at Wimbledon but there was little Shelton senior could do to help his son outwit the calm brutality of the No 1 seed who broke early in the second too and Sinner wrapped that up efficiently as well. But the American took his first break point of the match at the start of the third, holding his nerve in a baseline exchange.

Sinner, in no great shock to anyone, broke back, taking advantage of his opponent’s relative inexperience. There is only one year between them but the Italian, 22, was largely the more mature in his decision making. There was a rare broad, cheeky grin from Sinner after he won game point having played the ball through his legs.

“That was just luck,” he said. “I don’t know what to say.”

But he made enough unforced errors to add a layer of tension. Shelton gave his all in the third set tie break and even earned himself three set points but Sinner prevailed.

Alyson Rudd writes It was a struggle at times but Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, is through to the quarter final of the Championship, defeating the No 16 seed Ugo Humbert.

The Spaniard labelled as “unbelievable” a winning shot while he was doing the splits,which the crowd lapped up. It was all highly entertaining.

At the start of the fourth game the rain began hammering on the roof. And Alcaraz began hammering the Humbert serve and broke in a manner as ominous as the rolls of thunder above Centre Court.

The left handed Humbert was through to the fourth round for the first time since his Wimbledon debut five years ago and this was the first time he had faced the Spaniard but from the early exchanges it felt as if he would lack sufficient guile to counter his opponent’s power and aggression. Audacious winners prompted Alcaraz to strike a pose and milk the acclaim from the crowd which only served to heighten his appeal.

There were regular tiny glimpses of a way to break the reigning champion but Humbert, 26, simply let the door close on them. He had four break points in the epic fifth game of the second set and the fact he was unable to capitalize on them felt definitive and all the while Alcaraz simply seemed to be enjoying the puzzles set by his opponent and he gobbled up almost every second serve.

The Spaniard took the second set after a quite splendid rally with Humbert left perplexed at how Alcaraz darted in first one direction then another. Yes, there were flashes of brilliance from the Frenchman who grew up playing on carpet courts which are similar to grass, but never at the right moment — until the third set when he finally broke serve thanks to an errant Alcaraz forehand and this changed Humbert’s body language as he seemed to grow a few inches taller and he broke serve twice more with real panache to take the third set.

Alcaraz broke at the start of the fourth set with a contained ferociousness and looked energised by the whole experience of being briefly outclassed but Humbert broke straight back and for the first time Alcaraz appeared frustrated but he then broke again and was the first to hold only to be broken again by an opponent who was growing in aggressive confidence. The No 3 seed grumbled to those in his box but saved a clutch of break points and then began pulling off crisp, beautiful and unlikely passing shots to take control of a wild sort of set. It was fun.

Jasmine Paolini and Madison Keys brought the thunder, all right. An electric storm put the All England Club on alert, and inside No1 Court they cooked up one of their own. After more than two hours of high-quality tennis, an injury to Keys’s thigh forced her to retire one game after she had tried to serve for the match. Paolini is into the quarter-finals after a match that ended prematurely 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 5-5.

These two had practised together in Eastbourne so they knew what was coming. Paolini’s energy and cheer against Keys’s astonishingly powerful hitting, comparable to the men’s game. There were 13 breaks of serve and fightbacks from both during the last two sets. Keys will tearfully rue that she could not serve out the decider at 5-2 before the leg injury.

Keys could not continue and bowed out of the tournament

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“I’m so sorry for her,” Paolini said. “To end a match like this, it’s bad. What can I say? I think we played a really good match, it was really tough, a lot of ups and downs. I’m feeling a little bit happy but sad for her because it’s not too easy to win like that. I hope [the crowd] enjoyed the match.”

Keys lost her first set of the championships in the opener, and Paolini seemed destined for the quarter-final in a breakthrough season that has united steel with a smile. “She’s one of the best hitters on the tour,” Paolini, 5ft 4in, said of Keys, 5ft 10in, before the match. “I love how she plays, how she hits the ball.”

She started overwhelming Paolini and served for the second set at 5-1, but Paolini wrestled back for 5-5. Keys finally took it in the tie-break, and enhanced her position with an early advantage in the decider. Paolini’s energy was sapping, her outlook overcast, and Keys maintained her sledgehammer. She served for the match at 5-2, but Paolini realised a second break and Keys shook her left leg, a slight irritation to her upper thigh in the process of hitting a backhand wide. After Paolini held for 5-4, the trainer tended to Keys, who departed the court for the rest of the treatment. She limped back on with strapping around her thigh for another shot at victory.

The huge strokes were still there but if Paolini could manipulate her around the court, it was done. Keys did not even attempt to chase down a drop-shot, and tears flowed. Her limp ever more pronounced, she fired a backhand winner to prevent the first break point, but the second went with a double fault. After two points of the 11th game, Keys faced up to her demise.

At 29, Keys is only a year older than Paolini though she has been in the elite firmament for significantly longer. On grass – a surface Paolini joked had the capacity to make her cry – the Italian had never beaten a player ranked inside the top 100 before the past fortnight. Since then, at Eastbourne and here, she has overcome Elise Mertens, Katie Boulter, Greet Minnen and Sara Sorribes Tormo.

She is proving to be as multifaceted on court as she is multilingual (as well as conducting post-match duties in English and yelling “Andiamo!” when it flies off the strings past an opponent, she speaks conversational Polish on account of maternal ancestry).

The Italian had only ever won one grand-slam singles match on grass or hard court before 2024, and had never gone past the second round on clay. This year, she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and the final at the French, before this run to the last eight. There has also been a maiden WTA 1000 title, at Dubai in February. “At the airport in Pisa it seemed like a movie star had arrived,” Ugo, her father, said of her return to her homeland after that.

Paolini was a double runner-up at Roland-Garros, losing the final of the women’s doubles in cahoots with Sara Errani. Their opponents were Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova. We will find out later today which American seed awaits her in the next round: Emma Navarro or Gauff again.

Elgan Alderman writes: Here in the media centre, there is an attendance tally updated every day, comparing the figures to last year’s championships. The magic wall of ticketed numbers informs me that 244,304 spectators have entered the grounds over the first six days of this year’s event, which is down on 252,022 at this stage of 2023.

The 2023 championships welcomed a record 532,651 spectators by the time the last Instagram photo was taken outside Centre Court. We must remember that before 2022 there was no play on middle Sunday (unless the dangerous world No1 with the protected ranking, Heavy Precipitation, made it through qualifying). It has not been a vintage tournament weather-wise. My lovely yellow spectacles have remained in their case almost every day.

Even with the slight drop, the attendance seems on target to surpass the half-million mark. It previously passed 500,000 in 2009, 2019 and 2022.

Elgan Alderman writes Novak Djokovic turned towards his family and team and played his racket like a violin. He had just used this musical facsimile to serve his way out of trouble against Alexei Popyrin in four sets and just over three hours.

Djokovic has avoided going the way of Iga Swiatek. He may not be the No 1 seed like Poland’s finest, and he may have had knee surgery about eight hours ago (give or take a month), but he is the big beast in the men’s draw as an eight-times champion, seeking a quarter-century of grand-slam titles.

No 25 on one leg is still on. The Serbian lost the first set against Popyrin, setting pulses a-flutter that an upset sequel was about to be released. Not for the first time, he fought back from that reverse to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

The 37-year-old’s fourth-round opponent is Holger Rune, who also worked hard to avoid defeat. The No 15 seed lost the first two sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) against Quentin Halys, only to take the last three 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. Halys had already knocked out Karen Khachanov, the No 21 seed.

● Catch up with the day six action

Stuart Fraser writes: With hindsight, Emma Raducanu’s defeat in the first round of the Madrid Open on April 24 was a blessing in disguise. This was the match after which the 21-year-old said she was “mentally and emotionally exhausted” after a busy start to the clay-court season.

While most players spent the next few weeks gearing up their clay-court skills before the French Open, Raducanu switched back to hard courts. Having vowed at the start of her comeback that she would focus on improvements rather than results this year, a bold decision was made to pass up the opportunity to qualify for the French Open and skip the rest of the clay season.

Eyebrows were raised that a player would opt out of a grand-slam tournament without reporting an injury of any sort but Raducanu’s choice has been vindicated by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. In three straight-sets victories she has bounded around the court with no shortage of energy and joy.

● Read the full story

Raducanu has bounded around the court with no shortage of energy and joy

GETTY

Judy Murray has criticised Wimbledon scheduling for Emma Raducanu’s decision to withdraw from what would have been Andy Murray’s farewell appearance at the event.

Raducanu and Murray had been due to play mixed doubles on Saturday evening but Raducanu’s withdrawal, citing a wrist problem, meant the 37-year-old will now not play in the tournament again. He is due to retire from tennis after the Paris Olympics.

Raducanu faces New Zealand’s Lulu Sun in the fourth round of the women’s singles on Sunday, but her decision to pull out of the mixed doubles is understood to have disappointed the Murray camp.

● Read the full story

Here we are then. Wimbledon day seven and a huge day for Emma Raducanu, among others. Here is what is to come.

Order of play

Seeds in brackets
11am start unless stated

Centre Court (1.30pm): (3) Carlos Alcaraz (Sp) v (16) Ugo Humbert (Fr), Lulu Sun (NZ) v Emma Raducanu (GB), (19) Emma Navarro (US) v (2) Cori Gauff (US).

No1 Court (1pm): (7) Jasmine Paolini (It) v (12) Madison Keys (US), (1) Jannik Sinner (It) v (14) Ben Shelton (US), (10) Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) v (5) Daniil Medvedev (Russ).

No2 Court: Paula Badosa Gibert (Sp) v Donna Vekic (Cro), (12) Tommy Paul (US) v Roberto Bautista Agut (Sp), Lloyd Glasspool (GB) and Harriet Dart (GB) v Fabrice Martin (Fr) and Cristina Bucsa (Sp).

No3 Court: Rinky Hijikata (Aus) and John Peers (Aus) v (9) Neal Skupski (GB) and Michael Venus (NZ), Marcus Willis (GB) and Alicia Barnett (GB) v (8) Ivan Dodig (Cro) and Chan Hao-ching (Taiwan), Maximo González (Arg) and Ulrikke Eikeri (Nor) v Jean-Julien Rojer (Neth) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (US), Robert Galloway (US) and Ingrid Neel (Est) v Jamie Murray (GB) and Taylor Townsend (US).

No12 Court: Timea Babos (Hun) and Nadiia Kichenok (Ukr) v (3) Nicole Melichar-Martinez (US) and Ellen Perez (Aus), (3) Rajeev Ram (US) and Joe Salisbury (GB) v Andreas Mies (Ger) and John-Patrick Smith (Aus), (6) Neal Skupski (GB) and Desirae Krawczyk (US) v Rafael Matos (Br) and Luisa Stefani (Br), Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) and Zhang Shuai (China) v Rajeev Ram (US) and Katie Volynets (US).

No14 Court: Patrick Ofner (Austria) and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn (Austria) v Sebastian Báez (Arg) and Dustin Brown (Jam), (8) Barbora Krejcikova (Cz) and Laura Siegemund (Ger) v Hailey Baptiste (US) and Alycia Parks (US), (1) Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) and Elise Mertens (Bel) v Emily Appleton (GB) and Yuriko Miyazaki (GB), Jack Withrow (US) and Aldila Sutjiadi (Indo) v (5) Andrea Vavassori (It) and Sara Errani (It), (7) Jan Zielinski (Pol) and Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) v Hugo Nys (Monaco) and Demi Schuurs (Neth).

No15 Court: (11) Maximo González (Arg) and Andres Molteni (Arg) v Tomas Machac (Cz) and Zhang Zhizhen (China), (15) Asia Muhammad (US) and Aldila Sutjiadi (Indo) v Diana Shnaider (Russ) and Elena Vesnina (Russ), Charles Broom (GB) and Arthur Fery (GB) v (7) Wesley Koolhof (Neth) and Nikola Mektic (Cro), (1) Matthew Ebden (Aus) and Ellen Perez (Aus) v Andres Molteni (Arg) and Asia Muhammad (US), Julian Cash (GB) and Maia Lumsden (GB) v Henry Patten (GB) and Olivia Nicholls (GB).

No16 Court: (7) Caroline Dolehide (US) and Desirae Krawczyk (US) v Caroline Garcia (Fr) and Kristina Mladenovic (Fr), (9) Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukr) and Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) v Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) and Olivia Nicholls (GB), Santiago Gonzalez (Mex) and Giuliana Olmos (Mex) v Luke Johnson (GB) and Freya Christie (GB), (3) Mate Pavic (Cro) and Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukr) v John Peers (Aus) and Nicole Melichar-Martinez (US).

No17 Court: (6) Santiago González (Mex) and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fr) v Christopher Eubanks (US) and Evan King (US), (1) Marcel Granollers (Sp) and Horacio Zeballos (Arg) v Nicolas Mahut (Fr) and Skander Mansouri (Tun), Marta Kostyuk (Ukr) and Elena Gabriela Ruse (Rom) v Yana Sizikova (Russ) and Wang Yafan (China), Kevin Krawietz (Ger) and Alexandra Panova (Russ) v (4) Austin Krajicek (US) and Laura Siegemund (Ger).

No18 Court: Irina Khromacheva (Russ) and Kamilla Rakhimova (Russ) v (2) Gabriela Dabrowski (Can) and Erin Routliffe (NZ), (4) Katerina Siniakova (Cz) and Taylor Townsend (US) v Leylah Fernandez (Can) and Ena Shibahara (Japan), Harri Heliovaara (Fin) and Gabriela Dabrowski (Can) v (2) Michael Venus (NZ) and Erin Routliffe (NZ), Nathaniel Lammons (US) and Ena Shibahara (Japan) v Max Purcell (Aus) and Dayana Yastremska (Ukr).