Hey everyone, john Wertheim here. Greetings from Wimbledon Day four. This is Quick Serve, presented by Oslo Sleep Buds, a quick podcast behind court 14. No video today, but we will be checking in throughout the tournament. Quick hints highlights top moments, storylines as we track Wimbledon 2024 on.
Speaker 1:
On this day of independence, at least in the US, and on this day of democracy and general election, at least here in the UK. Maybe today's theme ought to be one of freedom Athletes free to slug away, free of inhibition, free from the tyranny of nerves and nervousness. Unhappily, wimbledon is now free without Andy Murray, who played his last match. At least, pending his mixed doubles, we can talk about his retirement ceremony in a bit. Not a lot of upsets today, so I suppose the draw was free of deforestation as well. On this day, both the number one and number two players got through. On the women's side, iga Svantek, top seed. She is trying all together now to win her first Wimbledon, to get beyond the quarters for the first time, and she got a step closer today, beating the Croatian veteran Petra Martic without much trouble. Novak Djokovic, the second seed on the men's side, seven-time champion, leg sleeve, and all Wasn't necessarily at his best, dropped a set but rallied to beat Jacob Fernley, ranked number 277, who was playing college tennis for GCU just six weeks ago. A British player, but Novak got through, got another round closer to winning Wimbledon for the eighth time. He looked a little more sort of gingerly and unsure of himself from the backcourt than he did in round one, but he gets through and as long as he's in the draw he is a contender and a threat.
Speaker 1:
Other results Anstrupur survived Robin Montgomery. The American did give a very nice showing of herself, I thought, but Anstrupur, a finalist two years running, advances Montgomery and American and, speaking of Americans, sort of a mixed day. Danielle Collins, who is in the top 10. She won in straight sets. Taylor Fritz got past Arthur Rindernisch. There was some friction there, as perhaps uh you have seen and heard and read online Not often we see this from uh Taylor Fritz, but they had played last year at the French Open. It was uh a bit of a tense match there as well. Uh, rindernisch, a French player, and Taylor Fritz sort of took exception to playing a road game, as it were, and Rinderdisch essentially said you know he can't win this time. Taylor Fritz seemed to be awakened and emboldened and a little enraged by that and he says look, I'm a chill guy, but if you get me mad you're going to pay for it. And that's essentially what happened is, taylor won today in four sets.
Speaker 1:
Ben Shelton won in five sets for the second time in two rounds, beating Lloyd Harris. Nice survive and advance by Ben Shelton who is now in the third round. He's beat the third rounder better at all. Four majors. And we forget this is someone who was, you know, just a college senior age, only 21 years old. So a nice result from Ben Sheldon.
Speaker 1:
But you know who was really impressive? Giovanni Teschi-Péricard. Remember the name? He is 6'8", he's only 20 years old, he is a Frenchman and he serves bombs. He had 51 in his first-round match and upset of Sebastian Korda and today he only only in quotes, had 27. Then again, he only had 13 service games. He won in straight sets in 71 minutes. You really have to try hard to win, or, for that matter, lose, a best-of-five game Tennis match in 71 minutes. But that's what happened today. And remember the name Giovanni Mpesci-Péricard, the 6'8 French player, advances Two minor upsets, I guess two, I'd say, medium-sized upsets, not seismic but probably minor was understating it.
Speaker 1:
Jessie Pagula, the 50, just did not have it. She won Berlin on grass a few weeks ago, giving her some momentum and giving some people Andy Roddick grounds to pick her to do very well. She didn't have it today lost in three sets to Wang Chin-yu of China. And then a strange match going on simultaneously to that Hubert Herkacz, former semifinalist, beat Roger Federer here in his final Wimbledon match three years ago. The Polish player lost the first two sets to Arthur Feast, the young Frenchman. Then, in a four-set tiebreaker, hubie dove hurt his knee. There was a long delay, he got treatment, he got up and, strangely enough, dove again at the net. Arthur Feast later told us at Tennis Channel. He said either that meant he was doing much better or else what are you trying to kill yourself. But it was a serious injury. And in the middle of the, in the end of that fourth set tiebreaker, hubert Hercosh ended up retiring. You know, retiring at a middle of a tiebreaker, at Wimbledon no less, where you are a seed, that's a bad sign about how serious an injury it is. So Arthur Fies, very nice young player from France, he advances. But concerns for Hubert Hercot. You hope he is OK, especially with the Olympics coming up, which is something he told us yesterday at Tennis Channel he was very eager for, especially because he could be playing mixed doubles with Iga Svantek for Poland as well. So not just a contender to win a singles medal but also a mixed doubles medal. Now we hope he's OK by the time the Olympics roll around in five weeks.
Speaker 1:
Other results on the day of British elections it was probably fitting there was some Brit on Brit action. Cam Norrie and Jack Draper, two lefties, one a veteran, one sort of the new shiny thing did battle today, and it was Cam Norrie and Jack Draper two lefties, one a veteran, one sort of the new shiny thing did battle today, and it was Cam Norrie who came through in straight sets. Andy Roddick, that is to his credit predicted this and he also sort of made the point that maybe Jack Draper isn't quite ready physically a young player to deal with best of five situations. I'm not sure that's what it was today. I think physically he held up fine. It's just he met a veteran player in Cam Norrie who took advantage of a couple loose errors. At one point Norrie went on a run where he won 14 out of 15 points. It was not Jack Draper's best day and Cam Norrie semifinalist here two years ago, advances. The other Brit on Brit action was women's variety, harriet Dart and seated Katie Bolter, who have a bit of history an article describing them as the fiercest British tennis rivalry, as if there were others. But it turns out actually, that this one runs fairly deep. Their mothers even played against each other at one point in time and Harriet Dart scores the upset today, a three-set win over Katie Bolter, who was very disappointed.
Speaker 1:
The big news, speaking of British tennis today, was Andy Murray playing. Obviously we know he's not on the singles draw. He and his brother Jamie played in doubles. They were defeated by John Pears and Ricky Hichikata and afterwards there was a ceremony after the match for Andy Murray, who isn't quite done playing With his playing career. He is on the schedule to play the Olympics in four weeks. He's not even quite done with his Wimbledon career because he's playing mixed doubles with Emma Ratakanu.
Speaker 1:
But the organizers and I think fairly wisely chose this time to have a retirement ceremony after his doubles defeat. So Andy Murray and Jamie Murray lost in doubles and then afterwards there was a ceremony. There was a ceremony. A number of former champs were in attendance Martina Navratilova, john McEnroe, conchita Martinez, leighton Hewitt. To their great credit, both Iga Svantec and Novak Djokovic, who played earlier today, stuck around and attended this ceremony. Again, it was all a bit awkward because, had Murray and had the Murray brothers advanced, there may well have been no ceremony. So good for Novak Djokovic and Iga Svantec, who deserve some real credit here.
Speaker 1:
I wish Andy Roddick that is were here to reflect on a colleague. It's always, you know, it's always a bit. It's poignant and awkward and never quite comfortable when we have an athlete confronting mortality. This was a case where Andy Murray's hand was really forced. I mean, he himself said you know, I want to play forever. But as ceremonies go, this was tasteful and had an element of joy as well as sadness. Sue Barker, a wonderful former major champion, which I'm not sure a lot of people know she does not talk about it, but she was a very accomplished player in her day, then a very popular British broadcaster. She has retired, but she came out of retirement appropriately to conduct a tasteful ceremony at the end of this match.
Speaker 1:
Andy kept it together. For the most part, we will recall Sue Barker interviewing Andy Murray in 2012, where he gave that famous I'm getting closer speech. It was a bit of a redux about that, but Andy was good-humored about it. But also, I thought, very measured and sort of talked about how this isn't necessarily how he wanted to go out, how this sport that gave him so much is not something that he wanted to walk away from, and how injuries are part of the game. But at some point this became untenable. He was pretty funny too. Talked some multiple vomit references, one of them in celebration on the way home, one of them on a opponent's racket bag when he first met his wife Kim, and gives her credit for sticking around despite that inelegant early memory. A touching ceremony. But Andy Murray will be missed and we'll do a random factoid segment every session.
Speaker 1:
But there is a heated putting competition going on in the general locker room. We are told the players have been handed putters and there's sort of a mini golf tournament going on in the locker room. We'll try and get some results. The Olympic entry list came out today. Maybe Andy and I will talk about that in a couple of weeks. No big surprises. We sort of knew the players and the big names who had opted out. There were a couple of surprises in terms of wildcard. A player from Tunisia, not on Stuber, is in the draw, a player from Lebanon, but I'll save it for when Mr Roddick gets back and we can devote more time for the Olympics.
Speaker 1:
As far as tomorrow, friday day five, carlos Alcaraz and Francis Tiafoe kicked things off. Remember, two years ago they played that epic match in the semifinals of the US Open. That night match, alcaraz won that. This is what's kicking off. Action on center court Emerat Akhanu, with a winnable match against ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari is next, and then Janik Sinner against Kacmanovic of Serbia. On court one, jasmine Paolini against Bianca Andreescu. That's a great match and they played at Roland Garros just a few weeks ago. Paolini won that match.
Speaker 1:
Grigor Dimitrov and Gael Monfils, both of whom finished their matches today. Dimitrov in five sets, very eventful. Monfils, fairly handily over Stan Bobrinka. They will play second on court one. And then the last match will be Coco Gauff against Cart Hall, a British player who is not in the top 100, I don't think so. Coco's run ought to continue. Tommy Paul and Bublik another match to watch. And then Jan-Leonard Struff, andy Roddick's favorite sleeper against Daniil Medvedev. That will do it for today. Again, happy 4th for our American listeners, happy election day for our UK listeners and happy Thursday for everybody else Again. Strange day here at Webbeldon Not a lot of upsets, a farewell ceremony, a tribute to Andy Murray who Lord knows deserves it and the tournament rolls on. I'm John Wertheim. This quick serve was sponsored and presented by Oslo Sleep Buds and we will do it again tomorrow.
