Tennis royalty kicks off the week
Raonic among the stars facing off at Wimbledon
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all will be in action as Week 2 begins. So will Serena Williams.
Wimbledon’s unique second Monday is guaranteed to be busy: This is the only Grand Slam tournament that schedules all 16 fourth-round singles matches on one day.
The No. 1-seeded Federer, seeking a record ninth title at the All England Club and 21st major trophy overall, opens the proceedings at Centre Court against No. 22 Adrian Mannarino of France, who never has been to the quarterfinals at any Slam. Federer? He’s been to the final eight 52 times.
Federer is 5-0 against Mannarino, winning 12 of the 13 sets they have played.
Not only has Federer not lost a set in the tournament so far, and not only hasn’t he been broken so far, he hasn’t so much as faced a single break point.
Mannarino, meanwhile, has converted 19 of 29 break points he’s earned as a returner, the highest success rate of anyone remaining.
No. 2 seed Nadal, a two-time champion, tries to get back to the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the first time since 2011 when he meets 93rd-ranked Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic.
No. 12 Djokovic, who’s won Wimbledon three times, meets 40th-ranked Karen Khachanov of Russia.
Williams will face 120th-ranked qualifier Evgeniya Rodina of Russia. They’re the last two mothers remaining in the singles draw of a half-dozen who started.
Williams is also the lone past Wimbledon champ left in the women’s bracket. She owns seven titles, including in 2015 and 2016, the previous two times she entered the tournament.
Only one of the top 10 women’s seeds remains after an upset filled Week 1.
No. 7 Karolina Pliskova, the 2016 U.S. Open runner-up, plays the day’s first match on No. 2 Court against No. 20 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, who eliminated Venus Williams in the third round.
In other matches on the men’s side, all eyes in Canada will be on No. 13 seed Milos Raonic as he takes on Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S.
Elsewhere, No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina draws Gilles Simon of France, No. 8 Kevin Anderson of South Africa faces Gael Monfils of France, No. 9 John Isner of the U.S. battles No. 31 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, while No. 24 Kei Nishikori of Japan takes on qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.
On the women’s side, No. 11 Angelique Kerber of Germany draws Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia plays Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, No. 13 Julia Goerges of Germany battles Donna Vekic of Croatia, Camila Giorgi of Italy faces Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, while Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan takes on Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium faces Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
Stat of the Day: 67 is the number of consecutive service games won at Wimbledon by Federer, a streak that dates to last year’s semis.
Quote: “Here, if you don’t have a big, big serve, you can’t feel safe,” says Nadal.