Round of 16 focuses on the Big 4

LONDON — As usual, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray are playing well at Wimbledon, leading the way into Week 2.

“It’s their turf,” said Ernests Gulbis, who stood in Djokovic’s way in the third round but failed to present too much of an obstacle. “It’s their home court.”

Not since Lleyton Hewitt won the championship 15 years ago has someone other than Federer (a record-equaling seven titles in that span), Djokovic (three), Nadal (two) or Murray (two) left Wimbledon with the men’s singles title. In addition, that so-called Big 4 accounts for eight runner-up finishes during that stretch.

Count Federer among those shrugging at the quartet’s success this fortnight, with only one set dropped among the lot.

“I thought that everybody this week was going to find their form, especially speaking about Andy and Novak . ... With me, I hoped I was going to be there. Whereas with Rafa’s confidence, I thought he was also going to be there,” said Federer, who has a cold. “So I’m not that surprised. But it’s great.”

Wimbledon is the lone Grand Slam tournament that schedules all 16 round-of-16 singles matches on the same day.

On the women’s side, fivetime champion and 10th-seeded Venus Williams is the oldest left, and her opponent Monday, 19-year-old Ana Konjuh, seeded 27th, is the youngest.

With Serena Williams missing because of her pregnancy, perhaps the marquee matchup is No. 1 Angelique Kerber against No. 14 Garbine Muguruza. Kerber won both her career majors in 2016 (Australian Open, U.S. Open) and Muguruza also won her only major title in 2016 (French Open).

The only other non-Serena major winner in the past two calendar years is last month’s French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, who is seeded 13th and faces No. 4 Elina Svitolina on Monday.