Exciting fans but trying to keep under radar
maintains the poker face of Chris Evert throughout. But she allowed herself a smile at that, and about the prospect of a quarter-final today against Serena Williams.
It was a cool performance from Giorgi as everyone else got overheated. When her serve was threatened, she stayed composed. A diminutive figure, her shots have got considerable welly. The one time she lost it her racket was hurled back to the baseline and that, too, was with impressive clout.
Giorgi doesn’t give much
Taway in the interview room either. Asked to describe herself as “a player and a person”, she said: “I don’t know. I don’t like to talk about myself.” Eventually, she chose “aggressive” to describe her style but, when complimented on her “fearlessness” in the match, she thought “very consistent” summed it up better.
Maybe Giorgi is hoping to continue flying under the radar but that is impossible now, especially since she’s playing Williams. Asked what she most admired about the 23-times Slam champ, Giorgi
tions just as he was about to boom another big serve at their brave boy. Last year, Italy’s Camila Giorgi had her father accused by Jelena Ostapenko of trying to put off the Latvian with his spluttering.
he Diary owns up to having made a bit of a fool of itself. Chatting late on Saturday night with Jamie Murray the subject got round to Hibernian, with the grandson of a Famous Five back-up man admitting he hadn’t yet finished the Diary’s book on the historical Scottish Cup triumph of 2016, mainly said: “I don’t follow tennis, women’s tennis. I will be focused on my game.” This was a vain attempt to play down the significance of the quarter-final, which will be lost on her fan club.
Understandably, “Tell us about yourself” was popular all day. “It’s a tough question,” admitted Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, before she too opted for “aggressive”. Her 6-4, 6-1 victory over Hsieh Suwei produced an extraordinary blow-up when her Taiwanese opponent challenged a line call.
because he hadn’t quite started it. The Diary wasn’t disappointed – it realises Murray is a busy man with a hectic schedule. Yesterday, after a win in the men’s doubles, Murray admitted he was facing a lot of “hanging around” while waiting for his next game in the mixed. What did he do to kill such longueurs, the Diary asked – did he for instance have an especially good book on the go right now? Honestly, the Diary wasn’t thinking about its own literary effort. “Classic,” laughed Murray. And, no, the Diary doesn’t think that was a reference to the book.
It was one of the longest disputes seen at Wimbledon, with Hsieh demanding the referee’s intervention. “Replay the point!” the crowd kept shouting and eventually it was, but this couldn’t help the giant-killer beat the girl who’d controversially lost out on a seeding by Williams’ return.
Germany’s Julia Goerges, who overcame Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-3, 6-2, was another experiencing the quarterfinal glare for the first time. And how would she describe herself? “Pretty aggressive.”