As the BBC celebrates 90 years of covering Wimbledon, three-time champion John McEnroe discusses his tantrums, Andy Murray’s success and the greatest Wimbledon match.
Five #NextGenATP players advance on Wednesday
British teenager Jay Clarke continued his dream run in Wimbledon qualifying on Wednesday, moving into the final round of qualifying over #NextGenATP player Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-4, 7-6(5).
The 18 year old reached his first ATP Challenger Tour quarter-final last week on home soil in Ilkley. He’ll play Sebastian Ofner of Austria for a spot in the main draw.
#NextGenATP American and 21st seed Taylor Fritz also advanced into the final round of qualifying with a confident 6-1, 6-3 win over Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia. Standing between him and a spot in the main draw is Vincent Millot of France, who defeated third seed Tennys Sandgren of the U.S. 6-2, 7-6(5).
Other #NextGenATP players to advance include fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia, 19th seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Rublev overcame James McGee of Ireland 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, Bublik moved past Blake Mott of Australia 7-5, 6-4, and Tsitsipas overcame Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 7-6(5), 7-6(5).
View the order of play and full Wednesday results here.
| Wimbledon 2017 on the BBC |
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| Venue: All England Club Dates: 3-16 July Starts: 11:30 BST |
| Live: Coverage across BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. |
What is Wimbledon’s greatest moment?
Almost 30,000 of you chose your top three moments, from a list compiled by a panel of our tennis experts, to help us celebrate 90 years of the BBC at Wimbledon.
And the results, revealed during a Radio 5 live programme, are in.
The best moment at Wimbledon – with 64% of users placing it in their top three – is Andy Murray winning his maiden title in 2013 and ending Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s champion.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s intense final in the dark back in 2008 came second, with Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe’s epic 1980 final coming third.
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash: “It was one of the greatest moments in tennis history – a Briton winning Wimbledon. The atmosphere was phenomenal.
“Wherever you went, there was this tension, this expectation of “can he do it?” You can’t understand the pressure he had with 77 years of history on his back. It takes one hell of a tough kid to do that.”
BBC commentator Barry Davies: “Andy Murray does thoroughly deserve to win. It has to be a Briton winning it. And he might now do what Fred Perry did, and win it three times.”
Former British number one Sam Smith: “There are not many times when you’re watching something that you want to watch, but you can’t.
“During the final game I had to go in my study and pace about. If I’m feeling that, what must Judy Murray and his family been going through? It was the match you couldn’t bear to watch, and yet you had to.”
It’s a sporting event which brings together a nation and captivates the world.
But what is it like to reign triumphant at SW19? BBC Sport speaks to former champions about their day of glory.
#NextGenATP Altmaier advances on Wednesday
Radu Albot caused the upset of the day on Wednesday at the Antalya Open, storming into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over second seed Paolo Lorenzi.
The Moldovan scored the lone break in each set to advance in one hour and 21 minutes and reach his ATP World Tour quarter-final. Lorenzi’s struggles on grass continue, with the Italian recording an 11th consecutive loss on the surface.
The surprise win adds to an already wild tournament, with top seed Dominic Thiem falling to Indian qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan in his opening match on Tuesday.
Next up for Albot is Andreas Seppi, who rallied from a set down to defeat Janko Tipsarevic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The contest was a rematch of their 2011 Eastbourne final that also saw Seppi prevail when Tipsarevic retired down 3-5 in the final set. The Italian continues to excel on grass, reaching the Eastbourne final in 2012 (l. Roddick) and Halle final in 2015 (l. Federer). He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Tipsarevic to 2-3, with both wins coming on grass.
Seppi won his lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Albot this March at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami.
#NextGenATP German Daniel Altmaier continued his dream run in Antalya with his first ATP World Tour quarter-final, fighting back from the brink of defeat to move past wild card and local favourite Marsel Ilhan 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5).
Ilhan served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set, but Altmaier broke and then raced to a 5/1 lead in the tie-break before prevailing in two hours and 28 minutes. The German also needed a final-set tie-break to win his first round against Victor Estrella Burgos.
The 18 year old moved into the main draw as a lucky loser when fellow #NextGenATP player Hyeon Chung withdrew due to a left ankle injury. Altmaier, currently No. 252 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, qualified for his first ATP World Tour main draw last month in Geneva. He also reached the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour event this January in Bangkok.
Awaiting Altmaier in the last eight is either fourth seed David Ferrer or Yuicihi Sugita.
Marach/Pavic Battle Into Semi-finals
In a match with no breaks of serve, second seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic survived a marathon quarter-final with Indian duo Purav Raja and Divij Sharan to advance 7-6(9), 6-7(4), 10-4. Marach/Pavic saved two set points at 6/7 and 8/9 in the first-set tie-break. They continue their grass-court success after reaching the Stuttgart final two weeks ago (l. Murray/Soares).
Awaiting them in the semi-finals are fourth seeds Leander Paes and Adil Shamasdin, who dismissed Carlos Berlocq and Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-2 in 50 minutes.
Top seeds Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi moved into the last four with a 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-7 comeback over Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak. Lindstedt/Qureshi will play Jonathan Erlich and Nikola Mektic, who defeated Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya 6-3, 7-6(4).
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| Wimbledon qualifying |
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| Venue: Bank of England Sports Centre, Roehampton Date: 26-29 June |
| Coverage: 11:00-17:00 BST on BBC Red Button and 11:00-19:00 BST on Connected TV and online |
Marcus Willis is one match from qualifying for Wimbledon for the second year running after beating fellow Briton Liam Broady.
Willis, who eventually lost to Roger Federer in last year’s second round, won 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (7-2) 6-2.
He goes on to face Ukrainian ninth seed Illya Marchenko for a place in the main draw.
Alex Ward, Jay Clarke and Katy Dunne were other British winners on day three at Roehampton.
Clarke, 18, beat Sweden’s Elias Ymer 6-4 7-6 (7-5) and Ward, 27, pulled off an upset by beating Japan’s Go Soeda, ranked 744 places higher at 111, 6-3 6-1.
It is the first time since 1999 that three British men have reached the final round of Wimbledon qualifying, with prize money of at least £35,000 guaranteed for those who make it through.
In the women’s singles, Dunne, 22, beat Serbia’s Irina Jorovic 7-5 7-5 to reach the second round.
Clarke will play Austria’s Sebastian Ofner, ranked 145 places higher than the Briton at 215, in the third and final round of qualifying, and Ward will play Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
Dunne, ranked 286th, will take on Belgian second seed Alison van Uytvanck in round two.
Harriet Dart, Maia Lumsden, Gabriella Taylor, Freya Christie and Eden Silva were all beaten.
Poor weather has forced organisers to extend the qualifying event to a fifth day on Friday.
Willis, 26, came through three rounds of pre-qualifying, three rounds of qualifying and the first-round proper at the All England Club last year, before losing to Federer on Centre Court.
He showed his grass-court skills once more against fellow qualifying wild card Broady, using his variety of pace and spin to good effect as he won a tight match.
Asked what it would mean to qualify, Willis said: “Everything. I’m just trying to keep my head down and prove I should be there again.”
After dominating the tie-break to clinch the first set, Willis – ranked seven places below Broady at 374 – fought back from a break down in the second.
Broady, 23, saved three match points in game 10 and forced a decider only to drop serve early in the final set with a loose game.
With the light fading, Willis broke again to lead 5-2 and converted his fourth match point at 20:06 BST.
“It was an absolute battle,” said Willis.
“I thought Liam played fantastically and it’s a shame someone had to lose. It’s a shame we had to play against each other in qualifying.
“Overall I’m very happy with the win, obviously, but it’s tough playing a friend. You have to put your feelings aside and try and win a tennis match.”
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Despite wet conditions, Djokovic is happy with grass form
Novak Djokovic believes that his trip to the south coast of England to compete at the Aegon International will have a positive effect on every aspect of his game.
Speaking after his 25th match win of the year on Wednesday, the Serbian star admitted, “I came to Eastbourne because I wanted to experience match play – mentally, physically and tactically – every way you look at it. Because grass is a different surface from any other, I would like to get as much time on the court as possible.
“The movement is very different from clay or hard courts. You’ve got to be very soft, very gentle, but yet very reactive… I’m trying to get as much of the match situations as possible, hear the chair umpire say 30-all, 4-all. Those kind of intense moments.”
Djokovic, the highest-ranked male player to compete in Eastbourne since Marcelo Rios in 1999, has not competed at a grass-court event prior to Wimbledon since the 2010 Aegon Championships.
Four days into his stay at Devonshire Park, the venue of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, the 30 year old says the fans have made him feel most welcome.
“It’s a very kind of informal tournament in a good way, where you can go around the grounds and kind of interact with people,” said Djokovic. “Sure, people come up to you, but they respect you if you’re going with a purpose to a certain court to observe a match or something like that. That’s what happened the other day. People are really kind of respectful and giving me space for certain time until I finished with my scouting.
“That’s the nice thing about this tournament. I don’t get to experience that. Usually I am, like most of the top players, in the locker rooms or especially in the areas where the players are going to be around. So it’s nice to go around the outside courts and observe, because that’s what we all used to do. It’s good to do that again for a change.”
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Djokovic has not lifted an ATP World Tour trophy since the first week of the season at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (d. Murray) in January. With Wimbledon set to begin on 3 July, the Serbian admitted that it’s “good to not be one of the top favourites.”
“I was very fortunate and privileged to have so much success in the past eight, nine years, and kind of enter most of the tournaments as one of the biggest favourites to win it.
“It is ‘liberating’ a bit. It releases a bit of the pressure. It’s always there. I mean, you still feel it. It’s part of who I am, what I do. And what I have achieved so far has added to those expectations from the people around.
“I try to lower those expectations myself, because I really want to be as much as I can, at this stage of my life and career, in the moment and try to focus only on what comes up next. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to win trophies and so forth. Of course I do, that’s why I’m playing professional tennis. But it’s just that I need to take things a bit slower and try and re-calibrate so I can get to the level where I want to get.
Djokovic, currently No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, has been named as second seed for The Championships at Wimbledon, where he is a three-time former champion.
It hasn’t been all about tennis for players this week. ATPWorldTour.com provides a recap of the highlights.
Follow all the latest off-court action on MyATP! Download the app for iPhone or Android and visit MyATP.com
Antalya Open – Antalya, Turkey
Dominic Thiem and Marsel Ilhan visited the Aspendos ampitheatre and played a game of mini tennis.
Borna Coric, David Ferrer, Anil Yuksel and Ilhan were the lucky players to participate in the draw ceremony.
Fernando Verdasco, Radu Albot and #NextGenATP German Daniel Altmaier tried their hand at jet skiing.
Aegon International – Eastbourne, U.K.
Novak Djokovic, John Isner, Gael Monfils, Kyle Edmund and Steve Johnson took part in Media Day.
Ryan Harrison visited Willingdon Community School to meet with local children.
Serbian star hoping to hit peak form on English south coast
Novak Djokovic recorded his 25th match win of the season on Wednesday in overcast conditions at the Aegon International in Eastbourne.
Having played only 13 points due to rain on Tuesday, Djokovic returned to Devonshire Park, venue of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, to complete a 6-4, 6-3 victory over qualifier Vasek Pospisil in 85 minutes.
“I’m glad that I came here to Eastbourne,” said Djokovic. “I have had a great couple of days of training with good players, different styles of game. Yesterday, we obviously started the match and it wasn’t really enjoyable to see the rain falling all day.
“But today we kind of played a full match, so I’m glad for that. I felt good on the court, considering it was my first grass-court match. I played against an opponent that has a really good game for grass. He serves well, comes to the net and has good variety. It was a really, really solid win. I’m happy with it.”
“Fabulous rally!” ???@DjokerNole & @VasekPospisil wow the crowd at the #AegonInternational #Eastbourne pic.twitter.com/CMJRyPnfqC
— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) June 28, 2017
The 30-year-old Djokovic, who is competing at this first grass-court tournament prior to Wimbledon since the 2010 Aegon Championships, will now meet American Donald Young in the quarter-finals.
Young managed to convert three of his 12 break point opportunities in a 6-4, 7-5 win over his #NextGenATP compatriot Jared Donaldson. Djokovic will now meet Young for the first time since the 2006 US Open.
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Five first-round matches and two doubles matches were completed on Wednesday before the heavens opened to further delay play at the Aegon International. Play was suspended at Devonshire Park at 4:55 p.m. local time, with five singles matches on court.
Earlier in the day, #NextGenATP Russian Daniil Medvedev recorded his sixth grass-court match win of the year as he defeated fifth seed Sam Querrey 6-3, 7-5. Medvedev, who is currently No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan for a spot at November’s Next Gen ATP Finals, struck nine aces and broke serve on three occasions to beat the 2015 finalist in 74 minutes.
View Emirates ATP Race To Milan
American Frances Tiafoe, 19, hit 18 aces and came close to beating seventh seed Richard Gasquet, a winner of two grass-court trophies, mid-afternoon. Gasquet fought back from a set and 4-5 deficit to record a 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 victory in two hours and 24 minutes.
Sixth seed Mischa Zverev led Ryan Harrison by a set and 4-2, but then had to fight off six set points before recording a 6-4, 7-6(9) victory. Harrison led 6/2 in the tie-break, then held two further set point opportunities at 7/6 and 9/8 before Zverev clinched his 17th match win of the year in 89 minutes.
British number one Johanna Konta eases past Romania’s Sorana Cirstea in the second round at Eastbourne in straight sets.