TENNIS INSIDE OUT
Alison RiskeAndy MurrayAshleigh BartyBernard TomicCoco GauffDonna VekicGarbine MuguruzaJelena OstapenkoJoao SousaJohanna KontaKarolina MuchovaKarolina PliskovaMatteo BerrettiniNick KyrgiosNovak DjokovicPetra KvitovaRafael NadalRobert LindstedtRoger FedererSerena WilliamsSimona HalepThanasi KokkinakisUgo Humbert

Wimbledon Day 7 — Manic, Miserable Monday

Val and J.D.
Matteo Berrettini fall in Federer match Wimbledon 2019 Manic Monday

When we label the previous day of Wimbledon a dumpster fire, hopes can’t be too high for the matches that follow. Generally Manic Monday, the day when all men’s and women’s Round of 16 matches take place, is a frantic and exciting whirlwind of top-level tennis. This year….not so much.

Beautiful Heartbreaker

You guys…..this was probably the best match of the day. The battle of the Karolinas was three sets and over three hours of a wildly entertaining dance of power and delicacy, of spins and dodges and parries, of aces and winners and volleys and passes. There were 105 winners between them, and a whopping 92 times at net. AT NET.

It was one of the most beautiful matches Pliskova has ever played, spurred on by having to counter the incredible array of shots Muchova can throw down. It was a devastating loss, especially after saving two match points but losing the third on a lucky net cord. She’d also served for the match at both 5-4 and 11-10 in the third set, but Muchova refused to give up, finding a second wind, a third wind, an 80th wind.

For Pliskova fans, it was a highlight of the day and a total gut punch. For Muchova fans — and there are some new ones after this for sure — it was a series of valiant and gutsy comebacks.

There was a lot of talk this tournament about Coco Gauff and her new celebrity fanbase, but surely there have to be some quirky style points for a Muchova / Rebel Wilson BFFdom. We are here for it!

In other heartbreaker news…for Petra fans…

A Merciful Maiming of the Hype

Nothing can KILL the Coco Gauff hype yet, it’s still too fresh and new and full of celebs tweeting and journalists penning romantic odes. But the FEVER that had folks expecting a 2019 Wimby title for the teenager was rapidly cooled today, as Slam-winner, former #1 and current #7 Simona Halep went calmly about her business and beat Gauff 6-3, 6-3.

We hope there won’t be any more talk of removing age restrictions on the WTA tour. It’ll be better to let Gauff develop at a more natural pace and stay a kid a little while longer, refining her elegant tennis in between squeeing over Jaden Smith.

Riske 4 Rewards

Living up to her Twitter handle, @Riske4rewards, Alison Riske went for it with every fiber of her being today and got herself into the QFs of Wimbledon by beating the World #1. The article from Steve Tignor above gives a wonderfully thorough account of the match, as well as how much planning went into it for Ali.

Commiserations to Barty fans, who can take some small consolation that the Aussie player will retain her top spot in the rankings.

Riske’s reward for her stellar efforts so far is to face Serena Williams. The fiery aggression she showed to break Barty in the final set is the way she’ll have to play all the way through, though if she’s able to get up to net that will help her chances as well.

In the meantime, Ali can just enjoy how much her grass court skills have paid off this year, and beam happily over tweets like this one below:

Big 4 Kicking Grass and Taking Names

The Big 4 as far as Wimby is concerned, Nole, Fed, Rafa, and Serena, have had a pretty easy go of it so far at SW19. That was frightfully in evidence today, as all blitzed right through their matches, seemingly trying to race each other for who could do it in the least amount of time.

Ugo Humbert, whose shots were going in the right direction but always just a little bit outside the lines, at least showed glimmers of his talent and it felt as if he was just a few millimeters away from being really IN his match against Nole.

As for the rest, even for fans of those top players, it was not that much fun to watch. Especially with the previously peaking Berrettini, who seemed to suffer from a combination of nerves, injury/fatigue from previous marathon matches, and Fed having a devastating game plan in order. To top it all off, Matteo wiped out on a set point and got subjected to Fed’s secondhand-embarrassment laughter at his misfortune. That is a rough day at the office.

Though Federer did have this to offer for all the armchair critics of the dudes who didn’t make much of a dent in the scorelines today:

Still, it made for rather a miserable Monday, particularly on the men’s side. Guido Pella snatched an eleventh hour victory over Milos Raonic, and that was probably the most interesting match of the day for the ATP.

(Article continues below.)

What Else???

Remember that brief moment when we thought Australia would have an Epic Era in men’s tennis, with three stellar players leading the way? Now look where we are, with Kyrgios stirring up controversy and going out early to his nemesis Nadal, Tomic getting fined his entire prize money for tanking a match, and Kokkinakis playing the challenger in Winnetka this week.

So…..THIS happened….

Then Andy commented, referencing one of Tennis Twitter’s favorite memes….

And TennisTV obliged…….

And it just never. stops. being. funny.

Meanwhile, Lindstedt also offered thoughts on the turning point for their win in doubles…

Your Moment of Zen

And this just in….can we hear a HALLELUJAH!!!!??????

And…that’s a wrap on Day 7! How well did you enjoy Manic (Miserable) Monday? Let us know in the comments or drop us a line @TennisInsideOut!

Are you all caught up on Dumpster Fire Day 6??

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