 "Christopher Eubanks")
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic dropped a set for the first time at Wimbledon 2023. But he made immediate corrections to the mistake as he beat Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the Round of 16 game at the Centre Court. The number two seed beat the number 17 seed 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 and entered the quarterfinals. It was the second day of the match after it was stopped with the Serb leading 2-0 on Sunday.
However, the biggest upset of the day came courtesy of Christopher Eubanks of the United States. The unseeded player continued his dream run after beating the number five seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-set thriller at Court No. 2. Eubanks, who beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the second round, received more support at SW 19 than the Greek who beat Andy Murray, the crowd favourite in the second round.
Thanks to this win, Eubanks has made it to his first-ever grand slam quarter-final in singles in his ninth attempt, over six years. He would now face third seed Danil Medvedev of Russia, who reached the quarterfinal after his Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka retired at the end of the second set. The Russian was leading 2-0 at the time of Lehecka’s retirement.
Women’s Singles defending champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan was another one to be favoured by her opponent’s injury. Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia could not complete the game in which she was trailing 1-4 and as a result, it was given to Rybakina who has now moved to the quarterfinal.
In other Women’s Singles matches, number two seed Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka beat Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-0 while USA’s Madison Keys got the better of another Russian, Mirra Andreeva to end Russia’s challenge in the Women’s Singles. The last quarterfinal berth in Women’s Singles will be decided after the match between Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova. At the time of publishing this copy, the sixth seed Tunisian led the Czech 6-0, 3-1.
As for India, there was some happy news on the eighth day after the sadness of the seventh. Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden moved to the third round in Men’s Doubles after getting better of the British pairing of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday 7-5, 6-3.
Later tonight, top seed Carlos LAcaraz of Spain will be up against the comeback man from Italy, Matteo Berrettini in a Round of 16 clash at the Centre Court. Denmark’s Holger Runne and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov are currently in action in a Men’s Singles Round of 16 match at Court No. 1. The winner of this game would play the winner of the match between Alcaraz and Berrettini.
