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With the first week of the 2018 Wimbledon Championships behind us, let’s take the time to look back at the tournament so far, and preview the second week.
Roger Federer, the defending champion, has won his opening three matches with minimal fuss, but so too has Rafael Nadal, which means the Spaniard will retain the world number one ranking in the week starting July 16.
First to the Swiss Maestro, who turned heads when he walked onto Centre Court on Monday sporting Uniqlo’s clothing – marking a new era after his two-decade contract with Nike ended earlier this year.
While his uniform was noticeably different, it was still the same old Federer as far as his progress is concerned, as he advanced to the fourth round for the 16th time in his past 18 Wimbledon appearances.
He was barely forced to sweat in his first three matches, defeating Dusan Lajovic, Lukas Lacko and Jan-Lennard Struff without his serve being threatened.
The 36-year-old isn’t expected to be challenged any further when he faces his first seeded opponent, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, in the fourth round.
The highest seed he could face before the final is Kevin Anderson (eight), who faces Gael Monfils tonight (AEST), while former finalist Milos Raonic could be waiting in the wings in the semi-finals.
Nadal has carried his impressive clay-court form – during which he won his titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome, as well as his 11th French Open crown – to the All England Club, having not lost more than four games in any set in his three straight-sets victories.
Although the scoreline might suggest otherwise, the Spaniard was made to work hard in his third round win over Australian Alex de Minaur, the 19-year-old showing maturity beyond his years in his Centre Court debut.
De Minaur, who was making his first appearance in the Wimbledon main draw, was in the same position Nick Kyrgios was in 2014, facing one of the game’s greatest players on Centre Court.
But while he couldn’t emulate what the Canberran did four years ago, he showed little signs of nervousness and produced some great rallies and shots to run the Spaniard ragged on occasions.
Kyrgios’ campaign ended abruptly, going down to Kei Nishikori in a straight-sets shocker on Saturday night (local time).
While he was able to force a second set tiebreak against the former US Open finalist, controversy again surrounded the Aussie’s performance, as the scoreline suggested he again appeared to give little or no effort.
He was the last Australian remaining, and the last of five to depart on what was a dirty Day 6 for the country, with de Minaur, Ashleigh Barty, Daria Gavrilova and Matthew Ebden having bowed out earlier in the day.
Barty and Gavrilova were upset by Daria Kasatkina and Aliaksandra Sasnovich respectively, and while Ebden managed to take a set off Gilles Simon he went down fighting in four sets.
Still in the men’s draw, 12th seed Novak Djokovic has also advanced to the second week, and after he won his first two matches in straight sets, before coming from a set down to defeat 21st seed Kyle Edmund and end British involvement in singles.
He is up against Karen Khachanov in the fourth round, where a victory could see him line up against Nishikori in the quarters, and possibly Nadal in the semi-finals.
But the biggest shock came in the form of third seed Marin Cilic’s second-round exit, after he squandered a two-sets-to-love lead to go down to Guido Pella in a match that lasted two days.
Poor weather forced it to be paused on Wednesday, at the end of which Cilic was leading by two sets with the third evenly poised. The Croat lost his composure to crash to his earliest Grand Slam exit since last year’s Australian Open.
Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov was another early casualty, losing to Stan Wawrinka in his first round match; Wawrinka himself departed the following round after losing to Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano in straight sets.
Of the 32 seeds that started in the women’s draw, just seven have managed to reach the fourth round, with Karolina Pliskova the only top-ten seed to get that far.
The carnage started when reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens went down to Croat Donna Vekic on the opening day; this triggered a domino effect which then saw Caroline Wozniacki, Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep all crash out.
Wozniacki went down in three sets to Russian Ekaterina Makarova, while Muguruza suffered the earliest upset by a women’s defending champion at Wimbledon since 1994 when she lost to Alison van Uytvanck, also in three.
Those results mean Halep will retain the world number one ranking at the end of the tournament, but the reigning French Open champion has also departed, by way of a three-set loss to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei.
The 26-year-old’s third-round exit is the earliest by a top seed at SW19 since Serena Williams lost at this stage in 2014, and is the earliest by a reigning French Open champion since Li Na lost in the second round in 2011.
Local hope Johanna Konta had her campaign dashed by Dominika Cibulkova, who was controversially bumped out of the seedings field in favour of Serena Williams, in the second round.
Cibulkova then defeated Elise Mertens to advance to the fourth round. The Slovak, who reached the Australian Open final in 2014, has won her last seven fourth-round matches at Majors and is expected to continue that streak when she faces Hsieh tonight (AEST).
Amidst the carnage, former Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Angelique Kerber remain alive in the draw, as do seventh seed Karolina Pliskova and seven-time champion Serena Williams.
Ostapenko, whose first-round loss at the French Open caused her to drop out of the world’s top ten, breezed through her first three matches without dropping a set and will fancy her chances of reaching the semi-finals at the All England Club for the first time.
The 21-year-old was projected to have faced Petra Kvitova in the fourth round, but will instead face Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who defeated the two-time Wimbledon champion in the first round.
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Kerber, who has rediscovered the form that saw her ascend to world number one nearly two years ago, is the highest seed remaining in the top half of the draw, however she faces a tricky opponent in Belinda Bencic, a former world number seven who is starting to regain her form after a raft of injuries in recent years saw her nearly drop out of the top 200.
Amazingly, Kerber has never taken a set off Bencic in four previous meetings.
On the other side of the draw, Serena Williams has firmed in favouritism for the title after continuing her impressive comeback from maternity leave with three consecutive straight-sets victories at SW19.
The 36-year-old, who has captured seven titles here, is not expected to be threatened until the semi-finals, where she is likely to face Pliskova. It would be their first meeting since Pliskova famously upset the American in the semi-finals of the 2016 US Open.
Those are just some of the stories that have unfolded at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships so far, with more questions to be asked as we enter the second week of the tournament, such as:
Wimbledon resumes with all Round of 16 matches to be played tonight (AEST).
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