Wimbledon: Teenager Mirra Andreeva cruises to final 16; Djokovic joins 100 membership

“Even when I wished to indicate my feelings I could not as a result of I used to be out of breath on each level,” mentioned Andreeva, who got here via the qualifying match and is making her match debut. AP

London: Novak Djokovic contests his a hundredth Wimbledon match on Sunday as he continues his quest for a record-equalling eighth title whereas the All England Membership witnessed the beginning of a brand new star in 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva.

Djokovic tackles Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz on Centre Courtroom, the place he has not misplaced in 10 years.

Nonetheless, if he’s to proceed his bid for a 3rd main of 2023, and match Margaret Courtroom’s all-time document of 24 Slams, he must discover a method of battering via the seemingly impregnable Hurkacz defence.

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The Pole has not dropped serve on the match, saving all 11 break factors he has confronted and profitable all 46 service video games.

“I don’t see too many holes in his sport,” mentioned Djokovic, who has a 5-0 document towards the 18th-ranked Hurkacz, together with at Wimbledon in 2019.

Hurkacz made the semi-finals in 2021, having turn into the final man to defeat Roger Federer at Wimbledon within the quarter-finals.

Twelve months in the past, nonetheless, he crashed out within the first spherical.

Fairytale

Within the ladies’s draw, Andreeva’s fairytale season continued because the 16-year-old Russian reached the fourth spherical, defeating Twenty second-seeded compatriot Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5.

“Even when I wished to indicate my feelings I couldn’t as a result of I used to be out of breath on each level,” mentioned Andreeva, who got here via the qualifying match and is making her match debut.

{The teenager} needed to battle laborious within the second set, getting back from 1-4 down earlier than squandering seven break factors within the ninth sport.

However she held her nerve to interrupt Potapova within the eleventh sport earlier than securing victory when her opponent buried an overhead into the web.

It was Potapova’s forty fifth and last unforced error.

Andreeva arrived at Wimbledon having made a run to the third spherical on the French Open, additionally out of qualifying.

She is going to rise within the rankings from 102 to the highest 65 not less than after Wimbledon, her first grass-court occasion on the principle tour.

After being banned from Wimbledon in 2022 over the battle in Ukraine, seven gamers from Russia and Belarus have made it to the final 16 in males’s and girls’s singles.

Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev kicks off the motion on Centre Courtroom, hoping to finish a full set of quarter-finals in any respect 4 Slams.

The 25-year-old faces Alexander Bublik, born in Russia however representing Kazakhstan.

One other Russian, Roman Safiullin, has made the final 16 on his fundamental draw debut.

The world quantity 92, who had by no means beforehand received past the second spherical of a Slam, faces 2021 semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov.

Ukraine v Belarus

Jannik Sinner, the eighth-ranked Italian, takes on unseeded Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia, hoping to safe a second successive quarter-final.

Ladies’s world primary Iga Swiatek, the reigning US Open and French Open champion, has not dropped a set but.

In her bid to achieve the quarter-finals for the primary time, she takes on Swiss 14th seed Belinda Bencic.

In a last-16 conflict tinged with political significance, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus takes on Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

On the French Open, Svitolina and all Ukraine gamers refused to shake palms with opponents from Russia and Belarus.

“I gained’t promote my nation out for likes,” mentioned Svitolina after refusing to shake palms with world quantity two Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in Paris.

Svitolina was even booed by the French crowd for her defiant stance.

Finally 12 months’s US Open, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk provided solely a faucet of the racquets after dealing with Azarenka.

Each Svitolina and Azarenka are former semi-finalists on the match. Azarenka, nonetheless, enjoys a 5-0 head-to-head document over the Ukraine participant.

“Loads of Ukrainians will probably be watching, will probably be supporting me. I’ll go on the market and put the combating spirit on and simply actually combat for each single level,” mentioned Svitolina.

A second Ukrainian, Lesia Tsurenko, was knocked out Sunday, shedding 6-1, 6-3 to world quantity three Jessica Pegula.

Pegula is within the quarter-finals for the primary time, the place she’s going to tackle Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up.

In a males’s singles third-round match held over from Saturday, Grigor Dimitrov, a semi-finalist again in 2014, defeated US tenth seed Frances Tiafoe in straight units.

The 32-year-old Dimitrov will face Holger Rune on Monday for a spot within the quarter-finals.