Eight times the champion here, it should be remembered that what Federer is doing, at the age of 39, is little short of remarkable. Not only is he one month short of his 40th birthday, an age when tennis players are usually long retired, he is back after two knee surgeries in 2020 and a rehabilitation that was harder than he anticipated. –Simon Cambers, The Guardian 5 July 2021

The women’s line-up for the last four

By Roger Childs

After the carnage for women’s seeds at Roland Garros when only one of the top ten made the quarter finals, the two top women are into the last four at Wimbledon. Number one seed Australian Ash Barty is on target for a finals’ berth and might play number two, Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka. Both had comfortable quarter final victories to make the semis. Batty demolished fellow Australian Ajla Tonljanovic 6-1 6-3, and Sabalenka accounted for Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6-4 6-3.

The other semi-finalists are Angelique Kerber was the Wimbledon champion in 2018 and  eighth seed Czech Karolina Pliskova who is a former world number one.

 Can anyone stop Novak Djokovic?

The Serb easily qualified for the quarters and is likely to win the final and take his 20^th slam. This would bring him level with the two legends Rafael Nadal, who is not playing Wimbledon this year, and Roger Federer. The Swiss also qualified easily, as did Canadian Denis Shapovalov who is in the last eight along with compatriot Felix Auger-Aliassimo. The latter had an upset victory over fourth seed, Alexander Zverev.

The hard hitting number seven seed Italian Mattteo Berrettini is also in the quarters as are Russian Karen Kharchanov and the unseeded Martin Fucsovics from Hungary.

It is hard to see anyone denying the world number one the gentlemen’s singles titles. Djokovic has a superb all round game and the ability to outlast opponents in tough five set matches. He did this against Roger Federer in the 2019 final – one of the greatest of all time, and more recently in the French Open final to come back from two sets down to overcome Stephanos Tsitsipas.

It is possible that Djokovic could meet Federer once again in the final – the tournament organisers’ dream. However, first things first – the quarter finals. The Swiss maestro plays Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the latter having upset the second seed Danill Medevedev in five sets in the fourth round, and Djokovic meets Fucsovics.  

What is certain, is that there is plenty of exciting tennis to come as Wimbledon draws to a close at the weekend.