Tennis
D'Arcy Maine, ESPN.com 6y

ICYMI at Wimbledon: The last of the top 10s, a Serena domination and a Federer zinger

Tennis, ATP, PGA Tour

WIMBLEDON -- It was Manic Monday at the All England Club, and the day definitely lived up to the hype as virtually everyone took the court and madness ensued.

From upsets to hilarity, Day 7 pretty much had it all.


While all of the top-10 seeds have been sent packing, Serena Williams is still in contention for her eighth Wimbledon title and looks to be nearing her championship form.

On Monday, the 36-year-old needed just 62 minutes to dispatch qualifier (and fellow mom) Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2, 6-2. The 23-time Grand Slam champion notched 30 winners and 10 aces in her victory on Centre Court. She has yet to lose a set during her comeback run at the All England Club.

Despite the dominant performance, Williams later said she still wasn't quite satisfied with her performance and had a lot to work on going forward.

"There's a lot to improve on," she said. "This is only my fourth tournament back. I would hope there's a lot to continue to improve on. There is. I feel like I'm getting to where I want to be.

"For me, there's so much farther I want to go to get back where I was, and hopefully go beyond that."

Williams will next face unseeded Camila Giorgi on Tuesday. The 26-year old Italian advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ekaterina Makarova. While it's obviously a monumental achievement and great moment for her career, Giorgi wasn't exactly in the friendliest of moods after the match.

In fact, she raised some eyebrows when she was asked about Williams. She said simply: "I don't follow tennis, women's tennis, and I don't follow tennis. But I think is going to be a good match."

K.

As you can imagine, people were surprised at her lack of any comment or observation about one of the greatest players in the history of the game. However, when Williams was asked about Giorgi, she was gracious and kind -- and made sure to emphasize her support of women's tennis and sports.

"I played her a couple times," she said. "She has a very powerful game. To be so small, you know, she brings so much power and energy on the court. She's very aggressive. She does well on grass.

"I do follow women's tennis. Of course I support women's tennis. I support women's sports. I follow so much of it. I think it's super exciting. I watch her play a lot."

For the record, the two have met three times, and -- surprise, surprise -- Serena has won all three matches, most recently in the first round of the 2016 Australian Open.


Ever have a frustrating day at the office? Juan Martin del Potro feels your pain. During the first set of his fourth-round match against Gilles Simon, the Argentine was angry about losing a point and he slammed his racket to the ground before hitting it against his head.

If you're thinking to yourself, "How would this help in such a scenario?" or "Is he mad at his racket or his brain?" I honestly have no idea about either. But here's the video so you can judge for yourself:

Their match was ultimately suspended because of darkness Monday night, but he holds a two-sets-to-one lead entering the fourth. Perhaps a good night's sleep will improve his mood.


Roger Federer easily won again on Monday, snagging the first set in just 16 minutes and ultimately routing Adrian Mannarino, 6-0, 7-5, 6-4. Federer reaches the Wimbledon quarterfinals without having lost a set all tournament, and he looks to be well on his way to winning his ninth Wimbledon title.

During his news conference Monday, Federer was asked about potentially playing the final at the same time as the World Cup final. His answer is a master class in being a company man, while also hilarious.

Question: "Not to get ahead of ourselves, but on the final there's a potential clash with the World Cup final. Obviously, England potentially could get through the semifinal and be playing at the same time as perhaps yourself on Sunday. Would you be concerned about the fact people can watch simultaneously the World Cup match, be reacting to that, while in Centre Court? Would it detract from the atmosphere?"

Federer: "Well, it's going to happen anyway, if I'm going in the final or not, the Wimbledon final will take place, and so will the World Cup final. I'm more concerned the World Cup final will have issues because the Wimbledon final is going on. They'll hear every point, Wow, Love-15, 15-30. The players are going to look up in the crowd and not understand what's going on at Wimbledon. That's how important Wimbledon is to me and to us over here. Maybe you should ask the questions over in Russia, how they're going to feel about Wimbledon being played at the same time."

Before he took the court for his fourth-round match, Federer hit the practice court Sunday with two familiar faces. The 20-time Grand Slam champion practiced side by side with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

And perhaps being around one another was helpful, as they all three won on Monday.

With 13 combined Wimbledon titles, this is a group that clearly knows a thing or two about winning, and we should probably feel lucky just to see a picture of them all playing tennis at one time.


While there were a number of great matches Monday, perhaps no one staged a better comeback than the mixed doubles pairing of Victoria Azarenka and Jamie Murray. Playing on Centre Court, the duo trailed Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Robert Farah 5-1 in the third set but rallied to win the next six games and the match.

The crowd, which included Jamie's mom, Judy, was on their side throughout the match, and gave them a deserving ovation at its epic conclusion.

Azarenka summed it up best with three perfect emojis on Twitter:


For the third straight day at the All England Club, professional golfers were well represented at Centre Court. While Sergio Garcia didn't join in the fun Monday (he attended on both Friday and Saturday), Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick all got their strawberries and cream on and cheered on Federer, Serena and Nadal from the Royal Box.

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