Wimbledon 2023: Stefanos Tsitsipas will be on court for the fifth day in a row

Eagle Tribune

08 July 2023

Wimbledon 2023: Stefanos Tsitsipas will be on court for the fifth day in a row

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Stefanos Tsitsipas already has eliminated two Grand Slam champions — Dominic Thiem and Andy Murray — while playing for four days in a row at Wimbledon.

He’s scheduled to be back out on court for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday.

“I’m ready for anything, pretty much. Unfortunately I can’t plan how long I want to play,” said the No. 5-seeded Tsitsipas, a two-time runner-up at majors. “Sometimes I just have to accept what comes from the other side of the net, try and work around that.”

The victory over Thiem was interrupted by rain and stretched from Tuesday to Wednesday; the victory over Murray was halted because it got too late at night to continue on Thursday so they resumed on Friday.

Tsitsipas has put in a lot more work this week than his third-round opponent, Laslo Djere of Serbia.

While Tsitsipas was on court a total of 10 sets across 8 hours, 36 minutes in his two singles matches, the unseeded Djere has contested eight sets over 6 hours, 36 minutes while eliminating Americans Max Cressy and Ben Shelton.

Add in this, too: Tsitsipas played doubles on Friday with his brother.

“It’s been four days of lots of intensity, just lots of repetition,” Tsitsipas said. “You have to wake up every morning and do your routines again and again.”

WHEN ARE SATURDAY'S MATCHES?

Tsitsipas-Djere is scheduled to be played second on No. 2 Court, and won't begin before 1 p.m. local time, which is 8 a.m. EDT. That will be followed by No. 10 Frances Tiafoe of the United States against No. 21 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. The top-seeded man, Carlos Alcaraz, will open play at Centre Court against No. 25 Nicolas Jarry at 1:30 p.m. local time, 8:30 a.m. EDT, followed by 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur against 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu. The third match in the main stadium is defending champion Elena Rybakina against British wild-card entry Katie Boulter, which could get going at about 7 p.m. local time, 2 p.m. EDT. No. 1 Court starts its program at 1 p.m.. local time, 8 a.m. EDT, with 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev against Marton Fucsovics, followed by No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka against Anna Linkova. Chris Eubanks, a 27-year-old American who played college tennis at Georgia Tech, appears in his first third-round match at a Grand Slam tournament, facing Christopher O'Connell of Australia on Court 18 at about 1:30 p.m. local time, 8:30 a.m. EDT.

WHAT WERE FRIDAY'S OTHER RESULTS?

Hours after Tsitsipas wrapped up his marathon against Murray, Novak Djokovic needed just over two hours to eliminate Stan Wawrinka and get to the fourth round. No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 4 Jessica Pegula reached the fourth round, too. The day's biggest upset was No. 5 Caroline Garcia's loss to No. 32 Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (0), 4-6, 7-5.

HOW TO WATCH WIMBLEDON ON TV

— In the U.S.: ESPN, Tennis Channel

— Other countries listed here.

BETTING GUIDE

As has been the case since before the start of the tournament, Swiatek (plus-140) and Djokovic (minus-170) remain the favorites to win the singles trophies, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Eubanks is listed at minus-205 against O'Connell, who is at plus-168.

GET CAUGHT UP AT THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB

What you need to know about Wimbledon, the year’s third Grand Slam tennis tournament:

— Frances Tiafoe is the first African-American man in the top 10 in nearly 15 years

TAKE A TENNIS QUIZ

Try your hand at the AP’s Wimbledon quiz.

THE NUMBER TO KNOW

20-18 — That was the score of the final-set tiebreaker in Lesia Tsurenko's third-round victory over Ana Bogdan, making it, at 38 points, the longest tiebreaker in a women's Grand Slam singles match. The third set alone took 1 hour, 49 minutes to finish, and the full match lasted 3 hours, 40 minutes.

THE QUOTE TO KNOW

“I mean, I can’t throw my racket on the grass, so I felt like at least I need to scream, kind of lose it a little bit. After that I felt a little bit better. I felt a little relief inside.” — Aryna Sabalenka.