LONDON: Wimbledon’s traditional ‘Middle Sunday’ of rest will disappear in 2022, as will the ‘Manic Monday’ that follows it.

For one last time, the oldest Grand Slam tournament was quiet as first week of this year’s edition ended. And for one last time, the second week will begin with a bevy of action, the only major to schedule all 16 women’s and men’s fourth-round singles matches on the same day.

“I think I will miss it, to be honest,” 2018 champion Angelique Kerber said.

Get ready for a packed scheduled on Monday that includes teenagers Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu, world number one Ash Barty and Kerber in women’s matches, along with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, a total of eight of the top 10 seeds and 20-year-old American Sebastian Korda in men’s matches.

It won’t be the same moving forward, and Federer understands why the All England Club is changing its ways in this regard.

“Everybody wants more days. Look, more days means more revenue, more options, more this and that. I get it,” said Federer, whose third round win over Cameron Norrie on Saturday gave him the 1,250th victory of his career. “I don’t think they did it only because of revenue. I think they just think it’s going with the times, as well.”

It’s quite possible that the rest of the fortnight could end up being viewed as its own sort of referendum on the present and future of tennis.

That’s because while there are representatives of the old guard who have multiple Grand Slam titles, including at the All England Club — Federer (20), Djokovic (19) and Kerber (three) — there truly are so many fresh faces.

Of the 32 singles players still in the brackets, 26 never have been to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon — and 20 are participating in the fourth round for the first time.

Korda, who faces 25th seed Karen Khachanov, is making his debut at Wimbledon, as is Ilya Ivashka, a 27-year-old from Belarus who takes on seventh seed Matteo Berrettini, a 2019 US Open semi-finalist who leads all remaining players with 60 aces.

Djokovic’s opponent, 17th seed Cristian Garin of Chile, and Federer’s, 23rd seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, were a combined 0-5 at the All England Club until this year.

Second seed Daniil Medvedev staged a stunning comeback from two sets down for the first time in his career to beat 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic and make the fourth round for the first time. Medvedev faces Polish 14th seed Hubert Hurkacz.

Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian 10th seed who put out two-time winner Andy Murray in the last round, faces Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, a semi-finalist in 2019 while the other matches see fourth seed Alexander Zverev taking on 16th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime and fifth seed Andrey Rublev facing Marton Fucsovics

Bautista Agut was a semi-finalist in 2019, the last time the tournament was played because of the cancellation a year ago amid the pandemic, and is the only man left other than eight-time champion Federer and five-time champion Djokovic to even have been to so much as one quarter-final at Wimbledon.

Kerber, 23rd seed Madison Keys and 19th-seeded Karolina Muchova are the only women with past quarterfinal experience at the place.

Kerber faces Gauff, a 17-year-old American who also made it to the fourth round in 2019 and is coming off her first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros last month.

Britain’s Raducanu, a wild-card entry who is 18 and ranked 338th, is making her Grand Slam debut and appearing in only her second tour-level event of any sort. She meets Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.

Other women at Wimbledon for the first time include Barty’s opponent, French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova, 18th-seeded Elena Rybakina, who plays Belarus second seed Aryna Sabalenka, and Liudmila Samsonova, who plays former world number one Karolina Pliskova.

Former French Open champion Iga Swiatek, the seventh seed who had won just one match in grass on the main tour before Wimbledon, takes on Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, the 21st seed.

The other women’s matchups see Muchova against Paula Badosa and Keys facing Viktorija Golubic.

Only three of the top 12 women in the WTA rankings will play on Monday.

“The past couple of Slams, we have seen that there have been a lot of upsets ... and a lot of opportunities for really anyone to do well at any tournament,” said Keys, the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up. “It’s been great to watch.”

Meanwhile, the All England Club announced on Sunday that Centre Court and Court Number One can be at full capacity as of Tuesday, when the quarter-finals begin.

Saturday’s remaining results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Third round: 2-Daniil Medvedev (Russia) bt 32-Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2; 6-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt 29-Cameron Norrie (Great Britain) 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; 4-Alexander Zverev (Germany) bt 31-Taylor Fritz (US) 6-7 (3/-), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Women’s singles:

Third round: 1-Ashleigh Barty (Australia) bt Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-3, 7-5; 14-Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic) bt Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 7-5.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2021