Headlines and sidelines at Wimbledon on Thursday:
– Headlines –
+ Champ Muguruza in a shock defeat
+ Nadal canters into the third round
+ Third seed Cilic blows two sets lead, out
+ Djokovic through despite knee woe
+ No.1 Halep through in two
– Sidelines –
Italians feel the joy of six
— Fabio Fognini beat Simone Bolelli in what was only the fifth-ever all-Italian match at Wimbledon in the Open Era. They were two of six Italian men in the second round — a new record at a major in Open tennis.
Roger, Elmo, Bert and Ernie
— Roger Federer turned up at the All England Club to practice wearing a “Sesame Street” t-shirt featuring puppet characters from the US children’s television show.
Eh-oh
— Two men sat watching the action on Centre Court went even further, dressed as Laa-Laa and Po, two characters from the pre-school children’s TV show “Teletubbies”.
– Who’s saying what –
“I’d fight a bear for you. Not a grizzly bear. Or a brown bear. Or a panda bear. But maybe like a Care Bear? Yea, I’d fight one of those.”
— Bethanie Mattek-Sands to her doubles partner Lucie Safarova on Twitter
“I make a mistake, I put my shorts the other way. You cannot force me to change my shorts in front of everybody. For me, that’s not respectful.”
— Rafael Nadal on shorts removal etiquette.
“When I’m done practicing I go to my house, play video games. I love video games. So I stay there to watch TV, play video games, and then I read some books. Most of the time I just play video games. I love the shooter games, and then there is one game I playing now, it’s unbelievable, it’s ‘God of War’.”
— Guido Pella on how he likes to chill out.
“Right now I’m not in the mood to enjoy. Sorry.”
— A beaten Stan Wawrinka is in no mood to discuss how he likes to chill out.
“There was one recently that was pasta and honey. Which is a bit unusual. He did (enjoy it). Absolutely, of course he did. I’m guessing so. I guess he wouldn’t have asked for it if he didn’t like it.”
— Anthony Davies, Wimbledon’s food and drink boss, on weird player requests. He refused to name the mystery man.
“Remember when you were 25 and went out all night and mixed cocktails all night, and the hangover after that? Compare that to when you’re 35. That hangover lasts two days all of a sudden instead of one day.”
— Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt, 41, on the challenges of keeping going in his 40s.
“I’m still waiting for that cake. I’m still waiting.”
— Novak Djokovic on Johanna Konta’s thus-far empty promises on baking him a cake.
“Just stupidity. Stupidity pays a price.”
— Nick Kyrgios on his fine at Queen’s Club.
“That’s what he has to do: he can’t call it before you hit it.”
— Umpire James Keothavong slaps down Nick Kyrgios challenging a foot fault call after a service.
– Numbers up –
64 — Number of aces rained down by John Isner in his defeat of Reuben Bemelmans: the third-highest ever during a Wimbledon match, only beaten by his own longest tennis match ever in 2010 with Nicolas Mahut.
30 — different countries represented in the women’s second round, led by the United States with 10 and Russia with five.
12 — players aged over 30 who reached the round of 64, while only five teenagers got through.
– Royal Box watch –
Enjoying the best seats on Centre Court were former British prime minister John Major; Oscar nominee Lesley Manville; the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother James Middleton and sister Pippa Matthews; and London Evening Standard newspaper editor George Osborne, Britain’s former finance minister.
Sports starts in the box included 1960 Wimbledon winner Neale Fraser, 1969 winner Ann Jones and former England Test cricket captain Alastair Cook.