Brave performances see four semi-final spots booked on Day 9 at SW19
The first Wimbledon semi-final spots were secured on Tuesday in the men’s and women’s draws as the action ramps up at the All England Club.
Some have made it this far at the tournament for the very first time, while others got back to familiar territory.
Here’s how everything unfolded.
The clock is about to strike 11pm in London and a 39-year-old Novak Djokovic has just finished battling through a 5hr 15min match against a player 14 years his junior, in Félix Auger-Aliassime, to punch his ticket to an eighth consecutive, and 15th overall, Wimbledon semi-final and a 55th career Grand Slam semi-final.
How did he do it?
“With a racquet and a lot of heart,” said an exhausted Djokovic on court after contesting the longest Wimbledon quarter-final in history.
“A lot of... I guess... management of the nerves and the extreme tension that you feel in this kind of matches. Towards the end, it was really anybody's game. I think the scoreline was pretty much even all the way through. I mean, that's kind of a reality, image or presentation of this kind of match today.”
Djokovic played a strong deciding super tiebreak to squeeze past his Canadian opponent 7-6(12/10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4/7), 7-6(10/4) and book a rematch of last year’s semi-final with top-seeded Jannik Sinner.
“I think it was really anybody's game in the super tiebreak in the fifth. What can I say? I mean, these are kind of moments that I still play tennis for, for sure,” said the 24-time major champion.
“I wish it was finals so I don't need to worry about how the body will feel tomorrow, but... Yeah. I'm happy, I'm happy that I won.”
Djokovic survived 29 aces off of Auger-Aliassime’s racquet – he hit 14 of his own – but landed an impressive 73 percent of his first serves in a clash of slim margins.
The third-seeded Auger-Aliassime saved 11/13 break points and hit a stunning 74 winners against 61 unforced errors but could not stay with Djokovic in any of the long rallies in the super tiebreak.
With his family watching on in the stands under the closed roof on Centre Court, Djokovic celebrated with a dance, which he does as a nod to his daughter Tara.
“I was telling the kids to go to sleep after the fourth but they didn't want to listen. I'm glad they stayed because it was honestly one of the best matches I was part of in this court in my career,” said Djokovic, who is a seven-time Wimbledon champion.
When the interviewer started listing Djokovic’s semi-final stats to him in his next question, the Serb interrupted him and said: “That's great but it's just another semi-final for me. I'm going to look at all the numbers and everything when I finish my career.
“Right now it's all business. I still have to recover, I'm still in the tournament and I have the best player in the world [to face] in a few days' time.”
Earlier in the day, the aforementioned best player in the world, defending champion Sinner, joked with the on-court interviewer when she mentioned to him he managed to get the win on Tuesday in relatively warm conditions – something he has been struggling with in recent months.
“Thanks for reminding me,” the Italian world No.1 said with a chuckle.
“We worked a lot, especially after Paris, trying to understand what went wrong there. And we prepared ourselves in the best possible way. And in any case, it was a huge test today. I felt really, really comfortable in the physical side today. So a good step forward.
“But even in the same time, if it would happen again like in Paris, I hope not. But if it happens again, we know that we need to change a couple of things again.”
If Tuesday was a test, Jannik Sinner certainly passed it with flying colours, overcoming a tricky opponent in the form of Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 7-6(4), 6-3 to reach a 10th Grand Slam semi-final and third at Wimbledon.
Sinner fired 16 aces and won 84 percent of his first-serve points en route to a two-hour 35-minute victory over Struff, who at 36, is the oldest first-time Grand Slam men’s singles quarter-finalist in the Open Era.
“He’s a very, very tough player to play against. He deserves everything he has done and achieved in his career. And he's a great, great person off the court with an amazing team,” said Sinner of Struff.
“In the beginning I felt like he started better than me. I was struggling a little bit, but then I tried to get into the match. I started to serve a little bit better, was a break up in the second set, couldn't use it, but tried to stay there mentally and, of course, very happy to be back in the semi-finals here.”
Facing an aggressive player with a massive serve, Sinner later said he was proud of how he served in the important moments and will now focus on managing the two off days he has before his next match.
“It's going to be a very relaxed day tomorrow. A little bit harder then the next day again. Then hopefully be ready for the semi-finals,” he said.
Seven years after enjoying a breakout moment as a 15-year-old reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, Coco Gauff reached her first semi-final at the All England Club with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over fellow American Jessica Pegula.
Gauff leads the tour with 15 three-set wins this season and her triumph over Pegula was her fourth consecutive three-set match of the fortnight in south-west London.
“I think Jess's ball is so flat and low, so I think I just needed to trust that I can be in there in the rallies and just play the tennis that I wanted to play,” said Gauff, who improved her record against Pegula to 4-5.
“I think I started to land more first serves in the court, so I think that also helped. Just trusting my shots. In the first set, I think I made a little bit too many errors, rushing out the rallies a little bit too quickly.
“I just felt like the last two sets were really great tennis. I've been going three sets almost every match, so I feel like when you have that faith in yourself as a competitor, when the match goes a distance, when you lose one set, you're not panicking.”
A two-time major champion already, the 22-year-old Gauff is now the youngest player to reach the semi-finals at all four Slams since Maria Sharapova, who achieved the feat at Roland-Garros in 2007.
Her best previous results at Wimbledon were three fourth-round appearances in 2024, 2021 and 2019, and she hadn’t won a match on the surface since her third-round victory at the All England Club two years ago – something Gauff was acutely aware of entering this year’s Championships.
“Gosh, honestly, pretty insane, honestly. Considering how I hadn't won a match on grass in two years before this tournament, so I'm definitely just really happy with how I played today,” said Gauff, who is through to the sixth Grand Slam semi-final of her career.
“I think after seven years playing this tournament, it's finally the first time I can walk on Centre Court and I didn't feel nervous. So I don't know if I'm becoming a vet or I don't know.”
Later in her press conference, Gauff added: “I think I'm able to relax a bit because I just feel regardless of how the rest of this tournament goes, I really think I've found a bit of a breakthrough on grass.
“I think I'm just proud of myself. Obviously, I'm not satisfied. I want to go all the way. Also, at the same time, I'm just looking at the match in front of me and just trying to keep doing better each point.”
Up next for Gauff is Czech No.10 seed Karolina Muchova, who advanced to a fifth major semi-final, and first at Wimbledon, with a 7-6(4), 6-4 performance against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.
The crafty 29-year-old has completed her set of semi-finals reached at all four majors, becoming the fourth woman from her country to achieve that feat in the Open Era.
After making the quarter-finals on her first two appearances at the All England Club, Muchova lost in the opening round for four consecutive years, with her results this fortnight marking her first victories at Wimbledon since 2021.
A titlist in Bad Homburg in the build-up to these Championships, Muchova extended her winning streak to nine victories and improved her record against Osaka to 4-3 head-to-head.
She won 80 percent of her first-serve points on Tuesday, converted 3/7 break points and was successful in 12/18 points at the net.
Muchova is actually allergic to grass and has to take pills and use sprays and eyedrops to manage her symptoms when competing on the surface.
Luckily, all the remedies have been working and her game has finally clicked on the turf.
“I'm appreciating definitely more the time that I'm here, that I can play, that I don't have these big issues that I had in the past. I'm also happy that I now am like selling my game, I would say, and that I can use it,” said Muchova.
Osaka was playing her first Wimbledon quarter-final after she knocked out world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round.
“I feel like it's hard because I played so well in my last match, then today I just feel like I didn't play well at all and I didn't have any energy. I mean, the score was pretty good for what it was, I guess,” said the Japanese star after her defeat.
ROLAND-GARROS
17 May - 6 June 2027
