London - 07/07

Good morning and welcome back to TIE-Breakfast: all the tennis you need over breakfast.

Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000 and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30.

Today is Tuesday, July 7, in London it's 07:30 and it's 26 degrees. Ok, let's go.

On the menu today

• 🇬🇧 Fery, the fairytale continues: he ousts Dimitrov and reaches his first Slam quarterfinal
• 🇮🇹 Cobolli overwhelms de Minaur and reaches the last eight again
• 🇮🇹 Paolini gets past Eala and reaches the quarterfinals
• 🇩🇪 Zverev and Fritz complete the men's picture
• 🇨🇿 Noskova eliminates Keys and closes out the women's draw
• 🇮🇹 Today Sinner-Struff, with Djokovic-Auger-Aliassime on Centre Court

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇬🇧 Fery Stops Dimitrov

Wild card Arthur Fery beat Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, closing out the fifth-set super tie-break 10 points to 7, coming back from two sets to one down and reaching a Slam quarterfinal for the first time in his career. The last Englishman left in the draw had started as an afterthought and found himself holding together an endless finish in front of his home crowd, after more than four hours of play. More than the feat itself, what stands out is the composure with which he handled the moments when the match seemed to be slipping away, right when Dimitrov had edged back in front. Stories like this, on home grass, often say more than the starting ranking suggests.

🇮🇹 Cobolli Overwhelms De Minaur

Flavio Cobolli got past Alex de Minaur 7-5, 7-6(4), 6-3, reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the second year running and landing his first career win over the Australian. Fresh off the Roland Garros final, the Italian held up in the baseline rallies with consistency, taking advantage of de Minaur's dips at the decisive moments of the first two sets. There were stretches where the pace dropped, but the feeling is that on this surface Cobolli is finding margins that a year ago looked more occasional. In the quarterfinals he'll face Fery himself, in a pairing no one had penciled in.

🇮🇹 Paolini Gets Past Eala

Jasmine Paolini got the better of Alexandra Eala 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, booking the quarterfinals after dropping the second set to the Filipina who had knocked out Swiatek. The comeback in the third, with the Italian able to raise her pace and cut down on errors, came just as the match was threatening to slip the wrong way. Wins of this kind, against an opponent full of confidence and with nothing to lose, usually matter more for what they leave in the mind than for the spot in the draw. In the last eight she'll meet Marta Kostyuk.

🇩🇪 Zverev And Fritz Into The Last Eight

Alexander Zverev got past Jiri Lehecka and reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time in his career, the only Slam still missing from his collection at this level. Shortly after, Taylor Fritz saw off Alexander Bublik 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-4 in just over an hour and a half, carried by his serve and remaining the last American in the men's draw. Two different paths leading to the same point of the week, in a section of the draw that, with Cobolli and Fery bursting in, has suddenly become harder to read.

🇨🇿 Noskova Closes Out The Draw

Linda Noskova eliminated Madison Keys 6-4, 7-6, rounding out the women's quarterfinal field alongside Marta Kostyuk and Elise Mertens. The Czech, used to suddenly raising her level against seeds, held up under pressure in the second-set tie-break without giving the American any room to respond. A draw that in recent days had lost Sabalenka and Swiatek reaches the last eight without a clear favorite, and perhaps that's the detail that says the most about the women's week.

WHAT'S ON TODAY:

• Sinner vs Struff (Court 1, first up) - The world number one and defending champion meets Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals, at 36 the oldest first-time entrant ever at this stage of a Slam: an opponent who, on grass and with his serve, can cause a few headaches.
• Pegula vs Gauff (Centre Court, first up) - An all-American derby for a place in the semifinals, between two players who know each other inside out and arrive here on almost mirror-image runs.
• Djokovic vs Auger-Aliassime (Centre Court, to follow) - A seventeenth Wimbledon quarterfinal for Djokovic, who meets the Canadian again for the first time since 2022, in a clash where his margins on grass still remain wide.
• Osaka vs Muchova (Court 1, to follow) - Naomi Osaka, fresh off her upset of Sabalenka, takes on Karolina Muchova in a quarterfinal that pits power against variety.

Read more

• Cobolli's coup: he beats de Minaur in three sets and returns to the quarterfinals
• Paolini into the Wimbledon quarterfinals: Eala beaten in three sets
• Wimbledon, Tuesday July 7 schedule: Sinner again on Court 1
• WC Arthur Fery continues fairytale, stuns Dimitrov to make Wimbledon QF
• Taylor Fritz returns to Wimbledon QFs, ends Alexander Bublik's hopes

Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.

See you tomorrow at 08:30 with TIE-Breakfast