Wimbledon day nine: Sinner and Alcaraz face stern tests in quarter-finals

The duo have been on a semi-final collision course since they were paired in the same half of the draw, but their championship mettle will first be tested by fifth seed Daniil Medvedev and American Tommy Paul.

Four first-time quarter-finalists take to the court in the women’s draw on Tuesday, with one of them guaranteed to be in the final.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at what is happening on day nine.

Match of the day

Top seed Jannik Sinner takes on Daniil Medvedev – the man the Italian beat to lift his first grand slam title in January.

Sinner came back from two sets down to beat the Russian in the Australian Open final and record a fifth straight victory over the 2021 US Open champion.

Medvedev, who is six years older than the world number one, had won the first six meetings between the two and hopes recent form can be overturned on Tuesday.

“Look, the funny thing is I lost five times, but if I remember right, four times were really close,” said the world number five.

“Small details make a big difference in tennis. It’s definitely tougher to play him now than before. Again, as I said, the matches were close. I had my chances. I’ll try to use them better this time.”

A blossoming rivalry

Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz goes head-to-head with American 12th seed Tommy Paul for the fifth time in his career.

Each of them have two wins over the other, with all their previous meetings coming on North American hard courts.

And Paul expects there to be fireworks when the pair battle for a semi-final spot.

“We both play a pretty aggressive style of tennis,” the 27-year-old said.

“He’s been playing pretty well and ultra aggressive. It’s fun for people to watch. Honestly, it’s fun to play against. I’m really excited for the match-up.”

Wide open women’s draw

You would have found huge odds pre-tournament on this being the quarter-final line-up in the bottom half of the women’s singles.

Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini, the second-highest-ranked player left in the women’s draw, had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year.

Croatian Donna Vekic had only previously got past the second round in two of her nine visits to the All England Club and the 28-year-old is appearing in only her third grand slam quarter-final.

American Emma Navarro, seeded 19th, is having the best year of her career and has overcome Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff on her way to a first grand slam quarter-final.

And New Zealander Lulu Sun became the first qualifier to reach the women’s quarter-finals in SW19 since Kaia Kanepi in 2010 when she beat Emma Raducanu.

One of these women will be appearing in their first Wimbledon final on Saturday.

Order of play

Centre Court from 1.30pm:
Jannik Sinner (1) v Daniil Medvedev (5)
Jasmine Paolini (7) v Emma Navarro (19)
Court One from 1pm:
Lulu Sun (q) v Donna Vekic
Carlos Alcaraz (3) v Tommy Paul (12)

Weather

Cloudy changing to heavy rain by lunchtime with highs of 20, according to the Met Office.