{"id":783656,"date":"2026-07-06T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783656\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:40:13","slug":"wimbledon-recap-day-7-the-point-of-the-tournament-on-another-day-of-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783656\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon recap Day 7: The point of the tournament on another day of drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow The Athletic\u2019s Wimbledon coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.<\/p>\n

On Day 7, there was one of the points of the year, injury drama and a Wimbledon triumph for a star with a complicated record.<\/p>\n

How did F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina play the point of the tournament?<\/p>\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/a> lay flat on his back, his chest rising and falling. As he sat up, he lent F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> a wry smile, almost in disbelief. At the back of the court, the Canadian, breathing equally as heavily, was also stunned.<\/p>\n

With No. 3 seed Auger-Aliassime two sets to one up, leading 3-1 and down 0-30 on No. 22 seed Davidovich Fokina\u2019s serve in the fourth set, the duo played one of the best points of the year so far.<\/p>\n

They sparred for 14 shots, stringing each other forward, backward and side to side as if controlled by a robot instructing them to cover every corner of the court with every shot possible on a tennis court.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard raced forward, hitting an acute forehand crosscourt angle from a drop shot. He then lobbed Auger-Aliassime\u2019s reply, covered good ground to the forehand side to gather a smash, and then slid to the net to retrieve another drop shot, before diving Superman-style to make a backhand volley.<\/p>\n

For an instant, Davidovich Fokina thought about getting up, but instead sat on his backside, seemingly resigned to defeat. He just watched Auger-Aliassime, expecting him to put a mildly challenging backhand slice into the court.<\/p>\n

But the ball fell just short, and as it hit the net, Davidovich Fokina hit the deck.<\/p>\n

There was still time for much more drama. Fokina pulled up with an apparent acute injury in his left ankle while holding two break points on Auger-Aliassime\u2019s serve in the fourth set, when the Canadian was serving to win the match. He received a medical timeout, broke Auger-Aliassime\u2019s serve, and dragged the match into a fifth set, but Fokina could barely move after that. Auger-Aliassime ultimately triumphed 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1, and they exchanged words over Fokina\u2019s injury at the handshake.<\/p>\n

At a news conference, Auger-Aliassime declined to discuss the interaction with Fokina and said the main problem is the rule that allows a receiving player to effectively pause an opponent\u2019s service game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s very simple: If you\u2019re hurt bad, or whatever you\u2019re hurt, while the game\u2019s going on of your opponent, in the middle of the game, the opponent is serving, the shot clock is on? Basically, when you\u2019re hurt bad, you\u2019re forfeiting every point until you can call the physio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the physio helps you recover, you play your service game. If you\u2019re hurt bad, then you retire, obviously.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to stop in the middle of an opponent\u2019s service game and to be able to call the physio, I think that\u2019s a disgrace of a rule. I don\u2019t see any other sport where you can do that. I mark my words. It\u2019s a disgrace of a rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Auger-Aliassime, who moves on to face Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, only really wanted to talk about the amazing point after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually funny, I think if there\u2019s a replay of my face, I\u2019m actually laughing as I\u2019m running to the ball. In my head, I was thinking, \u2018this is too good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I missed the open shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Charlotte Harpur<\/p>\n

Where does this Grand Slam defeat leave Aryna Sabalenka?<\/p>\n

Once again, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> will head into the North American hard-court swing looking for her first Grand Slam title of the season.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has been a dominant world No. 1 at times, but not so much in the past couple of months. She has thrived on hard courts, but has been a lesser version of herself on clay and grass, except the Madrid Open clay, which plays a lot like a hard court.<\/p>\n

In tennis, there are players who can roll with losses, or at least pretend in public that they are. Sabalenka is not one of them, and Sunday evening in London, after a 6-2, 7-6(2) Wimbledon defeat to Naomi Osaka<\/a>, was no exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my level was really low today, plus she was feeling her best,\u201d Sabalenka said in a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith every game we would play, I would feel worse, she would feel better. She would just go for her shots freely. I wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aryna<\/p>\n

\n Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s quest for a major title away from hard courts goes on. (Tim Clayton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has won four Grand Slam titles, two at the U.S. Open and two at the Australian Open \u2014 just like Osaka. Unlike Osaka, at least until recently, she is desperate to win one on clay or grass but has slipped this season in those efforts.<\/p>\n

She was a finalist at the French Open last year and lost in the quarterfinals this year. She was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year but lost in the fourth round this year.<\/p>\n

Still, she\u2019s the world No. 1, even if she didn\u2019t feel like it Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even want to think about ranking at this point,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want to go, get completely drunk, forget about tennis, and try to get in better shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

What is behind one master of variety\u2019s grass renaissance \u2014 and did she ever need one?<\/p>\n

On the face of it, Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1\u2019s poor Wimbledon record is a mystery.<\/p>\n

How can it be that someone with such a varied game, who appears perfect for grass, has lost in the first round of her four previous visits to the All England Club?<\/p>\n

In this spirit, Muchov\u00e1\u2019s win over 2024 champion Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1 on Sunday, to return to the quarterfinal stage she reached in 2019 and 2021, felt long overdue.<\/p>\n

Dig a bit deeper, and those four straight first-round defeats are a bit more explicable. The first was in 2022, to the former champion and No. 16 seed Simona Halep, only a few weeks after an ankle injury had forced Muchov\u00e1 out of the French Open. The following year, Muchov\u00e1 had just reached the final at Roland Garros and suffered the all-too-familiar Wimbledon comedown, losing to solid grass-court player Jule Niemeier, who had reached the quarterfinals the previous year.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Muchov\u00e1 had only just returned from nine months out following wrist surgery and lost to Paula Badosa, while her wrist was in such a bad way during last year\u2019s defeat to Wang Xinyu that she couldn\u2019t hit a topspin backhand.<\/p>\n

This year, blessedly free of injury, Muchov\u00e1 has belatedly been able to play the kind of tennis that makes purists purr. The volleys, the angles, the improvisation \u2014 like the flicked lob that secured Sunday\u2019s victory against her compatriot and former champion Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1. Or this flicked one-handed backhand pass toward the end of the second set \u2026 A set that Muchov\u00e1 served for, before losing five straight games with the finishing line in sight:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Her reset in the third to claim a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 win was very impressive.<\/p>\n

Next up is a mouthwatering quarterfinal against Naomi Osaka, a Wimbledon occasion that will hopefully be worth the wait.<\/p>\n

Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n

What happened to Hubert Hurkacz?<\/p>\n

Most of the drama at Wimbledon on Sunday centered on match play, be it Auger-Aliassime\u2019s five-setter against Davidovich Fokina or Osaka\u2019s straight-set takedown of Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

Then there was Poland\u2019s Hubert Hurkacz, who retired due to injury, down 2-4 in the fifth set against Germany\u2019s Jan-Lennard Struff, after a series of visits from the physio and more than one medical timeout.<\/p>\n

Hurkacz, 29, had already been seen by a trainer, who appeared to be working on the right side of his torso, by the time the pair got to 5-5 in the fourth set with Hurkacz holding a 2-1 set lead.<\/p>\n

But with Struff serving to close out the game, Hurkacz tossed his racket aside and told the chair umpire he needed a medical timeout. The 29-year-old had been clutching at a spot near his right oblique and even doubled over, clearly struggling, after forcing deuce.<\/p>\n

Hurkacz left the court for treatment, returned, and was broken straight away in the next game, sending things to a fifth set.<\/p>\n

At that point, Hurkacz told the chair umpire, Julie Kjendlie, it was too dark and he could not see, despite Wimbledon\u2019s 9 p.m. darkness curfew for outer courts being more than an hour away. He then immediately said he needed to leave the court to change his clothes. When Kjendlie told him he\u2019d already taken his two allotted bathroom breaks, he told her he needed to change his underwear, \u201cand also, it\u2019s too dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident was reminiscent of Hurkacz\u2019s bizarre turn at the French Open in 2024, when he asked opponent Grigor Dimitrov if he would not object to \u201cchanging the lady\u201d \u2014 umpire Alison Hughes \u2014 midway through their match.<\/p>\n

Clearly struggling to move, Hurkacz called the trainer twice more in the fifth set before finally retiring at 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 5-7, 2-4 and sending 36-year-old Struff through to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he will face world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ava Wallace<\/p>\n

Other notable results on Day 7:
\nJessica Pegula (4) triumphed in an all-American clash with Iva Jovi\u0107<\/a> (16), staying steadier to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
\nSinner (1) got past Shintaro Mochizuki (Q)\u00a06-3, 7-6(0), 6-3, while\u00a0Novak Djokovic (7) defeated\u00a0Roman Safiullin (Q) 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
\nAnd Coco Gauff (7)\u00a0beat\u00a0Belinda Bencic (11) and the Wimbledon curfew<\/a> to reach the quarterfinals for the first time with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win, where she will meet Pegula.
\nDrop Shots<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude31 A player in the girls\u2019 singles was disqualified from her match after committing a cardinal Wimbledon sin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2604\ufe0f How Djokovic\u2019s aggressiveness and serving<\/a> have defined his late career\u2026<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf31 \u2026 And how Osaka is serving more than Grand Slam looks<\/a> at this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

Up next: Fourth round continues<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Women\u2019s singles: Jasmine Paolini (13) vs. Alexandra Eala (29)<\/p>\n

8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Unlimited<\/p>\n

A fizzing contest awaits between two formidable grass-court players who find themselves in a seriously open part of the bracket after the exits of 2022 champion Elena Rybakina<\/a> and defending champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a>. It was Eala, the 21-year-old new sports hero for the Philippines<\/a>, who knocked out \u015awi\u0105tek, while Paolini, the 2024 finalist from Italy, is looking comfortable with her tennis for the first time in a while after a challenging season to date.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Men\u2019s singles: Grigor Dimitrov (WC) vs. Arthur Fery (WC)<\/p>\n

10:30 a.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Unlimited<\/p>\n

The battle of the wild cards. Dimitrov, 35, is surging through the field one year after heartache on Centre Court, while Fery, the British 23-year-old, has grabbed the opportunity afforded to him by the tournament with both hands. Creative players both, this could be an enthralling matchup \u2014 and Fery should get the Centre Court berth that British players dream about.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Women\u2019s singles: Madison Keys (26) vs. Linda Noskov\u00e1 (9)<\/p>\n

11 a.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited<\/p>\n

Keys out-hit one of last year\u2019s finalists, Amanda Anisimova, to earn the right to face Noskov\u00e1, the 21-year-old Czech who is far more experienced than her age would suggest and has had a brilliant grass season to date. Noskov\u00e1 has a shade more variety than Keys, with a nifty drop shot and a good sense of when to attack the net, but the 31-year-old American has far more experience on big courts at Grand Slams, which may count for something when nerves kick in.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Men\u2019s singles: Taylor Fritz (6) vs. Alexander Bublik (10)<\/p>\n

1 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Unlimited<\/p>\n

Fritz, last year a semifinalist, will be standing across the net from someone who exposes the holes and shows the importance of his game\u2019s solidity. Kazakhstan\u2019s Bublik, 29, has a serve to match Fritz\u2019s, the groundstroke power to match Fritz\u2019s, and more front-court nous and variety than the 28-year-old American. But Fritz is far less mercurial and far more reliable, which counts for more than fans assume when Grand Slams get tight.<\/p>\n

Wimbledon 2026 women\u2019s bracketWimbledon 2026 men\u2019s bracket<\/p>\n

Tell us what you noticed on the seventh day\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow The Athletic\u2019s Wimbledon coverage Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,569,9045,4963,82,575,593,60173],"class_list":["post-783656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-global-sports","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis","tag-top-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}