Wimbledon Day 8 wrap: Konta makes history

A hole in Centre Court, a new WTA No.1, and the first British woman into the Wimbledon semifinals since 1978. Yes, it’s safe to say that Day 8 at Wimbledon 2017 enjoyed more than its fair share of drama.

The women: Konta wows home fans

Two things happened when Simona Halep stopped on match point after a spectator started screaming in the crowd: Johanna Konta became the first British woman in 39 years to reach the Wimbledon semifinals, and Karolina Pliskova became the new WTA No.1.

It was a bizarre – and unfortunate – ending to what had been a sensational match. For two hours 38 minutes Konta and Halep had gone toe-to-toe on Centre Court, momentum swinging back and forth between the two. In the end, Konta took the decisive break in the fifth game of the third set, and didn’t look back on her way to a famous 6-7(2) 7-6(5) 6-4 win.

“To be in the semi-finals of my home Slam and to play like that in front of a full Centre Court was pretty special,” Konta beamed after the win. “It was a tremendous match, played at a very high level.”

Waiting for her in the semifinals is Venus Williams, who is chasing her sixth Wimbledon title. Today, she brushed aside French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in a big hitting masterclass. Venus needed just 73 minutes to down the Latvian, winning 6-3 7-5.

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On the other side of the draw, Garbine Muguruza set up an unlikely semifinal against Magdalena Rybarikova. Muguruza, who has enjoyed a return to form since shaking off the shackles of her French Open title defence, eased past Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-4. Meanwhile, unseeded Rybarikova was a 6-3 6-3 winner over Coco Vandeweghe.

The men: Djokovic into Last Eight

Not everyone at Wimbledon enjoyed the epic that was Gilles Muller v Rafael Nadal on Day 7 of The Championships. Novak Djokovic was the unfortunate victim of that late finish, forced to come back on Day 8 (traditionally a rest day for the men) to play his Last 16 match against Adrian Mannarino.

Needless to say, Djokovic was in a workmanlike mood as he opened proceedings on Centre. Fast out the blocks, the No.2 seed blitzed Mannarino in the opening set. The Frenchman started to settle in set two, but Djokovic was always in the ascendancy and took it in a tiebreak. After breaking early in the third Djokovic didn’t look back, waltzing into the quarterfinals with a 6-2 7-6(5) 6-4 win.

Despite being happy with the quality of his performance, a clearly perturbed Djokovic did not feel the same about the Wimbledon courts: “I mentioned there’s a hole in the middle of the court,” Djokovic said after the match. “He [the chair umpire] just asked me to show him and I did and he was not very pleased to see that.

“The courts honestly are not that great this year, and many players feel the same.”