Paula Badosa and Roberto Bautista, the only Spaniards who qualified for the Wimbledon round of 16, play in the so-called Manic Monday, the crazy Monday in which the organizers schedule the 16 matches of the fourth round of the individual tables. Both form the brilliant second unit of the Navy in the absence of Rafa Nadal and Garbiñe Muguruza. The Catalan faces the Czech Karolina Muchova for the first time (24 years old and 22nd in the world) in the third turn of runway 12, where the activity starts at 12:00. And the Castellón is measured in another unprecedented duel with the Canadian Denis Shapovalov (22nd and 12th) in the second of the 3, about 14:00.
This Sunday there was no competition. The tennis players were half relaxed, because most trained, taking advantage of the last Middle sunday of the British Grand Slam. Because next year, among the changes that are coming, in addition to the ambitious expansion project of the All England Club, is the disappearance of the rest day of the intermediate Sunday of the tournament, which was established in 1877 to give residents a break. of the area. This was done because the men's final, which was initially held on Saturday, began to be held on Sunday, and that holiday for the community was moved to the end of the first week. Sally Boulton, the executive director of Wimbledon, justifies this measure as a step forward to make the event more accessible to fans with lower purchasing power, because there will no longer be a crazy Monday and the eighth will be played in two days with more affordable prices.
The fact is that this will be the last year in which a day of tennis frenzy is experienced in the championship, with all the stars at stake in the course of about ten hours, if the weather does not cause delays in the outer courts, where Badosa and Bautista play, among others. Paula, 23, is one of the debutants at this point of the London major, and although he has not crossed paths with Muchova until now, he knows her because she is almost from the same generation. “She is a player who adapts very well to this surface. It's going to be a challenge, ”he says of this tennis player, daughter of a professional footballer, who has only one title in his record (Seoul 2019) and who was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon 2019.
That same year, Bautista reached the semifinals, in which he was beaten by Novak Djokovic. Now he is the seed number 8 and collides with Shapovalov, one of the rookies in the round of 16, holder of a trophy (Stockholm 2019), electric and spectacular game, who enjoys rapping. In fact, he posted a couple of songs in 2020 titled Night Train and Drip. In 2017 he beat Rafa Nadal in Montreal and has just beaten Andy Murray at his house. “To face Denis I needed to recover well, although I have two days off,” Roberto said after beating Koepfer in the third round.
Luxurious programming
As for the rest of the games, those that will be played in the center stand out, which has a luxury menu. At 14:30, Djokovic, current champion and first seed, meets Chilean Christian Garín (1-0 for the Serbian in the face to face). Then, 17-year-old American Coco Gauff will challenge 2018 winner Angelique Kerber (first match). And immediately afterwards, Roger Federer will act, who will try to advance at the expense of Lorenzo Sonego (1-0 in favor of the Swiss). The sensation of the tournament and great British hope, Emma Raducanu (18), will be the star of court 1 in her match against the controversial Australian Tomljanovic.