Wimbledon recap: Unexpected injury retirements all over the All England Club

Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.

On day eight, an unexpected tennis body shot, two games that epitomized the sport’s ebbs and flows, and a return for a different kind of Slam.

Occupational tennis hazards of the most painful kind

Tennis injuries are usually freak incidents like Grigor Dimitrov’s painful exit from a two-sets-to-love lead over Jannik Sinner. This especially applies to ball injuries, when players can get hit by a shot at the net.

Sometimes, though, the ultimate act of accidental betrayal occurs instead.

The No. 2 seeds in the boys’ doubles, Dominick Mosejczuk and Alejandro Arcila, were serving to level their match with Timofei Derapasko and Jacapo Vasami, with Mosejczuk serving and Arcila at the net. The American unleashed a first serve, which found a target it was definitely not supposed to find.

After falling to the court and receiving attention from the umpire, Arcila waved things off, hit two winning volleys and helped his partner win the second set 6-3, having lost the first by the same scoreline.

But then Arcila had to go through concussion treatment. He failed the tests conducted by the medical staff, and he and Mosejczuk had to retire with the third set still to play. It was that kind of day.

Two games that had everything

Things have been ending fairly punctually at Wimbledon the past couple of nights, but with tennis, you never know when things are going to go long.

In these cases, the 11 p.m. curfew is not involved. Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur played an 18-minute game with Djokovic serving at 1-0 in the second set, Belinda Bencic and Ekaterina Alexandrova played a 15-minute one with Bencic serving for the match at 7-6, 5-3.

In the case of Djokovic vs. De Minaur, the game had everything that exemplified Djokovic’s play for much of the afternoon, when he struggled with the wind and with the pressure that De Minaur, who is a terrific grass-court player, put on him throughout. Djokovic could have finished it off with a down-the-line backhand into the open court at 40-30. He put a ball he usually puts away into the net.

And things got weird from there, with both players missing opportunities to finish things off far more quickly than they did. It all ended with De Minaur coming into net and knifing a forehand volley across the court of the winner.

That was some decent drama, but nothing compared with the Bencic vs. Alexandrova marathon with the match on the line. Bencic saved four break points before she started missing on match point chances. A forehand went long. Alexandrova hammered a forehand inside in to save another. A net cord tickled over in Bencic’s favor. She yelled at her box to “calm down.” Was she talking to herself? Possibly.

Bencic then ticked the net on a backhand winner to save another break point, but then double-faulted. Alexandrova would miss on that point and then need to earn another with a forehand winner before finally getting the game on a Bencic error on the 22nd point.

What did both marathons have in common? The returner won the long game, then lost the next one, and in Alexandrova’s case, the match. De Minaur would survive another two and a half hours on Centre Court, but he too would win the battle only to lose the war.

Wimbledon travel woe

The U.S. Open has the 7 train. The French Open has the 10. Melbourne has its trams.

Each Grand Slam has a major artery by which fans arrive. At Wimbledon, it’s the District Line. But where the others have direct alternatives — the Long Island Rail Road in New York City, or the 9 in Paris — if London Underground goes down, getting to Wimbledon suddenly appears impossible.

For most of its first week in 2025, the line has been beset by problems. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is “extremely frustrated,” a spokesperson for City Hall told , and passengers heading in the direction of the All England Club via Southfields, Wimbledon Park or Wimbledon stations feel the same.

The latest and most severe disruption happened Monday, when the line was suspended entirely between Wimbledon and Parsons Green, a few stops north of Southfields, which is the most popular station for getting to the tournament. The culprit was a track fault between East Putney and Putney Bridge, on a section jointly managed by Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail. Services were disrupted throughout last week, with around 14,000 fans attempting to travel to Southfields per day.

“We acknowledge that today’s disruption comes on the back of a challenging week for District line services last week,” a statement from TfL read. “We are continuing to work closely with organisers of the Wimbledon Championships and Network Rail to ensure that we deliver a reliable service and share up-to-date travel information with customers.”

Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club, who led a minute’s silence in honor of the 52 victims of the July 7 terror attacks on the 20th anniversary, said that the AELTC has been “clear” with TfL “that delivering an event of this scale in this part of London requires the infrastructure to support us in doing that.”

“We’ve arranged to catch up with them after the Championships, not just to look at what has happened this year, but to look ahead in terms of investment into the District line,” she said.

The AELTC is particularly invested in infrastructure improvements due to its plans to expand. It wants to move Wimbledon’s qualifying event, played at Roehampton a few miles away, to the tournament site. Plans for 39 new grass courts to be built on the old Wimbledon Park golf course, including an 8,000-capacity stadium, will provide the required space. But the extra seven days of foot traffic and associated revenue will be just as reliant on the same tracks which have erred this week.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) approved planning permission last September, but local campaign group Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) is opposed to the redevelopment of the 23-acre Grade II* (meaning of particular importance) heritage site, which the AELTC owns. A judicial review of the GLA’s approval decision will be heard in the High Court on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Other notable results on day eight

Jannik Sinner (1) got the worst kind of good luck in sports when Grigor Dimitrov (19) had to retire injured two sets up on the world No. 1. He led 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 before injuring his pectoral muscle.

Iga Świątek (8) put on another grass masterclass against Clara Tauson (23), winning 6-4, 6-1.

Novak Djokovic (6) struggled with his movement and the wind against Alex de Minaur (11), but held off the Australian 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Liudmila Samsonova (19) got to her first major quarterfinal with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.

Shot of the day

Iga Świątek has always been a master of defense, but playing a point like this on grass is especially impressive.

Day nine matches as quarterfinals begin

🎾 Taylor Fritz (5) vs. Karen Khachanov (17)

A first meeting since 2020 for two players who feel like they should have played much more frequently. Expect a lot of aces and unreturned serves, baseline battles and probably five sets.

🎾 Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs. Laura Siegemund

Sabalenka is the overwhelming favorite, but Siegemund — a master of the grass and of the dark arts — is the type of player who could get under her skin. There is little middle ground here: expect either a routine win for Sabalenka or the makings of a massive upset.

🎾 Amanda Anisimova (13) vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Anisimova is having the kind of season she threatened to have before having to take a break from tennis for burnout. Pavlyuchenkova is in her second Wimbledon quarterfinal, nine years after her first. A moment for both of them, whatever the result.

🎾 Carlos Alcaraz (2) vs. Cameron Norrie

Norrie, a 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist, has not enjoyed the cut-through with the British public that his consistency at the All England Club might afford. Alcaraz, having started the tournament scratchily, has said he is in full flight now. Norrie will need that crowd.

Wimbledon men’s draw 2025

Wimbledon women’s draw 2025

Tell us what you noticed on the eighth day…

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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