Taylor Fritz – Ian Louis Harris

A Quarter-Final Day On Court One At Wimbledon, 8 July 2026

Victoria Luiza Barros & Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva of Brazil, having just defeated Maria Valentina Pop & Anita Tu

We had a super day at Wimbledon again this year.

Again a quarter finals day, again our base court was Court One.

The weather was blisteringly hot. But we braved the relentless sunshine for quite some time ahead of our main features of the day. We chose Court 18, where the upper seating at least was getting a little breeze, albeit warm breeze. The stewards up there are charming and helpful.

Rhys Lawlor of Britain did his best against the fancied Thijs Boogaard of Netherlands

Then the start of Xinran Sun (a promising 15-year-old Chinese girl) against Thea Frodin of USA

As One O’Clock approached and the heat was getting stronger, we retreated to Court One where, joy oh joy, we discovered that the seats I had “chosen” were in the shade. Superb “planning” on my part.

We watched all of the match between Linda Noskova (who went on to win the tournament) against Elise Mertens. It was a good match.

Spoilt brats that we are…

…we were a little disappointed to be seeing Alexander Zverev against Taylor Fritz, as we were there for their five set epic on Centre Court a couple of years ago…

A Splendid Day At Wimbledon On “Second Monday”, 8 July 2024

…so sort-of felt that we had previously done all that.

“Popcorn match? Bring forth the kikones!”

We stuck around for a while, then went out to get a sense of the atmosphere around the ground – Arthur Fery of Britain, the surprise package of this year’s Wimbledon, was making even more surprising light work of Flavio Cobolli on Centre Court – the sound from the Mound and that court was wonderful to hear around the grounds.

I also had a secret mission to visit Robert Allan Fitzgerald’s tennis racket in the Wimbledon museum – on loan from the MCC museum…

There it is, proudly displayed in the first display cabinet – item 2 in dark wood

…although the Wimbledon Museum is describing it as Prince Albert’s tennis racket, suggesting that Bertie (Prince of Wales) presented it to the MCC after he became patron of the MCC at Fitz’s behest, rather than Prince Albert gifting it to Fitz at some earlier stage. Another historical detail that needs disambiguating; the Wimbledon version seems more likely given the minimal contact Prince Albert might have had with Fitz personally.

Naturally, Janie was more taken with the museum’s tennis-related knick-knacks

By the time we moved on, the results of both of the men’s quarter finals were all-but determined, so we thought we’d spend more time watching some of the promising youngsters.

We headed for Court 12, which was very sparsely populated at that stage, due to the sun and the main matches still being in play. We caught the very end of one girls doubles (see headline photo) and then took sanctuary in a corner where we could tell that the shade would arrive first and where you could tactically watch the Court 8 goings on while waiting for the next Court 12 match to start.

A thriller between Luis Guto Miguel & Ziga Sesko, who narrowly beat Kunanan Pantaratorn & Arnav Vijay Paparkar

That doubles match went to a 10 point tie-break which got well up into the teens-all until it was finally determined by a lucky/bitterly unlucky net-chord unreturnable serve. Note to World Tennis and all the governing bodies – please abandon this “no lets” experiment and don’t let it seep into the adult game. It presents an element of unnecessary luck and simply adds to the inherent advantage of serving. I welcome experimentation but would welcome even more dispensing with this particular idea, which has been tried before, between 1875 and 1882, then sensibly replaced with the “let” rule.

Rant over.

Jana Kovackova & Katerina Zajickova, doing battle with Alyssa James & Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi

We didn’t see that last game through to its end – we thought the crowds had died down enough once the first set was done and set off for home, very satisfied and happy.

Katerina Zajickova lets rip. The Czech pair went on to beat the Brazilian pair in the final.

Here is a link to the order of play for that day.

And here is a link to all the photos:

Three Gentlemen Against Two, Two Brits & Fritz, Plus Appliance Of Science To Avoid The Inferno Of Another Blisteringly Hot Day At The Queen’s Club, 19 June 2025

Three On One Side Of the Net, Two On The Other

I was heavily sedated on the morning the LTA released tickets for the ATP event at The Queen’s Club this year; 11 February.

By the time I regained my compos mentis…to the extent that my mentis is ever truly compos…Pinky, my brand-new hip was in place, my non-functioning, organic right hip had gone…and so had most of the decent-looking seats for the ATP at Queen’s.

“No matter”, I thought, in what might have still been a drug-induced state of relaxed acceptance. Ground passes are just £30 a pop and I’m sure I’ll be able to get good seats for the Queen’s WTA tournament when they come out…which I did:

Hot Stuff At The Queen’s Club, WTA Quarter-Finals Day, 13 June 2025

This seemingly unfortunate timing turned out to be a jolly good thing, as Janie and I had a super day at Queen’s without “troubling the stewards” of the main Andy Murray Arena.

On Court One, which ground passes cover, there were to be two excellent looking doubles matches. Although I got very confused as to how many players we would actually see.

First Match: Three Gentlemen Against Two – Arévalo González & Pavić v Mektić & Venus

Marcelo Arévalo González: “There’s only one of me, you twit!”

The problem with modern trends away from the use of punctuation is that you can never be entirely sure where you stand.

Had the reading source I chose stated: “Arévalo-González & Pavić v Mektić & Venus” I’d have understood. I’d also have understood had they used the Oxford comma: “Arévalo González, & Pavić v Mektić, & Venus”. But in the absence of punctuation I assumed we would be seeing three gentlemen against two – which was, after all, a perfectly regular mode of tennis play in Baroque times…

Real Life Begins Around 1740: Delving Into The Previously Untold Story Of Tennis Champion Clergé

…and which I thought might explain why Arévalo González & Pavić are the top ranked team in the world at the moment.

Anyway, the scoreboard on Court One was quite clear that we were to see “Arévalo & Pavić v Mektić & Venus, so it was not a complete surprise when only four players emerged.

The Appliance Of Science To Avoid The Inferno

A pair of shady customers in the small, western stand of Court One

Inspired by Galileo’s mathematical/geometric analysis of Dante’s Inferno, as explained in the previous evening’s Gresham lecture…

Gresham Society’s Journey To The Underworld, AGM & Gresham College Provost’s Lecture, 18 June 2025

…I did some complex geometrical analysis of my own, ahead of setting off to Queen’s, to ascertain which area on Court One was likely to be in the shade the earliest.

Until my treatise has been peer-reviewed I shall not be disclosing my methods. Suffice it to say that my theory played out in practice, which was a real blessing on such a hot day.

Janie and I took turns to go out and refill the water bottles and/or get some iced coffee. We also scoffed our smoked salmon bagels with impunity, once we were in the shade, soon after 14:00.

The young stewards on and around Court One were very friendly and also very helpful.

It was rather a long wait for the second match of the day on Court One; Jacob Fearnley needed to finish his singles match and rest a while before it could start. But from our point of view waiting around in the shade was well worth it, not least because we had spent a full day at Queen’s the week before during the WTA, so had no great desire to look around the exhibition stands.

Second Match: Two Brits & Fritz

Those helpful young stewards started to “advertise” the impending doubles match to inquisitive passers-by as “two Brits & Fritz”. I wondered whether we were to see two gentlemen against one – otherwise known as Canadian Doubles.

Two Brits & Fritz: Taylor Fritz, Jacob Fearnley & Cameron Norrie

After all, but for the unfortunate absence of Señor González earlier in the day, we’d have seen three gentlemen against two, so this sort of made sense.

Eustace Miles, Victorian/Edwardian multiple Queen’s champion, doyen of tennis, rackets and much much more

Further, Eustace Miles much preferred playing tennis two against one if he could not play singles

As a variation, the Three-handed Game is good. One
of the best Matches I have ever had was at Boston,
when I played against Messrs. Fearing and Stockton.
They have practised together as a pair again and
again, and they probably form the best working pair
and combination of all amateurs. It was capital exercise,
and I cannot imagine anything more enjoyable.
But I can count on my fingers the Four-handed Games
that I have enjoyed.

Eustace Miles, Racquets, Tennis & Squash, 1903, p269

Yet, when the players emerged, Taylor Fritz brought Jiri Lehecka with him, perhaps attempting an element of surprise or ambush.

Had Team GB doubles coach Louis Cayer been nobbled?

Clearly Daisy had been taken by surprise

Surprise package Jiri Lehecka looks super-fit

But the Brits were not to be outflanked. An excellent win for Messrs Fearnley and Norrie – they could be a formidable doubles pairing should they choose to persevere with their partnership, we both felt.

We avoided the crush at Barons Court Station by walking away the long way around and stopping for a couple of games of table tennis before heading for the exit.

The ground pass thing was very different from any day Janie and I have spent at the tennis before, but still a most enjoyable, relaxing day. Maybe I should try being sedated on the day that LTA tickets are released more often.

A Splendid Day At Wimbledon On “Second Monday”, 8 July 2024

Rune & Djokovic Squaring Up Ahead of Centre Court Battle

I scored us a pair of centre court tickets for the second Monday of Wimbledon this year. Not bad, I hear you cry. I thought it was a smart move this year. I always thought that “Manic Monday” was better observed from the comfort of a living room and a gadget that enables switching between channels. But the craziness of “Manic Monday” has, in theory, been dissipated by the use of “Middle Sunday” for half of the draw.

Theory and practice failed to collide this year, with so much rain through Week One and Middle Sunday, that our Monday, which was blessed with good weather until early evening, was pretty manic.

Still, we were scheduled to see the following matches on Centre Court…

Elena Rybakina v Anna Kalinskaya
Taylor Fritz v Alexander Zverev
Novak Djokovic v Holger Rune

…and there was loads to see on outer courts.

*Taylor Townsend & Katerina Siniakova on Court 18*

We arrived a little late to get in to one of the main outer courts for the first match of the day, but after wandering around for a short while, I worked out that we’d get on to Court 18 to see at least part of the conclusion of a rain-affected Ladies Doubles including several players we like: Katerina Siniakova & Taylor Townsend v Leylah Fernandez & Ena Shibahara.

*Rain constantly threatened but didn’t come until late afternoon*

We bailed out of Court 18 before the finish, keen to see the first match on Centre Court.

After the first set, I went out to stretch my legs, only to discover, on my return after the first three games of the second set, that Kalinskaya had retired. Still, my leg-stretching had enabled me to spec out the neighbouring outer courts, where some of the youngster action was now underway.

We watched Flora Johnson overcome Alena Kovackova before returning for the start of the Fritz v Zverev match – a rare example of a match between two players with Z in their surname.

Having consumed my hot smoked salmon bagel during the first match, perhaps my defences were down. Or perhaps it was the relentless big serves and not much else at the start of that match. Anyway, I must confess that Janie caught me napping during the first set and kindly prevented what might have been a notorious snore-gate incident.

I did the leg stretch thing again at the start of the second set and returned for the end of that set, which also went Zverev’s way. I suggested to Janie that the rest of the match was only going to be interesting if Fritz revived and that would take quite some time. Janie agreed, so we decided to wander around some more and take in the outer courts.

Janie’s eye’s fell on some mixed doubles: Jan Zielinski & Su-Wei Hsieh v Hugo Nys & Demi Schuurs.

It really is a privilege to be able to watch these fantastic players at such close quarters on those outer courts.

Then we focussed on some more youngsters for a while: Henry Bernet & Flynn Thomas v Mark Ceban & Charlie Swaine.

Then to Court 14, where I spotted that an interesting-looking mixed doubles was about to start: Maximo Gonzalez & Ulrikke Eikeri v Jean-Julien Rojer & Bethanie Mattek-Sands…

…but not before Janie snapped some hydrangeas that took her fancy:

All the while I was keeping an eye on the score from Centre Court. Once it became clear that the fourth set between Fritz and Zverev was heading for a tie-break, I suggested that we return to see the end of that match, one way or another.

That we did and it was a well worthwhile switch. That tie break was excellent and Fritz went up through the gears in the final set.

We stuck around for the first set of Rune v Djokovic (see headline picture), but by then we had seen plenty and thought that people queuing for returns were more deserving than us.

Besides, it had started raining and it looked as thought he rain would only get worse. We quite fancied getting home before the proper heavy stuff.

The young lad from Guest Services admired my poncho, describing it as “stunning”. Excellent taste, some youngsters these days, excellent taste and good choice of advective. He even sounded as though he meant it.

Here is a link to the order of play with results for the whole day.

We didn’t go too mad with the camera at this one – we were a bit photo-ed out from Eastbourne. But if you want to see all 60 pictures, here they are on Flickrt:

We always have a a great day at Wimbledon. This day, despite its frenetic nature, was no exception.

A Few Days In Eastbourne, Mostly For The Tennis, 25 to 29 June 2024

Leylah, you’ve got me on my knees…

Janie and I had enjoyed our time at Eastbourne so much in 2023…

A Short Break In Eastbourne, Mostly For The International Tennis Tournament, 25 to 28 June 2023

…we decided to book three days of Eastbourne tennis for 2024: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Tuesday Evening

On the Tuesday evening we met Linda Wrobel (formerly Linda Phillips) for dinner. Linda lives in Bexhill, which, me being a died-in-the-wool Londoner, seemed to me to have no proximity whatsoever to Eastbourne. But last year, when I posted about our Eastbourne trip on Facebook, Linda messaged me wondering what the hell Janie and I were doing in Eastbourne without contacting and meeting Linda!

Linda first came to our Airbnb to have a look around, then we wandered round to the same Thai place that Janie and I had tried the previous year.

So deep in conversation were we, that we completely forgot top take pictures of each other or of the food. Here is a picture of Janie with the food from the previous year.

It was a very enjoyable evening with Linda.

After that, three days of tennis and picnics.

We took an infeasible number of photographs on those three days, which could do with some editing into a highlights album. If you like canonical, the 200 or so pictures are in the following album:

Wednesday

On the Wednesday we saw:

Sebastian Baez v Miomir Kecmanovic
Jelena Ostapenko v Katie Boulter;
Emma Raducanu v Jessica Pegula;
Taylor Fritz v Thiago Seyboth Wild (actually we just watched the first five games of that last one).

Here are some sample pictures from the Wednesday:

It was a very hot day, that Wednesday, hence the iced coffees quite early in the day.

Thursday

On the Thursday we saw:

Flavio Cobolli v Billy Harris,
Jasmine Paolini v Katie Boulter,
Daria Kasatkina v Emma Raducanu,
Taylor Fritz v Juncheng Shang (again we just watched the first five games of that last one).

Cooler and breezier, it was, on the Thursday and the Friday.