Watch five great shots as British number one Johanna Konta beat Angelique Kerber after recovering from a heavy fall on match point in the Eastbourne quarter-final.
| Eastbourne 2017 |
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| Venue: Devonshire Park, Eastbourne Date: 26 June-1 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Two, Red Button, Connected TVs and online. |
Johanna Konta showed her Wimbledon credentials with a dramatic win over world number one Angelique Kerber after recovering from a heavy fall on match point in the Eastbourne quarter-final.
The British number one, 26, won 6-3 6-4 against Germany’s Kerber to reach the Aegon International semi-finals.
Konta took her fourth match point after a stoppage of almost 10 minutes as she needed treatment following the fall.
Compatriot Heather Watson is also through after beating Barbora Strycova.
Both Konta and British number three Watson reached the semi-finals by winning twice on Thursday as the women’s draw caught up on a backlog of rain-delayed matches.
Konta earlier won 7-5 3-6 6-4 against French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the last 16, while Watson, 25, beat Russian 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-3.
Konta is the first British woman to be ranked in the top 10 at Wimbledon since 1984, raising hopes she can become the first home player to win the ladies’ singles title since Virginia Wade in 1977.
However, the world number seven has won only one main-draw match at the All England Club, losing in last year’s second round to 2014 finalist Eugenie Bouchard.
Victories over Ostapenko and Kerber moved her within two wins of her first tour title on grass.
But her impressive win over Kerber, in which she dominated the two-time Grand Slam champion’s serve, was not without a scare as she slipped on the baseline chasing a return.
Kerber came around the net to help her stricken opponent, who was prostrate on the court, before medical staff arrived and helped the Briton continue after a lengthy stoppage.
“I slipped and hit my head and it’s a bit sore,” said the Australia-born player, whose family moved to Eastbourne when she was a teenager.
“It’s been a busy afternoon, we’ve played a lot of tennis and I’m looking forward to recovering the best I can.”
Konta will play Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova, who beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the second semi-final on Friday (approx 13:00 BST).
Former British number one Watson continued her fine form in the final event before Wimbledon by joining Konta in the last four.
Watson, who goes to SW19 next week as a wildcard, had won only five top-level matches this year before this tournament, dropping to 126th in the world rankings.
But she has reached the semi-finals with impressive wins against defending champion Dominika Cibulkova, Pavlyuchenkova and now 20th-ranked Strycova.
The Guernsey player breezed to the first set against Strycova in 27 minutes, only to allow the Czech back into the match and force a third set.
Strycova, a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, went a break up midway through the decider, but Watson wiped out the advantage and went on to win.
Watson will face former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Romania’s second seed Simona Halep, at 11:00 BST on Friday.
“I’ve been working really hard these last couple of months and have been waiting for the results to start coming and it’s nice they’ve started coming here at home on grass,” said Watson.
The world’s oldest tournament was first staged in 1877
The singles and doubles draw ceremony for The Championships at Wimbledon will take place on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
World No. 1 Andy Murray will be attempting to retain his title and win a third crown at the All England Club in the past five years. Last year, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut were the first all-French team to capture the doubles trophy since Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in 2007.
Watch The Draw Live On Friday
Since 2002, The Championships has employed a unique seeding system, where they take into account previous results over a two-year period on grass courts.
• Take the Emirates ATP Ranking points on 20 June 2017
• Add 100 per cent of the points earned for all grass court tournaments in the past 12 months
• Add 75 per cent of the points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months before that
The singles main draw ceremony takes place on Friday.
Singles Seeds
1 Andy Murray (GBR)
2 Novak Djokovic (SRB)
3 Roger Federer (SUI)
4 Rafael Nadal (ESP)
5 Stan Wawrinka (SUI)
6 Milos Raonic (CAN)
7 Marin Cilic (CRO)
8 Dominic Thiem (AUT)
9 Kei Nishikori (JPN)
10 Alexander Zverev (GER)
11 Tomas Berdych (CZE)
12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
13 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
14 Lucas Pouille (FRA)
15 Gael Monfils (FRA)
16 Gilles Muller (LUX)
17 Jack Sock (USA)
18 Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP)
19 Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
20 Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
21 Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
22 Richard Gasquet (FRA)
23 John Isner (USA)
24 Sam Querrey (USA)
25 Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
26 Steve Johnson (USA)
27 Mischa Zverev (GER)
28 Fabio Fognini (ITA)
29 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
30 Karen Khachanov (RUS)
31 Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
32 Paolo Lorenzi (ITA)
Pablo Cuevas, originally the No. 27 seed, withdrew due to a right knee injury on 28 June. Fernando Verdasco becomes No. 31 seed.
Doubles Seeds
1 Henri Kontinen (FIN) / John Peers (AUS)
2 Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) / Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
3 Jamie Murray (GBR) / Bruno Soares (BRA)
4 Lukasz Kubot (POL) / Marcelo Melo (BRA)
5 Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA)
6 Ivan Dodig (CRO) / Marcel Granollers (ESP)
7 Raven Klaasen (RSA) / Rajeev Ram (USA)
8 Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)
9 Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) / Horia Tecau (ROU)
10 Ryan Harrison (USA) / Michael Venus (NZL)
11 Feliciano Lopez (ESP) / Marc Lopez (ESP)
12 Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) / Robert Farah (COL)
13 Fabrice Martin (FRA) / Daniel Nestor (CAN)
14 Florin Mergea (ROU) / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)
15 Julio Peralta (CHI) / Horacio Zeballos (ARG)
16 Oliver Marach (AUT) / Mate Pavic (CRO)
Sugita advances on Thursday
Former World No. 8 Marcos Baghdatis endured a fraught end to his Antalya Open quarter-final on Thursday. The Cypriot led 6/1 in the deciding set tie-break, and finally converted his sixth match point opportunity to beat qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-7(0), 6-3, 7-6(6) in two hours and 43 minutes.
Baghdatis is attempting to win his first ATP World Tour title since Sydney in January 2010. He opened the year by reaching the semi-finals in Auckland (l. Sousa).
Despite the loss, Ramanathan can be pleased with matching his best result at an ATP World Tour event. The World No. 222 also scored one of the biggest upsets of the year by ousting top seed Dominic Thiem in the second round.
Awaiting Baghdatis in the final four is Yuichi Sugita, who only needed 49 minutes to end the run of #NextGenATP German Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-0. Sugita dropped just nine points in the final seven games. The win puts the Japanese player into his first ATP World Tour semi-final.
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Marcus Willis’s hopes of another surprise Wimbledon run are ended by Ukrainian Illya Marchenko in the final round of qualifying.
| Eastbourne 2017 |
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| Venue: Devonshire Park, Eastbourne Date: 26 June-1 July Coverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online |
Novak Djokovic had to dig deep to earn a straight-set win over American Donald Young in their Aegon International quarter-final at Eastbourne.
After taking the first set, the 12-time Grand Slam champion survived two set points before clinching victory.
Djokovic, making a rare appearance in a pre-Wimbledon event, took his fourth match point to win 6-2 7-6 (11-9).
“I am glad I overcame the challenge – it is exactly what I was looking for,” said the 30-year-old Serb.
The world number four will play either Russia’s Daniil Medvedev or American Steve Johnson in the semi-finals.
“It was a great first set and after that I had opportunities to break serve in the second and I didn’t use them, he broke my serve at 4-4 and had set points,” added Djokovic, who has struggled for form this year.
“It was a close second set and could have gone either way.”
Djokovic, playing in his first pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament for seven years, admitted earlier this week that 2017 had been his toughest year in tennis.
The former world number one held all four Grand Slam titles going into last year’s Championships, but now holds none of tennis’s major prizes.
He suffered a surprise early exit to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon last year, then was beaten by Swiss third seed Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final.
Djokovic was stunned by world number 117 Denis Istomin in the Australian Open second round in January, before losing in the French Open quarter-finals at Roland Garros earlier this month.
He has dropped to fourth in the world rankings after a turbulent year in which he has won only one title and split with his coaching team.
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
Meanwhile, British number six Cameron Norrie, who has been given a wildcard into the main draw at Wimbledon, lost 6-3 6-2 against France’s world number 16 Gael Monfils.
As the BBC celebrates 90 years of covering Wimbledon, three-time champion John McEnroe discusses his tantrums, Andy Murray’s success and the greatest Wimbledon match.
Five #NextGenATP players advance on Wednesday
British teenager Jay Clarke continued his dream run in Wimbledon qualifying on Wednesday, moving into the final round of qualifying over #NextGenATP player Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-4, 7-6(5).
The 18 year old reached his first ATP Challenger Tour quarter-final last week on home soil in Ilkley. He’ll play Sebastian Ofner of Austria for a spot in the main draw.
#NextGenATP American and 21st seed Taylor Fritz also advanced into the final round of qualifying with a confident 6-1, 6-3 win over Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia. Standing between him and a spot in the main draw is Vincent Millot of France, who defeated third seed Tennys Sandgren of the U.S. 6-2, 7-6(5).
Other #NextGenATP players to advance include fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia, 19th seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Rublev overcame James McGee of Ireland 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, Bublik moved past Blake Mott of Australia 7-5, 6-4, and Tsitsipas overcame Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 7-6(5), 7-6(5).
View the order of play and full Wednesday results here.
| Wimbledon 2017 on the BBC |
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| Venue: All England Club Dates: 3-16 July Starts: 11:30 BST |
| Live: Coverage across BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. |
What is Wimbledon’s greatest moment?
Almost 30,000 of you chose your top three moments, from a list compiled by a panel of our tennis experts, to help us celebrate 90 years of the BBC at Wimbledon.
And the results, revealed during a Radio 5 live programme, are in.
The best moment at Wimbledon – with 64% of users placing it in their top three – is Andy Murray winning his maiden title in 2013 and ending Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s champion.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s intense final in the dark back in 2008 came second, with Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe’s epic 1980 final coming third.
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash: “It was one of the greatest moments in tennis history – a Briton winning Wimbledon. The atmosphere was phenomenal.
“Wherever you went, there was this tension, this expectation of “can he do it?” You can’t understand the pressure he had with 77 years of history on his back. It takes one hell of a tough kid to do that.”
BBC commentator Barry Davies: “Andy Murray does thoroughly deserve to win. It has to be a Briton winning it. And he might now do what Fred Perry did, and win it three times.”
Former British number one Sam Smith: “There are not many times when you’re watching something that you want to watch, but you can’t.
“During the final game I had to go in my study and pace about. If I’m feeling that, what must Judy Murray and his family been going through? It was the match you couldn’t bear to watch, and yet you had to.”
It’s a sporting event which brings together a nation and captivates the world.
But what is it like to reign triumphant at SW19? BBC Sport speaks to former champions about their day of glory.