Thompson marks Wimbledon career milestone, Hijikata out after bad light drama

Sydney Morning Herald

10 hours ago

Darderi's mood darkened as the end neared, complaining to the chair umpire after Thompson delayed serving on the first point of the next game as a bee flew nearby.
It still paled in comparison to Darderi's fury after Thompson clinched the opening set with his cap in his left hand after it came loose in his service motion. The Australian managed to catch his hat mid-air and continue the point before clinching the set with a neat backhand volley.
Darderi protested for several minutes afterwards, arguing it had distracted him, and he tossed his racquet to his chair as it became obvious he was not going to win the debate.
'My hat's fallen off before, and I know what the rules are. It didn't hinder him – it hindered me,' Thompson said. 'I don't know what he was complaining about … the rule is, if it doesn't hinder the opponent, play on.'
Fifth-seeded American Taylor Fritz, who also won his opening two matches in five sets, stands between Thompson and an unlikely maiden grand slam quarter-final. Fritz downed Spain's No.26 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1.
Thompson won the pair's most-recent clash on grass in straight sets in the Queen's Club quarter-finals in London last year, and Fritz is preparing for a 'tricky' clash.
'I'm not going on the court if I don't think I can win,' Thompson said.
'That's a pathetic outlook if I go out there thinking I can't win. I won last time it was on grass, but [it was] very different grass and different circumstances. It'll be a new day.'
Bad light drama
Thompson is one of three Australians left – along with Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina – after Hijikata's controversially suspended second-round match took a breezy 71 seconds to complete on Friday.
American 10th seed Ben Shelton, who argued animatedly but unsuccessfully for the chance to serve for the match on Thursday night, fired three aces and an unreturnable second serve on resumption that kicked over Hijikata's head to clinch a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win.
Shelton failed to convert three match points in a row on Hijikata's service game before chair umpire Nacho Forcadell and court supervisor Ali Nili suspended play the previous night amid boos from the crowd.
Bad light was the official reason, but the dual major semi-finalist revealed post-match it was more complicated than that.
'[The official] said it was a five-minute warning until the Hawk-Eye was going down. That was including the changeover, so there wouldn't be enough time to complete the game,' Shelton said.
'I was telling him, 'I only need 60 seconds'. That's kind of what my goal was when I went out there today [but] he told me there wasn't enough time. I was like, 'Well, has it gone down yet, or did they give you the five-minute warning?' … [and] he was like, 'We don't want it to be in the middle of the game'.
'At that point, I'm not as upset about that decision. It was a difficult decision that was forced because of what they did earlier [in not suspending play at the start of the third set].'
Shelton also played down his fury towards Forcadell as court supervisor Nili came between the duo, saying it was 'nothing' and 'probably looked more tense than it was'.
Speaking after advancing to the third round of the doubles with Dutchman David Pel, Hijikata said the drama did not impact the result but that he would like some clarity on the decision-making.
The 24-year-old Australian said both he and Shelton, who next faces lucky loser Marton Fucsovics, who outlasted Gael Monfils in five sets, would have preferred the match to be suspended at the end of the second set, and queried why play stopped so much earlier on other nights.
'I don't know what the reasoning was, but they told us. By 3-2 or 4-2 [in the third set], it was already dark, then we were playing in the dark for, like, 10, 15 minutes,' Hijikata said.
'It was slippery also. I asked the umpire as well in the third set to come check the court, [and] he said it was fine. I said, 'Mate, I think it's slippery'. Ben agreed … [but Forcadell] said, 'It's the same for both of you', which is the case. But it also means it's maybe not safe for both of us.'
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Hijikata said it was a nightmare to return Shelton's service thunderbolts, which topped out at 234km/h and came down at 200km/h on average.
'It's not easy when you have someone like that coming out for one game,' he said.
'You can pick your return spots or guess all you want, but when he is serving down 145 [mph], or whatever it is, I could have guessed right, and still probably not got a racquet on it. I mean, that's an absolute clinic on how to serve out a match if you've got one game to go.'