From Rafael Nadal, a rare misstep that blighted a near-perfect performance. From his opponent, Lorenzo Sonego, a subtle but unsavoury piece of gamesmanship.
From Nick Kyrgios, a typically conceited exhibition of feather-ruffling and bad language that was only partially tempered by the frequent brilliance of his play. From the hapless Stefanos Tsitsipas, driven to distraction by the Australian’s antics, a thoroughly unprofessional meltdown.
Welcome to the madhouse that was the dying embers of middle Saturday at Wimbledon.
You know things are bad when Nadal, one of the game’s most respectful and sportsmanlike players, gets caught up in the maelstrom. For two and a half sets, the former champion played his most accomplished tennis of the tournament. Sonego must have had an inkling of what was coming when the Spaniard launched a backhand of withering power and accuracy beyond him with the contest just a couple of points old. Here was Nadal at his princely best, dominant from the baseline, decisive at the net, and serving with such ruthless authority that the Italian garnered just eight points in two sets from his return games.
But just as Nadal’s four-set struggles against Francisco Cerundolo and Ricardas Berankis were beginning to feel like a distant memory, the atmosphere began to sour.
Trailing by two sets to love, Sonego, the 27th seed, suggested to the chair umpire that the light was fading on Centre Court. It was a view that Nadal, doubtless eager to return to the sanctuary of the locker room, did not appear to share. Nonetheless, shortly before 8.30pm, and with the Spaniard a break up at 4-2, just two games from victory, Sonego got his wish. The lights came on, the roof was closed, and on the resumption of play Sonego held and then broke to love – although only after twice emitting a loud grunt well after the ball had left his racket, just as Nadal was lining up his reply.
If Sonego was attempting to distract Nadal, as it certainly appeared, the strategy worked more effectively than he could possibly have imagined. His annoyance plain, the 36-year-old voiced his feelings to the chair umpire before taking matters into his own hands by summoning Sonego to the net. It was an unusual breach of protocol – players rarely engage directly in the heat of battle – and Sonego, perhaps somewhat disingenuously, looked nonplussed.
Nadal broke back before serving out for a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory, but the debate continued at the net. Nadal’s body language was conciliatory – and there had been nothing obviously untoward in his manner when he initially spoke to Sonego – but the Italian was clearly having none of it, prompting Nadal to gesture that they should continue the conversation in the locker room. He was swift to offer a public apology in his on-court interview.
“From the bottom of my heart I didn’t make it in a negative way, I feel very sorry if I bothered him,” said Nadal. “I just wanted to tell him something, but I did it in a nice way and now I feel really bad if I really bothered him.”
Nadal later doubled down on his contrition.
“I have to say that I was wrong,” he said in press. “Probably I should not call him to the net. So [I] apologise for that. My mistake. No problem on recognising that.
“My intention was never to bother him at all, just to tell him one thing that was bothering me that I think he was doing in that moment, but that’s it.
“There are some codes between players. We had some issues there.”
Sonego remained unamused, however, insisting Nadal should not have called him to the net.
“You cannot do that at Wimbledon,” said the 27-year-old. “Nadal should just have had a word with the umpire. He distracted me.”
Compared with what was happening on Court 1, it was a storm in a teacup. Kyrgios dropped the opening set on a tiebreak, but not before he had got under Tsitsipas’s skin with a trademark underarm serve. The Greek fourth seed missed his return, and was later forced to watch on as Kyrgios launched a foul-mouthed tirade at chair umpire Damien Dumusois over a disputed line call.
Kyrgios’s complaints continued into the second set, which the Australian won to pull level, prompting Tsitsipas to swat a ball into the crowd. Tsitsipas was fortunate that the ball did not hit anyone, but Kyrgios complained loudly and at length that his opponent should be defaulted, branding Dumusois “dumb” and a “disgrace” as he likened the incident to the one that saw Novak Djokovic defaulted from the US Open two years ago for accidentally hitting a lineswoman with a ball.
“You can’t hit a ball into the crowd and hit someone and not get defaulted,” raged Kyrgios.
Code violations followed for both players, and when Kyrgios hit another underarm serve in the fifth game of set three, Tsitsipas completely lost it, deliberately smacking the ball out of court. Again, he was lucky not to strike anyone in the crowd. He received a second code violation, resulting in a docked point, and afterwards went into meltdown, arguing with Dumusois before aiming bodyline shots at Kyrgios.
The Australian went on to win 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7), before the drama continued in the interview room, where Tsitsipas took aim at “the constant talking, the constant complaining” as he branded his rival a bully with an “evil side”.
“The circus show going on, on the other side of the net, starts to become tiring,” said Tsitsipas, who apologised for hitting the ball into the crowd but said “there was something that created that behaviour”.
“Every single point that I played today, I feel like there was something going on.
“It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does,” added Tsitsipas. “He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like people that put other people down. He has some good traits in his character, as well. But he also has a very evil side to him which, if it’s exposed, can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.”
Kyrgios, who beat Tsitsipas in Halle before Wimbledon, and spoke with warmth of the Greek in his on-court interview, dismissed the accusations as sour grapes.
“I’m not sure how I bullied him,” said Kyrgios. “He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one who hit a spectator, he was the one that smacked it out of the stadium, I didn’t do anything.
“Apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos that was disrespectful, I don’t think. I was not drilling him with balls.
“I’d be pretty upset if I lost to someone two weeks in a row as well. Maybe he should figure out how to beat me.”
It was an unsavoury conclusion to a day that began with Harmony Tan, the Frenchwoman who defeated Serena Williams, ending the run of Britain’s Katie Boulter in summary fashion, 6-1, 6-1, out on Court 2.
Coco Gauff, the 11th-seeded American who reached the French Open final earlier this month, was later ousted by her compatriot Amanda Anisimova, the 20th seed, who overcame the loss of a nip-and-tuck opening set to advance 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1.
Paula Badosa, the fourth seed, defeated two-time champion Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), and will now face another former winner in Simona Halep, the 16th seed, who came through 6-4, 6-1 against Poland’s Magdalena Frech.
Yet it was to be a day when only the shock defeat of top seed Iga Swiatek, whose 37-match winning streak was ended by Alizé Cornet, overshadowed the flurry of late controversy.