Day 6 proved to be a day of upsets in the Ladies Tournament at Wimbledon as the top two Seeds in the bottom half of the draw were both eliminated, including defending Champion Iga Swiatek.
A surprising Finalist at another Grand Slam looks set to emerge, but Day 7 is the beginning of the second week and there is plenty more tennis to be played.
The top half of the Ladies Tournament looks highly competitive and the different combinations for the Quarter Final matches on Day 9 all look potentially very attractive.
It is a tough day to make Picks from the four matches to be played in the Ladies Fourth Round and it would not be a surprise if two favourites and two underdogs are able to fight through.
We do have two big favourites in the Mens Tournament with Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic remaining on collision course, but there are others still performing at Wimbledon who will believe they can find a way to earn the title. The Day 7 Fourth Round matches should be fun to watch and the fans in attendance on what was formerly Middle Sunday should be in for a treat.
Jannik Sinner - 9.5 games v Shintaro Mochizuki: He has already made history at Wimbledon before when Shintaro Mochizuki became the first Japanese player to win a Boys Single Title and so there is some comfort on the grass court. However, the move onto the main Tour has been hugely challenging for the 23 year old who is the World Number 151, but Grand Slam events have a tendency to throw up those storylines that will capture the imagination of Tennis fans.
This is one of those stories- despite winning that Boys Title here in 2019, Shintaro Mochizuki has struggled to impose himself on the main Tour, even on the grass. Strong runs at Challenger events suggested Mochizuki had found his level, while prior to the Wimbledon Qualifiers beginning, Shintaro Mochizuki had been beaten in matches by players Ranked Number 103, 196 and 806.
Three Qualifying wins earned Shintaro Mochizuki the right to take part in the main draw at Wimbledon for the second year in a row, but those wins were against players Ranked closer to 200 than the top 100, while he needed five sets to earn the way past the final opponent.
Shintaro Mochizuki was given a kind First Round draw, but he has grown in his time on the court and the wins over Ethan Quinn and Rafael Jodar are much more respectable. Naomi Osaka has been watching on from the player's box and Mochizuki is playing with a freedom that could make him dangerous.
The layers certainly do not feel that is the case with this line set for this Fourth Round match as Shintaro Mochizuki prepares to take on the World Number 1, and defending Champion, Jannik Sinner.
It has not been the most convincing tournament as far as Jannik Sinner has been concerned, but he will be pleased to have gotten through the first week without too many more dramas after needing five sets to win the opening match. Back to back straight sets wins will have eased the concerns around the World Number 1, while the numbers have improved Round to Round and that suggests this is a player peaking towards next weekend.
He will be massively encouraged by the serving numbers that Shintaro Mochizuki put on the board in the win over Rafael Jodar and that was against an opponent who is not nearly as accomplished on the grass as Jannik Sinner.
Covering will be a test, but this feels like a match that Jannik Sinner could control more and more the longer the players are out there and it could end up being reflected on the final scoreboard. After a competitive opening, Jannik Sinner could roll through the gears and keep his opponent under pressure on the return and it may end up leading to a 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 kind of victory and so backing the World Number 1 to cover this big line is the play.
Hubert Hurkacz-Jan-Lennard Struff over 40.5 games: Since reaching the Wimbledon Semi Final in 2021, Hubert Hurkacz had failed to make the Third Round twice in three visits and reached the Fourth Round once.
He is back in that spot on Day 7 of the 2026 tournament and Hubert Hurkacz has a big opportunity to get back into the last eight of this Grand Slam and reverse what has been a worrying trend regarding the slipping of the World Ranking over the last couple of years. Some of that has been down to injury, but Hubert Hurkacz has struggled to get back to the kind of level that had taken him into the top six of the World Rankings just two years ago.
A 14-15 overall record over the last twelve months ahead of this Grand Slam meant there was little expectation on Hubert Hurkacz, but he has made short work of the competition. Beating Casper Ruud in four sets is not the upset the Seeding would suggest, not on a grass court, but Hurkacz has a straight sets win over Sebastian Ofner and most impressive is the four set win over Tommy Paul to reach the second week.
Standing across the net is Jan-Lennard Struff, who looked to be coming to the back end of his career, and who at 36 years old will not have a better chance to get back into a main event spot.
Jan-Lennard Struff has been playing main draw Grand Slam events since 2013, but he has yet to reach the Quarter Final of any of those and this will be just the fifth time that the German has reached the second week of any Slam.
His run here at Wimbledon means this Slam has joined the French Open as the one that Jan-Lennard Struff has had the most success and he has battled and clawed throughout the first week. The upset over Daniil Medvedev in the Third Round caught the attention, although the straight sets win does not tell the tale of the story as Jan-Lennard Struff recovered from breaks of serve in each of the sets played.
Serving well is going to be huge for both players and the edge here is with Hubert Hurkacz who should be fresher and able to deliver the big serves more often and for longer than Jan-Lennard Struff. However, the latter can push through to tie-breakers and there is every chance that this is going to be a match that needs at least four sets with both players sensing the opportunity, which means also dealing with the pressure that comes with a sense of expectation.
Previous matches between the players have tended to be very competitive and that looks like being the case on Sunday in this Fourth Round contest.
Felix Auger Aliassime-Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Pick: There are a couple of Boys Champions out on the courts at the start of the second week at the 2026 Wimbledon and both are looking to make a big statement in the main draw.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has been in really good form in the warm up events, but this is a player who has regularly come up short at big moments in Grand Slam tournaments. He has won seven matches in a row on the grass and the Spaniard has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon, which will have given Alejandro Davidovich Fokina a huge boost in confidence as he looks to push through to just his second Quarter Final at Grand Slam level.
Next up is the toughest test Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will have faced at Wimbledon when taking on Felix Auger Aliassime who is the World Number 4 and someone who is looking to remind himself that he is capable of having a big impact at a Grand Slam.
After losing at the French Open in the Quarter Final, Felix Auger Aliassime was very critical of his own level and wondered aloud whether he was getting the best out of himself.
With that in mind, credit has to be given to the Canadian for digging in and putting in another strong Grand Slam showing, while Felix Auger Aliassime reached the Quarter Final in Halle before winning all three matches here in straight sets. The serve is working well, but Felix Auger Aliassime has found a confidence in his return and that makes him a really dangerous player on this surface, even if he is behind the likes of Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic in any favourite list.
Felix Auger Aliassime had won the first four pro matches between these players, but the most recent was played at the Australian Open in 2025 and it was Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who came from 2-0 behind to win in five. One other Grand Slam meeting also took place at Melbourne Park, but that time it was Auger Aliassime who came through in four incredibly competitive sets.
Both players have shown the kind of form that it would be a real disappointment for themselves, and the team, if this match is not competitive enough to see both players win a set. With the kind of serving that can be displayed, there is every chance that four sets could be all that is needed for the players to surpass this total games line, but there is a feeling that both Felix Auger Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are playing with the kind of confidence and belief that forces a fifth set to be required to produce a 2026 Wimbledon Quarter Finalist.
Novak Djokovic - 5.5 games v Roman Safiullon: In January 2024, then 26 year old Roman Safiullon entered the top 40 of the World Rankings and looked like he had finally worked out how best to deal with the strain of the ATP Tour.
Later that year Roman Safiullon was beaten twice by Novak Djokovic and that served as a reminder of how far the former still had to go if he was going to take the next step in his career.
Several months before reaching his career best World Ranking mark, Roman Safiullon had reached the Quarter Final at Wimbledon, but that is by far and away his best Grand Slam run and it has been a struggle since then at this level. In fact this is only the second time he has reached the second week of any Grand Slam, while Roman Safiullon entered this tournament outside of the top 100 of the World Rankings as injuries took their toll on his career.
The World Number 132 admitted that he thought about packing in the career as those injuries failed to dissipate, but Roman Safiullon worked his way through three Qualifying Rounds before winning three matches in the main draw that includes upsetting Seeds Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca.
Those will have given him confidence, but it was notable that Roman Safiullon admitted that Novak Djokovic had given him many problems in previous matches when talking about a potential opponent.
Thanks to a four set win, Novak Djokovic is the official Fourth Round opponent and this is a player that is now leaning on his experience much more than he ever did. Novak Djokovic is not operating at the level he once did, but aura is one of the last things to fade and this is a player who is very comfortable on the grass courts and much more than the majority of players on the Tour.
Of course he will respect the results Roman Safiullon has had here in the past, and the fact that the grass is not a surface that intimidates the lower Ranked player.
However, Novak Djokovic has enjoyed this match up previously and he may feel he can make more of an impact on the return than he did in the Third Round, which is going to be important to make the former seven time Champion just feel he can get his rhythm into the match.
In the previous Quarter Final appearance here in 2023, Roman Safiullon did take a set from Jannik Sinner before going down to a four set loss, and something similar in this Fourth Round match could allow Novak Djokovic to eventually pull clear of this handicap mark set.
MY PICKS: Jannik Sinner - 9.5 Games @ 1.91 William Hill (2 Units)
Hubert Hurkacz-Jan-Lennard Struff Over 40.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Felix Auger Aliassime-Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Over 41.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Novak Djokovic - 5.5 Games @ 1.80 William Hill (2 Units)
Wimbledon Update: 30-25, - 1.94 Units (108 Units Staked, - 1.79% Yield)
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