Wimbledon 2021: Emma Raducanu roars into round four, Federer v Norrie – live!

10.55am EDT 10:55

Federer holds, as does Norrie, to leave the 40-year-old 5-4 up and serving for the set – which he clinches with minimal fuss.

If Kyrgios is knackered from his busy week, it isn’t showing in his play. He breaks Auger-Aliassime for the second time to steam 5-2 ahead in the first set. He’s 41 ranking behinds his opponent and is playing for the fifth day in row – and he promptly receives a pretty intensive massage on the sideline. In fact, that a medical timeout for him, with what looks like an abdominal issue: one to watch.

10.44am EDT 10:44

… after which Norrie gives up his serve with ominous unease. A series of unforced errors from the Briton gifts three break points to Federer, who rattles a forehand smash down the line to seal his eighth point in a row.

10.41am EDT 10:41

Kyrgios, who came on to court without his shoes before the match, has broken Auger-Aliassime early on to go 3-1 up. Meanwhile there’s nothing to separate Norrie and Federer just yet – they’re level a 3-3 and not a hint of a break point since that bizarre first game.

Nick Kyrgios celebrates a point during his third round match. Photograph: Javier García/REX/Shutterstock

Updated at 10.47am EDT

10.32am EDT 10:32

As with Kerber earlier, Zverev looks to have been sparked into life by a first-set shock. He has broken Fritz to go 3-1 up in the second set. Anastasija Sevastova and the 14th seed Barbora Krejcikova have spent their first set trading blows, and are level at 5-5.

Updated at 10.35am EDT

10.26am EDT 10:26

Norrie’s first ever service game on Centre Court is a funny one: he makes three double faults against an all-time great, yet still holds. 1-0.

Norrie in action. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated at 10.46am EDT

10.23am EDT 10:23

Cameron Norrie and Roger Federer limber up on Centre Court ahead of their showdown. Norrie arrives here at his career-best ranking (34) but has never been past the third round in a grand slam. He takes on a man 14 years his senior: Federer is 40 next month yet still ranked eighth in the world. His first Wimbledon title came four months before Emma Raducanu’s first birthday.

10.13am EDT 10:13

A minor surprise on Court Two, as Taylor Fritz steals the first set from Alexander Zverev, the men’s fourth seed, on a tie-break. Watch this space. Next up on Centre Court is Federer v Norris, while Kyrgios and Auger-Aliassime have just emerged from the tunnel on No1 Court for what should be a very decent contest indeed.

10.06am EDT 10:06

Updates. Ilya Ivashka has seen off Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a fourth-round meeting with Matteo Berrettini, who won by exactly the same score today. Karolina Muchova has beaten the French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3. And the men’s 23rd seed Lorenzo Sonego has beaten Duckworth 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Raducanu, by the way, will face the world No 75 Ajla Tomljanovic in the fourth round on Tuesday.

9.59am EDT 09:59

Gauff beats Juvan, 6-3, 6-3

It wasn’t the prettiest win of Gauff’s career (four double faults) but she showed real spirit and no little class to ease past the Slovenian and into the fourth round. A mouthwatering semi-final with Ashleigh Barty awaits – but she’ll have to overcome Angelique Kerber first, who looked formidable today.

Cori Gauff celebrates winning her third round match against Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated at 10.02am EDT

9.52am EDT 09:52

Raducanu beats Cirstea! 6-3, 7-5

And in scintillating style, holding her nerve throughout a prolonged knife-edge rally, gasps galore from the crowd. She sinks to her knees in drained triumph before rising to take in the acclaim of the adoring spectators, grinning from ear to ear. She has been sensational today. She’s into the fourth round of Wimbledon having played her first WTA Tour match last month. What a story.

Raducanu drops to her knees after winning her third round match against Cirstea. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters All smiles as Raducanu is interviewed on court. Photograph: John Walton/PA

Updated at 10.01am EDT

9.48am EDT 09:48

Deuce again, as the teenager’s drop-shot lands millimetres wide. And a no-nonsense point from Cirstea gives her the advantage. But Raducanu delivers another of those mighty backhand swipes to draw it back level. And Cirstea hits a forehand long, her hat coming off in the process, to concede a third match point.

9.45am EDT 09:45

But she hits the next return long, and her appeal is in vain. But wait – then she digs out a wonderful cross-court forehand to earn a second match point!

9.43am EDT 09:43

Match point Raducanu! She’s 40-30 up in Cirstea’s service game. 6-5 in the second set.

Updated at 9.44am EDT

9.40am EDT 09:40

Berrettini beats Bedene, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4

A pleasingly uniform scoreline in that one, and the Italian will play Ilya Ivashka or Jordan Thompson in the fourth round. Over on No1 Court, Cristea holds her serve as expected to make it 5-5 before hitting a wild backhand miles wide to leave Raducanu 6-5 up. She now serves to stay in the tournament, and wallops a perfectly placed 93mph ace to get things going.

9.35am EDT 09:35

Raducanu is a game away from the fourth round. Only problem is, it’s Cirstea’s service game and she doesn’t fancy giving it up, blasting her way to a 40-15 lead. Gauff toils to a 3-1 lead against Juvan, with flashes of improvisational brilliance from the American mixed with a few signs of anxiety and rushed shots.

Raducanu celebrates winning a point. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 9.45am EDT

9.31am EDT 09:31

With Kerber having vacated No1 court, the men’s fourth seed Alexander Zverev is now playing the American Taylor Fritz (31). Berrettini is 5-4 up against Bedene and serving for the second set. And Hurkacz has beaten Bublik, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

9.28am EDT 09:28

The hint of a wobble from Gauff, who wavers on a couple of serves and needs a second set point against Juvan, but she awakens to wallop an ace past her opponent and take the first set 6-3.

Raducanu sends Cirstea play out an epic 15-minute game. First the teenager send her opponent scuttling around the baseline on her own service game, drawing it to a second deuce, before the Romanian returns the favour, but she can’t claim the next point. Eventually, after a ninth deuce and some sensational play from both – including one majestic cross-court forehand from the teenager – and the finest of fine-margin Hawkeye calls in Cirstea’s favour, the Romanian holds her nerve to draw it back to 4-4 in the second set.

9.15am EDT 09:15

A series of smooth groundstrokes take Raducanu 4-3 up in the second set. She is playing with plenty of wit and absolutely no fear, winning the crowd over. And Kaja Juvan is refusing to merely make up the numbers, working her way through a steady service game to peg Gauff back to 5-3 before unleashing a smart drop shot to take herself 30-15 up in the next game.

9.09am EDT 09:09

Kerber beats Sasnovich 2-6, 6-0, 6-1

If it’s the mark of a champion to stay cool when the proverbial hits the fan, then Angelique Kerber has just given a superb demonstration of exactly that. She came roaring back from a disastrous first set against the unseeded world No 100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich to assert her authority and wrapping up the win with, in the end, minimal fuss.

Angelique Kerber of Germany celebrates after victory against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Updated at 9.30am EDT

9.05am EDT 09:05

Raducanu, spectacularly good so far, plays her best tennis of the match, racing into a ridiculous 40-0 lead in Cirstea’s service game. But the Romanian reacts superbly, clawing herself level and taking the game with an ace. She’s not done here yet.

And Gauff breaks again to go 4-1 up against Juvan.

Elsewhere: Karolina Muchova (19th seed) has taken the first set 7-5 against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (16). Men’s 14th seed Hubert Herkacz is two sets to the good against Alexander Bublik. and Berrettini makes the second set a repeat performance of his first: he wins it 6-4, recording seven aces in the process.

Gauff in action during her third round match against Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated at 9.07am EDT

8.55am EDT 08:55

There’s no stopping Raducanu now. She wins herself two breaks point before hammering a two-handed backhand down the line to claim her seventh game in a row. 2-0. Also not messing about is Coco Gauff, who breaks Juvan’s serve at the first time of asking to double her lead in the first set. Oh, and while I was typing that, Raducanu won her service game to love in the blink of an eye. Make that eight in a row.

8.50am EDT 08:50

Jonathan McDonald writes: “Alex, good morning from Vancouver, where I’m still half-asleep and just catching up. Tennis in the movies … I always think of The Royal Tenenbaums and the great on-court meltdown of Richie Tenenbaum following his 72nd unforced error. Bizarre and hilarious!”

8.49am EDT 08:49

Raducanu takes the first set

And she makes it 6-4 in spectacular fashion, stooping low to dig out a spectacular lob that Cirstea can only watch sail over her head and land just inside the line. Wonderful stuff. That was a hugely impressive first set from the 18-year-old: four aces, three unforced errors, and just one point lost on her first serve.

Meanwhile Angelique Kerber has stormed back into the fore, taking the second set without dropping a game to level it up at 1-1. Berrettini has put himself 4-2 up against Bedene. And Coco Gauff wins her first service game against Kaja Juvan to love. 1-0.

Emma Raducanu reacts after winning the first set. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Updated at 8.52am EDT

8.44am EDT 08:44

Raducanu holds her serve – she’s barely given up a point when serving so far – and goes 0-30 up with a gem of a forehand return before taking the next point. Two set points!

8.40am EDT 08:40

And she holds her serve to love in a matter of minutes with a real display of power, a couple of aces in the mix. Kerber has belatedly woken up, 5-0 ahead in the second set against Sasnovich. And Raducanu breaks Cirstea for the second games in a row! She’s 4-3 up, and retires to the sideline for a drink before a huge service game.

Berrettini has broken Bedene early in the second set to go 2-1 up.

8.32am EDT 08:32

Again Raducanu takes Cirstea’s service game to the brink, fighting her way to deuce with a delicious backhand swipe – before Cirstea hits a simple forehand long! 3-2, and a break apiece. And now it’s raining again. Or is it? The umpire has ordered play to carry on, for now… And Raducanu kicks off her service game with an ace.

8.28am EDT 08:28

Berrettini has upped his game to take the first set against Bedene rounding making it 6-4 with his seventh ace of the afternoon so far. And Coco Gauff is about to emerge from the tunnel on Centre Court.

8.25am EDT 08:25

But she can’t carry that form into her own service game. Some powerful play by Cirstea earns her two breaks points and the Romanian batters a backhand down the line to go 3-1 up.

Romania’s Sorana Cirstea serves. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 8.30am EDT

8.21am EDT 08:21

Raducanu takes her opponent’s second service game to deuce before being foiled by a fine 107mph serve. Berrettini is still at an impasse against Bedene, that’s level at 4-4 with neither player having broken. And the ice-cool Sanovich holds her serve against Kerber to go 1-0 up in the second set.

8.18am EDT 08:18

A flawless first service game from Raducanu, who wins the game to love before rattling a glorious backhand return across the court to take the next game’s first point.

Sasnovich has picked up where she left off against Kerber, taking the first set 6-2.

Raducanu wins her first game on court one. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Updated at 8.20am EDT

8.14am EDT 08:14

Raducanu gives Cirstea a run for her money in the first service game, attacking the second serves well and earning herself a break point – and the adoration of the crowd – before the Romanian reasserts herself to take the game.

And Jim Green emails in with this tennis scene from Blow-Up, surely the tennis scene, he reckons. A very good shout – one for the cinephiles. (But is Blow-Up on par with The Passenger in the Antonioni oeuvre? I would say not quite)

8.06am EDT 08:06

The players are out on Court No 1 – Sorana Cirstea, the 31-year-old Romanian ranked 45th in the world, and Emma Raducanu, 18-year-old from London, ranked 338th in the world and about to play by far the biggest game of her career. She calls the toss: tails. It’s heads.

And the players on all the other courts – Berrettini, Kerber and co – have also re-emerged and are getting warmed back up, ready to get going again.

8.00am EDT 08:00

A bit more from Andy Murray, speaking on the BBC about yesterday’s second-round exit: “The negatives? My tennis, really. I didn’t play to the level that I would like. Some of that is understandable due to my lack of matches. But that’s what I’m disappointed with. I think I could have done better. I was 5-1 up in the third set of my first match and didn’t see that through, I was a set and a break up in my second match and let that slip as well. Tennis-wise, there is a lot I need to work on.”

7.52am EDT 07:52

And it looks like we’re all set for a 1pm restart, with the sun shining (or at least visible) over SW19. Which means Emma Raducanu will take to Court No 1 as scheduled. Coco Gauff then gets going on Centre Court half an hour later.

7.50am EDT 07:50

The pick of the third-round matches in the men’s draw is almost certainly Kyrgios v Auger-Aliassim, in which the Australian will take to the Wimbledon court for the fifth consecutive day. He beat Gianluca Mager in the first round before his five-set, two-day epic against Ugo Humbert – and yesterday found the time to squeeze in a mixed-doubled victory alongside Venus Williams. Has he had too much of a good thing? We’ll soon see.

7.33am EDT 07:33

Play has now been pushed back to 1pm. Brollies up.

Photograph: John Walton/PA

Updated at 7.34am EDT

7.29am EDT 07:29

With the covers still up on the outside courts, here’s our DVD critic Guy Lodge on the best tennis movies, which includes Match Point – arguably the best of the bad Woody Allen films. As for tennis scenes in films, I would put forward the opening scene from The Squid and the Whale, and this scene from the timeless teen masterwork Clueless. Any more for any more?

Updated at 7.30am EDT

7.19am EDT 07:19

The All England Club has announced that there will be no play on the outside courts before 12:30 BST – but things seem to be brightening up. Keep the faith.

7.13am EDT 07:13

Nor is Raducanu the only multitalented player to make it into the third round this year

Updated at 7.14am EDT

7.07am EDT 07:07

Raducanu is a relative old-timer compared with the still-absurdly-young Coco Gauff, who eased past the Briton Francesca Jones and then Elena Vesnina to set up today’s meeting with world No 102 Kaja Juvan. A win this afternoon keeps her on course for a possible semi-final with No1 seed Ashleigh Barty, who is also in action on Centre Court today, against Katerina Siniakova.

6.54am EDT 06:54

And here’s a triffic profile of Emma Raducanu, the ballerina-turned-tap-dancer-turned-go-karter-turned-tennis-sensation who is currently awaiting her A-level results and making us all feel deeply inadequate. Her win on Thursday earned her £115,000 – not bad eh?

6.43am EDT 06:43

In the meantime, here’s some reading to take you through the hiatus: the estimable Andy Bull on Andy Murray, who has raged against the dying of the light but yesterday’s found himself beaten by a young upstart and asking “Is all the hard work worth it”?

6.41am EDT 06:41

I did say “weather permitting”. And right now the weather is unpermitting. Light showers have shooed the players off the courts for the time being – which is just as well for Kerber, who was floundering badly against the world No 100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The Belarusian was 5-1 up in the first set and cruising.

Berrettini meanwhile had found little joy in the early stages against 64th-ranked Aljaz Bedene, both men holding their serves at 3-3.

For now, the brollies are up in SW19, although the rain is not predicted to last long. Here’s hoping.

6.35am EDT 06:35

Preamble

We’re not even a week into Wimbledon and the drama has come thick, fast and slippery. We’ve had a Murray epic, a Murray downfall, a Serena slip-up, a Kyrgios rant, a masterclass apiece from Djokovic and Federer, and the gloriously unannounced arrival of a new superstar.

Things ramp up another gear on the last day of week one, with aforementioned superstar Emma Raducanu taking her place alongside fellow teen sensation Coco Gauff in the afternoon’s first matches. Raducanu pits her wits against Sorana Cirstea on No1 Court while Gauff faces off against Kaja Juvan in the main arena. After that Roger Federer takes on Cameron Norrie – the last of the British men’s hopes – and Nick Kyrgios test his mettle against the talented Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. And at the end of it all, Daniel Medvedev and Ashleigh Barty, second and first seeds respectively in their draws, continue their pursuit of the title.

But before all that, our curtain-raiser comes in the form of Matteo Berrettini against the grizzled Slovenian Aljaz Bedene, while Angelique Kerber – equally grizzled – takes on the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

And that’s just the headline acts. We’ll also have the latest from all the other matches played in SW19 today, weather permitting, as well as pointers to all our latest coverage. Stay tuned!