Wimbledon 2023: Sinner's sorry while Rublev pulls off shot in a million

By James Toney at Wimbledon

Jannik Sinner could become the most famous red head in tennis since Boris Becker but he's not known for living up to the fiery cliche.

A snappy dresser and part-time model, who walks on court with a personalised Gucci bag, the world number eight is usually an effortlessly cool type.

However, he was forced to apologise for a spat with umpire Marijana Veljovic as he became the first Italian man to twice reach the last eight at Wimbledon.

Sinner beat Colombia's Daniel Elahi Galán 7-6 6-4 6-3 but was repeatedly exasperated by the line calls of officials and let them know it, prompting jeers from the crowd on No.1 Court.

"I apologise because normally I'm quite calm," he said.

"It's sport, sometimes it happens and there were some tough calls for me. I normally try to stay in the present moment but players get a little bit frustrated occasionally, I'm sorry everyone."

Italy's record in Grand Slam tennis is hardly stellar - their last men's winner in the sport's big four tournaments was Adriano Panatta, 47 years ago at Roland Garros.

Two years ago Matteo Berrettini became the first Italian to reach the men's Wimbledon final but Sinner - whose superfans follow his games dressed as carrots - is a player few will want to face here.

Roman Safiullin will be his opponent in the last eight after his comeback 3-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 win over Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, the number 26 seed.

"I've learned how to be friendly with the grass and accept you may get unlucky with bounces and things like that, I think I've changed my mindset for this surface a lot," he added.

"I like playing here now, I love the atmosphere, it's very special. I've had better preparation this year and I'm feeling really positive about next week."

Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik slugged out a three hour five-setter on Centre Court before the former, the number seven seed, won 7-5 6-3 6-7 6-7 6-4.

He also moved into contention for shot of the championship in the dying stages of the final set, leaving Bublik wide-eyed and open mouthed with a diving return from behind the baseline that had the crowd on their feet. He served an ace with his next point to wrap up the match, his opponent still shaking his head in disbelief.

"Perhaps that's the most amazing point of my career," said Rublev, a seven-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist but never a semi-finalist.

"All my career I've never known how to dive, I was too scared. I don't really know how I made that shot, I didn't even see the ball or where it went.

"Then everyone started screaming and I saw his face was in shock. It was a shot in a million, you don't know how many times in a life you will have those moments."

It's nine years since Grigor Dimitrov made the Wimbledon semi-finals and six since he reached his career high world number three position.

However, he looked all class in the manner of his 6-2 6-3 6-2 third round win over American tenth seed Frances Tiafoe, who arrived at Wimbledon having won on grass in Stuttgart.

He hoped a good run here would mean he finally cracked a single figure world ranking.

Tiafoe is an undoubted talent - beating Rafael Nadal at the US Open last year - but his career has had its share of peaks and troughs, this defeat most certainly the latter.

"I got to continue but it's going to hurt for a very long time, and we'll see how I bounce back," he said.

"It's going to be tough to go home and everyone's going to be excited to see me, but I'm just not going to want to do anything.

"I've never really felt like this after a loss, usually I rise to occasions and I'm shocked how I performed. It's just crazy to me, it's very, very depressing. He outplayed me and it was pretty horrible stuff to be honest."