It is a sign of how unexpected Jay Clarke and Harriet Dart's Wimbledon mixed doubles quarter-final run is that the latter has had to postpone her holiday.
It is a sign of how unexpected Jay Clarke and Harriet Dart's Wimbledon mixed doubles quarter-final run is that the latter has had to postpone her holiday.
The 21-year-old was due to jet off to the Greek island of Santorini on Wednesday for a week but instead faces up to the prospect of walking out on centre court later today.
A wildcard for Wimbledon, Dart gave seventh seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic a scare in the first round of the women’s singles before losing in three sets.
But her Wimbledon adventure is still going strong after teaming up with 19-year-old Clarke to impressive effect in the mixed doubles.
The duo had never previously played together but stunned top seeds Mate Pavic and Gabriela Dabrowski on Tuesday to reach today’s quarter-final against tenth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Abigail Spears.
“I was supposed to go on holiday, that’s ruined! I will be going late,” said Dart.
“We will take it match-by-match and see how it goes. It’s a bit mad isn’t it. To be honest, I haven’t really thought it through, I will just take it day by day. But it’s great.”
Clarke and Dart will be third on centre court after the likes of 2016 women’s singles finalist Angelique Kerber and seven-time winner Serena Williams have contested their semi-finals.
Over on court one, Jamie Murray will also compete in the mixed doubles quarter-finals alongside Victoria Azarenka against fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Demi Schuurs.
The Scot beat 12th seeds Matwe Middelkoop and Johanna Larsson on Wednesday afternoon 7-6 6-3 to keep alive his title defence alongside his new partner. He will face Clarke and Dart in the semi-finals if both pairs progress today.
The men’s doubles reaches the semi-final stages with Joe Salisbury and Frederik Nielsen taking on 13th seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus on court one prior to Murray.
And Dom Inglot and Croatian partner Franco Skugor play American seventh seeds Mike Bryan and Jack Sock.
Meanwhile, Heather Watson’s Wimbledon run came to an end for another year as she and Tatjana Maria lost 3-6 7-6 6-4 to Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova in the women's doubles last eight on Wednesday.
“We lost the second set in such a close one. I thought we played really well in the match,” said Watson, who was docked a point for reportedly swearing during the match.
“They are a tough pair to play, we have to throw in a few more lobs than we usually put in.
“We had a good game plan today and we just missed out. We’d played a few times over the years. We will definitely play a lot more.” Sportsbeat 2018