Wimbledon Day 8 matches to watch
LONDON — These are the matches to watch on Day 8 of Wimbledon. Play begins on the outer courts at 6:30 a.m. ET and at 8 a.m. ET on Centre Court and No. 1 Court. ESPN's live coverage of No. 1 court and ESPN2's live coverage of Centre Court both begin at 8 a.m. ET. ESPNEWS will take over coverage of No. 1 Court starting at 11:30 a.m. ET. Click here for the order of play, and see the full TV schedule here.
Nick Kyrgios, 19, tries to blast through Rafael Nadal (Second match, Centre Court): The Australian wild card has had a dream tournament already, knocking off 13th seed Richard Gasquet in five sets in the second round and then beating last year's ATP newcomer of the year, Jiri Vesely. His reward for all that is a spot on Centre Court against the No. 1 player in the world. And the teenager is relishing the opportunity.
"I never thought that I would be seeing Nadal in my fourth round at Wimbledon in my 19th year," Kyrgios said. "I thought it would take years and years of work to finally have an opportunity like that. To think that it's going to happen in about a day is daunting, but so exciting, as well."
If Kyrgios can get his big serve firing and play some go-for-broke tennis, he could make this interesting.
"I will take a lot of pride in the scoreline," he said. "Of course I have nothing to lose out there. Anything is possible. I'm just going to go out there and play my game. I think that's definitely enough to be competitive."
Roger Federer seeks to avenge his U.S. Open loss against Tommy Robredo (First match, No. 1 Court): Robredo handed Federer his earliest exit from the U.S. Open in 10 years when Robredo rolled past him in straight sets in the fourth round. The win was the Spaniard's first in 11 attempts against Federer, but this is a new year, a new tournament and a new Federer. The Swiss has lost just 23 games in the first three rounds, the second fewest games he's dropped to reach the fourth round here.
Feliciano Lopez gunning for an upset of No. 3 Stanislas Wawrinka (Second match No. 2 Court): The Spaniard is on a seven-match win streak on grass and showed nerves of steel to beat John Isner 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-5. He's a better grass court player than Wawrinka, who has never made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon. Lopez is trying to reach his fourth quarterfinal. Wawrinka leads their head-to-head 3-2.
No. 8 Milos Raonic and No. 10 Kei Nishikori in search of their first Wimbledon quarterfinal (Second match, No. 3 Court): The two young contemporaries meet for the first time at a major where Raonic will be going for his first win over Nishikori in three tries. Nishikori beat him in the Tokyo final in 2012 and then earlier this year on clay in Madrid. Despite those results, Raonic is the favorite in this match. He's in great form, having not lost a set through his first three matches, a first for him at a Slam. He'll also be the more rested of the two. Raonic has had two days off since Saturday, while Nishikori had to come out Monday to finish his suspended five-set match against Simone Bolelli.
Petra Kvitova takes on fellow Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Third match, Centre Court): The 2011 champion Kvitova has shown championship-winning quality through her first four rounds and she'll play her Fed Cup teammate for a spot in the semifinals. Kvitova is 3-1 against Zahlavova Strycova, but the 28-year-old is in the form of her life at the moment. The other quarterfinal features two lefties, as No. 23 Lucie Safarova faces off against No. 22 Ekaterina Makarova.
Top half women's quarterfinals still to be set: Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber were supposed to play on Monday, but their match was canceled due to rain delays and light. They will now open play on Centre Court, with the winner to play EugenieBouchard on Wednesday. No. 3 SimonaHalep had her match against ZarinaDiyas held up due to the scheduling changes, and she'll open play on No. 2 Court. Finally, Sabine Lisicki will try to keep her run going against YaroslavaShvedova as the first match on No. 3 Court.
