Day 7 at The Championships features the beginning of the round of 16 in singles play.
For the fourth time this year, a pair of four-time hard court Major champions will do battle, as Aryna Sabalenka plays Naomi Osaka. Sabalenka has taken all three of their prior encounters during 2026, but Osaka is looking more comfortable on grass than ever before. Can Naomi turn this rivalry around?
Other round of 16 action on Day 7 feature several extremely appetizing WTA matchups. In what should be an excellent grass court contest, with an abundance of variety, 2023 Roland Garros finalist Karolina Muchova takes on two-time Major singles champion Barbora Krejcikova. In the continuation of what has been a closely-contested rivalry, Coco Gauff faces Belinda Bencic. And in a clash between two generations of Americans, No.1 ranked American Jessica Pegula squares off against 18-year-old Iva Jovic.
In gentlemen’s singles on Sunday, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic each play a qualifier who has been thoroughly impressive during the first week of this fortnight.
Here’s a rundown of the most notable matches on Day 7 (in chronological order, all times local):
Karolina Muchova (10) vs. Barbora Krejcikova – Not Before 12:30pm on No.2 Court
Muchova is yet to drop a set, and is currently on a seven-match win streak, after procuring a grass court title last week in Bad Homburg. She reached the quarterfinals in her first two appearances at SW19, yet lost in the first round in all of the last four years.
Krejcikova pulled off an upset on paper in the second round over recent Roland Garros champ Mirra Andreeva, in a tight three-setter. The 2024 champ took reached a grass court final last month, but had to withdraw from that final due to illness. Krejcikova is the only former ladies’ singles titleholder left in the draw.
This will surprisingly be the first tour-level meeting between these two Czechs.
Jessica Pegula (4) vs. Iva Jovic (16) – 1:00pm on No.1 Court
Pegula is one of the WTA leaders in match wins this season (34), and has easily advanced through this draw thus far, a year after she fell in the first round of The Championships. The 32-year-old is vying for her second Wimbledon quarterfinal.
Jovic notched an impressive three-set victory in the last round over an accomplished grass court player in Ekaterina Alexandrova. This is only the teenager’s fourth-ever tournament on this surface at all levels, yet she holds a strong record of 14-2, as her aggressive nature is rewarded by the grass.
These Americans already played twice earlier this season, with Pegula winning in straights on a hard court, and in three on clay. Now they meet on grass.
Roman Safiullin (Q) vs. Novak Djokovic (7) – 1:30pm on Centre Court
Djokovic has lost a set in two of his first three matches, as he looks to advance to his ninth consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal, and the 17th of his career. Including qualifying, Safiullin has already contested three five-setters, two of which were decided by a fifth-set tiebreak. But in the last round, he comfortably defeated Joao Fonseca in straights, and became quite emotional after the match while recounting his recent injury struggles. The 28-year-old Russian had not won a match at tour level since last summer’s US Open, though he is a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist.
The 24-time Major champ leads their head-to-head 3-0, with a trio a straight-set victories.
Hubert Hurkacz vs. Jan-Lennard Struff – Third on No.2 Court
This is the first tournament in over a year where Hurkacz was won three matches, after undergoing knee surgery last July. The 2021 semifinalist upset 21st-seeded Tommy Paul in four sets on Friday. Struff endured five-setters in both of his first two rounds, before upsetting Daniil Medvedev in straights, to reach the round of 16 at The Championships for the first time at the age of 36. And he’s achieved this feat despite arriving at The All-England Club having lost 16 of his last 23 tour-level matches.
They have split four prior encounters, with Struff claiming their only grass court matchup, and with Hurkacz claiming their two most recent matchups.
Felix Auger-Aliassime (3) vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (22) – Second on No.1 Court
Auger-Aliassime is another player yet to lose a set, and much like Muchova, he had gone four years with only one match win here since his quarterfinal appearance in 2021. Two days before this tournament began, Davidovich Fokina finally captured his first ATP title, in his sixth final, on the grass of Mallorca. The Spaniard is now on a seven-match winning streak, and he also hasn’t dropped a set through three rounds, to achieve his best Wimbledon result to date.
The Canadian has taken three of their four meetings at tour level, though all four have been tight. At the 2022 Australian Open, Auger-Aliassime prevailed in a four-setter decided by four tiebreaks. But at last year’s Australian Open, Davidovich Fokina prevailed in a nearly five-hour five-setter.
Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs. Naomi Osaka (14) – Second on Centre Court
Across their three prior encounters this year, which includes a match at the last Major, Sabalenka has lost just one set. The only other year they played was 2018, when Osaka won a three-setter at the US Open. Sabalenka is vying for her fourth quarterfinal in as many SW19 appearances, while this is Osaka’s best Wimbledon result to date. Neither player has dropped a set this week, setting up a highly-anticipated affair between two of the WTA’s best servers and hardest ball strikers.
Belinda Bencic (11) vs. Coco Gauff (7) – Third on No.1 Court
Gauff has survived three-setters in each of the last two rounds, as her best tennis continues to escape her on grass. And she is 0-3 in the round of 16 at this event. Bencic overcame 19th-seeded Anna Kalinskaya on Friday in a third-set tiebreak, as the 29-year-old defends semifinalist points from a year ago.
Gauff is 5-2 against Bencic, and has taken their last three matches. But five of those seven meetings have gone the distance, and Bencic is definitively the more successful and confident player on this surface.
Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Shintaro Mochizuki (Q) – Third on Centre Court
After being pushed to five sets in the first round, Sinner won his last two matches in straights, as he looks for a fifth consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal. Mochizuki is a 23-year-old Japanese qualifier who played some great grass court tennis to beat Rafael Jodar in four sets on Friday. He was previously 2-6 in the main draw of Majors, and 0-6 this year at tour level. While Mochizuki has never faced a top five player, he does own a victory over a top 10 player, as he upset Taylor Fritz at the 2023 Tokyo Open as a wild card ranked outside the top 200. He also won the Wimbledon boys’ singles title back in 2019.
Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.
