Preview and Schedule 2024 Wimbledon Day Nine - Tuesday 9 July featuring Alcaraz-Paul and Sinner-Medvedev

It is the first half of the Quarter-Finals in the Men's and Women's Draw on Day Nine of Wimbledon with the men's seeing some real standout clashes while the women's is very much the most open half so far.

Our Preview as ever looks ahead to the top ties on Day Nine (Tuesday 9 July) including Head to Head and key talking points as we look ahead to a pivotal juncture in this year's tournament.

Two out of the three protagonists from Italy remaining in this year's Wimbledon will be in action on Centre Court. Anchoring their countries hopes alongside Lorenzo Musetti who is also into the Quarter-FInals, they will take centre stage during a boom period for Italian tennis.

Jannik Sinner is first up and he will face Daniil Medvedev in a very familiar and intriguing tie. This tie birthed the Sinner that is known now as World No.1 and a Grand Slam champion. The Italian vomited mid match into a bin at the China Open due to humidity against Grigor Dimitrov.

He went on to win the final against Medvedev that week which started a streak against the Russian and post puke Sinner was born. He has since won five matches in a row against Medvedev and sits at 5-6 down in the Head to Head after initially losing the first six matches. He also claimed his crowning glory against Medvedev. He sealed the 2024 Australian Open title against the Russian coming from two sets down to win in crushing fashion. Will Medvedev break the streak or will Sinner continue his roll?

Then it is perhaps the tie which will see the favourite for the final on the bottom half of the women's draw set. With the demise of Coco Gauff and the withdrawal of Aryna Sabalenka, the draw has opened up again for another Italian.

That being one Jasmine Paolini. She reached the Roland Garros final, went up to a career high of number 7 and keeps climbing and also reached her first final on grass at Eastbourne recently. A woman firmly on a roll and one of the best players in the world this season on the WTA circuit. She will be favourite likely to face Elena Rybakina from the other half of the draw.

But Emma Navarro has acted like a WTA spoiler in the past 18 months and will aim to do so again. Coming from nowhere, Navarro has acted as a roadblock to the ambitions of the top names. She suddenly burst into the top 20 and after being seeded for the first time at the Australian Open is now 17th seed at Wimbledon and will go higher. She dumped out Coco Gauff after a run which also saw her unseat Naomi Osaka and Diana Shnaider.

Shnaider who beat her in the Bad Homburg semi-final prior to Wimbledon so she got a measure of revenge and really set her stall out from there. A real success story when it comes to grinding it out on the lower circuit including playing WTA 125k this summer for match practice despite being a top 25 player. She has really shown that putting the hours in and the graft pays off and it could result in a Grand Slam semi-final.

Head to Head wise, it favours Navarro. She has a 3-0 lead on Paolini. Two out of the three have both come during the Italian's rise to prominence so while the latter will be favourite with most, Navarro will again go under the radar and could easily win. A real clash of the day.

From two ties that are pretty simple to call as such on paper in terms of Head to Head's to two that are a minefield in the other half. The first being Lulu Sun who has been a ray of sunshine (pardon the pun) this tournament.

She defeated Emma Raducanu last round. She saved a match point against a University player from the UK in qualifying before sealing passage through to the main draw and beat both Qinwen Zheng and Emma Raducanu to reach the last eight. But perhaps Donna Vekic is her toughest test yet.

A real grass court specialist at times, she has never reached the Quarter-Finals at Wimbledon surprisingly despite being a title winner on the surface and a finalist as close as two weeks ago. She has defeated Paula Badosa, Dayana Yastremska, Erika Andreeva and Xinyu Wang so far. But perhaps will be the favourite in this against the unknown so it might favour Lulu Sun to cause more shocks. But if Vekic does get through, it very much reverts to a 50-50 against either Paolini or Navarro so it is very much an interesting clash. A tough one to call.

As is Alcaraz v Paul which concludes proceedings. A match-up cited between the in-form American and the defending champion pre-tournament. Alcaraz does not like playing Paul either so it could be an interesting match-up. It is 2-2 in their Head to Head and even in his victories, Alcaraz has not had it easy. In particular in Canada over the past two years, Paul has had the better of him. But given that Paul is comfortable on grass, it could be a match on upset watch. Alcaraz has looked good without being awe inspiring, in particular against Tiafoe who nearly took him down. If given the same opportunity, Paul is bound to take it. Hold onto your hats folks. It could go one of four ways tomorrow and it would not be a shock for any outcome.

1. Gentlemen's Singles - Quarter-Finals

Jannik Sinner (ITA) [1] v Daniil Medvedev [5]

2. Ladies' Singles - Quarter-Finals

Jasmine Paolini (ITA) [7] v Emma Navarro (USA) [19]

1. Ladies' Singles - Quarter-Finals

Lulu Sun (NZL) v Donna Vekic (CRO)

2. Gentlemen's Singles - Quarter-Finals

Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) [3] v Tommy Paul (USA) [12]