Centre Court is treated to a quarter-final first set of startling quality but also new forms, new shapes and new energies
At times this Wimbledon fortnight has felt a bit like a grand, Pimm’s‑sozzled Viking funeral. Here we have the ghost of Roger, reincarnated as royal box candy, rolled out to make the crowd coo and clutch a hand to its flushed throat one more time. Here we have another instalment in the extended farewell of Andy Murray, an athlete by now almost entirely held together with pins and staples, still gamely hobbling off in pursuit of that vanishing horizon.
The sense of passing greats, heritage exhibits, the stars falling from the skies: all of this is in its own way deeply Wimbledon. But the sun also rises, and Wednesday afternoon there was a thrilling sense of future shock about watching Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune – 20 years old and born just six days apart, doubles partners at the age of 13, and now the world No 1 and No 6 – produce an opening set on Centre Court not just of startling quality, but of new forms, new shapes, new energies. New noises even with the volley of Danish voices from the box, the vamos Carlitos from the bleachers.