Wimbledon 2024 live updates: Day nine reaction as Alcaraz beats Paul, Medvedev shocks Sinner and Paolini defeats Navarro

But Danielle Collins, from 5-1 down, has found a second wind, holding then breaking to go 5-3 behind and serving for 5-4.

That said, she's now 0-30 down after a double fault. And Krejcikova (31) sends her the wrong way with a cleverly disguised cross-court forehand, three match points...

Taken! Collins comes forward and nets, disappointingly. The 11th seed is out and her dream of playing on Centre Court is over for another year.

The Czech will face Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the 13th seed, in the quarter-finals. Collins trudges off court.

American Danielle Collins, the 11th seed, hasn't had the best day on Court 1.

She trails Barbora Krejcikova, the tricky 31st seed, 5-7, 1-5.

A double break down, she is just four points from defeat.

A long way back from here.

Novak Djokovic broke Holger Rune in the Dane's first service game, just the second of the match, and kept hold of that advantage until the end of the set, where he just served out to 15 to secure the first set. Sealed with an ace.

He wins it 6-3 and that was pretty rapid from the Serbian third seed.

It's easy to forget amid the blood-and-thunder and rage and angst of the matches themselves, that there are some quieter, more peaceful spots around the sedate and verdant grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.

Here, for example, near gate 18, the sound of running water and calmer, less populated lawns offer time and space for decompression.

Give it a visit if you're here.

Yes. One more result to tell you about, seventh seeds Hsieh/Zielinski beating Nys/Schuurs 6-3, 7-6(4), while four matches were suspended due to rain. Here's how they stood:

• Brits Salisbury/Watson trailed 5-7, 5-3 against Kichenok/Gille
• Another all-British pair, lucky losers Broom/Appleton, lost the first set 6-4 against third seeds Kichenok/Pavic but led 6-5 in the second
• It was one set-all (both taken 6-3) between Italians Errani/Vavassori (5) and Withrow/Sutjiadi, 0-0 in the third
• Ebden/Perez (1) trailed Muhammad/Molteni 5-3, while Mattek-Sands/Rojer trailed Gonzalez/Eikeri by the same scoreline

None of those matches are currently ongoing, due to the rain - only the two singles matches on the show courts with the roof on.

However, there is a possibility that, assuming the rain continues to fall and no play is possible on outside courts, if Barbora Krejcikova wraps up victory quickly against Danielle Collins on Court 1, that one of the matches will be moved there.

Krejcikova, pictured, currently leads American Collins 7-5, 3-1 and could theoretically win the match within three games.

Elina Svitolina has stated she would like Wimbledon to reinstate the ban on Russian players at the tournament.

Svitolina, the No 21 seed, wore a black ribbon during her Wimbledon last-16 match against Wang Xiyu, after Russian missile strikes killed and injured more than 100 Ukrainians across the country this morning.

In her press conference following a 6-2, 6-1 win to reach her second consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal, she said that she would “prefer” the tournament’s policy of 2022 to be in place, when Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from competing.

When asked if she felt that the All England Club’s policy should return to that of two years ago, Svitolina said: “Of course, I would prefer that. But it is how it is now. I cannot change. We tried every possible way to talk with many organizations.”

Novak Djokovic has started pretty well and has already broken Holger Rune.

He leads 3-0 in the first set.

Speaking on Centre Court after his win, Taylor Fritz said: "It was amazing to do that on Centre Court two sets down in front of this crowd. It's a dream.

"I still felt I was playing really well for being down two sets. I was just thinking it sucked to be playing this well and to lose in straights. So let's take the third, I took it one at a time. I had that belief. It was just a couple of point here and there.

"My team has always given me so much support and love. Most of the time I was looking up to them complaining about something. It's great to have them here and these two weeks we've been at Wimbledon has been a great team experience."

On his net exchange with Zverev, and the prospect of facing Lorenzo Musetti next up, he added: "It's all good. With his knee in the fifth set it felt like he wasn't moving as well, so I wished him the best."

"It's going to be a tough match (against Musetti), he's had a really good grass-court season. He's been playing really well. It's a second time in the quarterfinals but this time I felt I earned it a lot more so this time I'm really excited for the chance."

Bet this lot enjoyed that big split-screen of Centre Court and Court 1.

Best of all?

The action continues with Novak Djokovic vs Holger Rune on Centre and Danielle Collins vs Barbora Krejcikova on Court 1.

Not a bad spot for a drink, is it?

Great win for Fritz.

What didn't happen, is probably more of an accurate question.

• First, the Brit pulled out of the mixed doubles, where she was due to play with compatriot Andy Murray, effectively ending Murray's Wimbledon career, citing soreness in her wrist
• The Athletic's Charlie Eccleshare wrote on Raducanu being ready to take up the British Wimbledon mantle from Murray
• Andy's mum Judy wrote a spicy tweet on the subject then insisted she was being sarcastic afterwards
• Matthew Futterman described the battle between logic and emotion in making the decision
• Then Raducanu lost against qualifier Lulu Sun to end British hopes in the senior singles competitions...
• ...after which she explained she had no regrets over the decision to withdraw from the mixed doubles

Check out all of our coverage of the saga here.

Tennis matches are getting longer. Quite a lot longer actually.

In fact, Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) data sourced by The Athletic shows that the average length of a men’s grand-slam match has increased from 2hr 21min in 1999 to 2hr 54min this year. That’s an average increase of more than half an hour per match — or 23.4 per cent.

By way of comparison, if football matches had increased in length by that same percentage, we’d be talking about games now lasting 111 minutes.

At the current rate of increase, men’s grand-slam matches will soon be, on average, longer than three hours. The 2001 “epic” Wimbledon final between Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter, for instance, lasted 3hr 2min, despite stretching to 9-7 in the fifth set.

The conclusion is that this is a sport transformed. All of which poses a few questions. Why has this happened? Is there a solution? Is it even a problem? The Athletic spoke to tennis players and insiders to find out…

Does anyone know what the hell they were talking about for like an entire minute during the handshake?

That was taylor-made (sorry) for Break Point.