WIMBLEDON TENNIS

Sock it to em Jack.

This professional tennis player is full of play, especially when it involves doubles matches. Once ranked No. 2 men’s doubles player on the planet, and near the top of the heap in mixed doubles, one close setback at Wimbledon in the singles wasn’t going to find him packing up and heading home to Kansas, where he previously moved from Lincoln, Neb.

No way, not him, he’s got his tennis rackets unpacked and heading back to the courts. In men’s doubles, he’s hooked up with fellow American, Denis Kudla of Michigan. And after disposing of 13-seeded Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Andres Molteni of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, on Monday, July 4th, the unseeded duo advanced to the quarterfinals as the only USA doubles pair still in the field.

This followed Sunday’s 4-6, 3-1 forfeit triumph over 11th-seeded Kamil Majnack-Zan and Zielinski Polauis of Australia, who retired after Majnack-Zan injured his ankle running down a ball hit down the line and couldn’t continue.

Fine, but Sock wasn’t through yet. He still had the mixed doubles with American Coco Gauff of Miami, and they, too, are now the only USA combo in that field after delivering over Eduard Roger-Vasselin and Alize Cornet of France, 6-3, 6-4. to also gain these quarters. Cornet was coming off a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, loss in the women’s singles fourth round to Ajla Tomliaonvic of Australia, after stunning top-seeded Iga Swiatek, of Romania, 6-4, 6-2, to snap Swiatek’s record 38-match win streak.

Sock and Gauff’s move into the quarters came via their 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Nicholas Mahnut and Zhang Shual of China on Monday’s 4th. In singles, he had a tough go in losing a tight tussle to unseeded, but highly regarded Jason Kubler, 6-2. 4-6, 5-7, 7-6 (4). 6-3, who then fell on Monday to 11th-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

In this women’s singles draw, now only 20th-seeded Amanda Anisimova of New Jersey remains after she eliminated 11th-seeded Gauff in the previous round. Anisimova, in her first quarterfinals, has made a habit of coming from behind after falling to Gauff, 6-7 (4), in the initial set, but then dominating the next two, 6-2, 6-1. This time, she had a better start after ousting unseeded Harmony Tan of France, 6-2, 6-3, after Tan bested 9-seeded Katie Butler of Great Britain handily, 6-1, 6-1.

In the men’s singles, Fritz is the only American left. Now he goes against 2nd-seeded Rafel Nadal of Spain, who comes off a 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (2) win over 21st-seeded Botic Van de Zandsculup of the Netherlands.

In the other men’s singles, unseeded but the talk of the tournament, 27-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios, who made his first quarterfinals by winning a marathon 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 thriller over Brandon Nakashima of the United States on Monday, and he will go next against unseeded Christan Garin of Chile, who pulled off the surprise comeback by rallying past 19th-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-6 winning 8-6 in the tiebreaker.

In the women’s singles, Anisimova meets up with 16th-seeded, former champion Simona Halep, who turned back 4th-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain, 6-1, 6-2, and Tomiliaonvic faces 17th-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhastan, who downed Perla Martic of Croatia, 7-5, 6-3.

But no one here is in more quarterfinals than Jack Sock. He is 30 years old, his winnings are about $11 million, he is currently ranked 103 in singles, but still a threat when with a partner of either gender.