Manic Monday descended on Wimbledon as the rest day of Middle Sunday was broken by the reality of all 32 players left in the men’s and women’s singles draw taking to court in one day. Despite being billed as the best day in tennis, with so many matches on at once, it isn’t a particularly great day for those who actually enjoy watching tennis.

One person who wouldn’t mind is Camila Giorgi. After booking her spot in her first ever Wimbledon quarterfinal against Serena Williams, the brisk Italian was questioned about her next opponent and became the first person to offer, well, no opinion whatsoever.

“I don't follow tennis, woman tennis, and I don't follow tennis. But it’s going to be a good match,” she said.

In perhaps another first, Williams had more to say, and more compliments to dish out to her opponent than the opponent had for her.

“I played her a couple times,” said Williams. “She has a very powerful game. To be so small, you know, she brings so much power and energy on the court. She's very aggressive. She does well on grass.

“I do follow women's tennis. Of course I support women's tennis. I support women's sports. I follow so much of it. I think it's super exciting. I watch her play a lot.

“Yeah, so it's good to kind of know someone. A lot of the players I've played this tournament, I don't think I've played them before. I don't think so. But, yeah, it will be good. I kind of know her game. Look forward to it.”

Serena was particularly successful at showing off her current trivial knowledge of the WTA. After being asked about the mass departure of most top 10 players, she smiled.

“Well, isn't Kerber technically in the top 10, she's just seeded 11?” she said. “On a technicality, we still have one player in the top 10 that's there.”

Daria Kasatkina, famed tweener teacher, marched into her first Wimbledon quarterfinal before recounting the process that culminated in her learning how to hit a tweener.

“It's coming pretty often to my matches. But, you know, I love to do this kind of stuff. It's not, like, coming just from nowhere. When I was 12, we had a house, and there was a room without any furniture, so it was empty room.”

“I saw somewhere the guy, I don't remember who, playing the shot. I just put in my head, Okay, I want to learn. I tried in practice. No chance I put the ball in. I was missing everything. Every day, two hours per day, I come to this room, lobbing myself, playing tweener, lobbing myself, playing tweener. One and a half, two hours per day every day. Yeah, sometimes I'm weird (laughter).”

After reaching his first quarterfinal at Wimbledon since 2011, Nadal offered a dash of realism to the reporters with their head in the clouds at the prospect of a Federer-Nadal final. It is not something that the Spaniard is wishing for, and he is not playing Wimbledon to root for the toughest opponents.

“I am not excited to play against Roger in the final,” he said.

“If you ask me if I prefer another one, I say yes. That's the point. It's about being smart, no? The overall goal is try to win the tournament. Depends against who you play you have less or more chances to win. That's the thing. I can be here, I can't come here and say, No, of course I want to play against the best players. I am not this kind of…

While Nadal prayed against the prospect of meeting Federer at Wimbledon, John Isner was ready to do everything to facilitate the presence of Donald Trump at Wimbledon. Trump’s arrival in London is expected to cause protests and controversy, but Isner is fully behind it.

“Certainly. I'd love to have Trump come watch me. That would be awesome. Maybe I'll tweet at him if I win on Wednesday. I know a lot of people won't like that, but I don't care.”

Finally, after cruising into the quarterfinals with a slick straight sets win over Adrian Mannarino, Roger Federer showed some deft comedic skills as he used humor to make a very clear and salient point about the importance of Wimbledon and the sport as the World Cup looms. After being asked.

“Well, it's going to happen anyway, if I'm going in the final or not, the Wimbledon final will take place, and so will the World Cup final,” he said, smiling. “I'm more concerned the World Cup final will have issues because the Wimbledon final is going on.”

“They'll hear every point, Wow, Love-15, 15-30. The players are going to look up in the crowd and not understand what's going on at Wimbledon. That's how important Wimbledon is to me and to us over here. Maybe you should ask the questions over in Russia, how they're going to feel about Wimbledon being played at the same time, so…”

The questioner didn’t respond.