Wimbledon 2024 live updates: Day five reaction as Coco Gauff, Sinner and Raducanu win, Frances Tiafoe out

Wow.

In a clash described as a "popcorn match" before Tiafoe had even beaten his previous opponent, Borna Coric, the American has taken the lead.

He broke Alcaraz for 6-5 then served it out to love to take the set.

Eyes on this one...

Like contemporary Iga Swiatek, the serve has been one of the stickier parts of Carlos Alcaraz's game — until recently.

Under the cosh against Frances Tiafoe at 4-4, having been a break up at 4-3 before playing a loose game, he's just hit three 132mph serves in a row to hold for 5-4.

In the men's singles, Tommy Paul has taken the second set 6-4 and leads by two against Alexander Bublik, while Brandon Nakashima lost his first-set tiebreak 6-7(9) against Ugo Humbert.

In the women's, American Emma Navarro is into a decider against Diana Shnaider, pictured, after taking the second set 6-3.

Mixed news for the USA players.

Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini has won the first-set tiebreak 7-6(4) against 24-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu.

Below, read Matthew Futterman's brilliant interview with Andreescu.

The downhill walk from Southfields Underground station to the All England Club takes around 15 minutes. Crowds of ticket holders and hopeful queuers mill past cute rows of terraces that detach into larger properties, before No 1 Court rises into view.

On the fourth day of the 2024 Championships, the crowds filed past the boater-hat sellers, coffee machines, pedicabs blaring dance music — and a new, temporary sign, tied to a pale red fence with string.

“POLLING STATION” it reads, next to a blue plaque for Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States who was educated at the Marie Souvestre school that once stood on the site.

A U.K. general election, American Independence Day, ball on racket on grass. Welcome to a Fourth of July that promised to be like no other in SW19. Read more below.

A selection of the matches under way in the doubles, starting with the men's:

• Unseeded UK/US pair Cash/Galloway 3-2 up on serve against Arribage/Daniell
• Brit Lloyd Glasspool and Jean-Julien Rojer leading Reyes-Varela/Andreozzi 4-0, serving to make it 5-0

In the women's doubles:

• Bouzkova/Sorribes Tormo (10) trail Mladenovic/Garcia 3-2 on serve
• Americans Sloane Stephens and Ashlyn Krueger are 3-3 on serve against Chan/Kudermetova (12)

The mixed doubles begin later this afternoon.

In the men's singles:

• Tommy Paul (12) vs Alexander Bublik (23), pictured; Paul has just broken Bublik to lead 4-2
• Fellow American Brandon Nakashima vs Ugo Humbert (16), 3-3 up on serve
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs Fabio Fognini, the Spaniard 3-2 up on serve
• Third seed Carlos Alcaraz has just begun against Frances Tiafoe, 0-0

In the women's singles:

• Paolini leads Andreescu 4-3 on serve
• Spaniard Paula Badosa is 4-1 up on 14th seed Daria Kasatkina
• Diana Shnaider leads American Emma Navarro (19) 4-1, serving to make it 5-1
• Lulu Sun has broken Zhu Lin and leads 3-2

Thankfully Paolini vs Andreescu isn't the only match being played right now.

Let me run through the others, too.

Finally.

The first match of the day is under way: In the women's singles, seventh seed Jasmine Paolini taking on Bianca Andreescu on Court 1 (which has a roof).

Hopefully the other matches will follow in the not-too-distant future.

Hollywood royalty.

Over the last day or so it feels as though this year’s Wimbledon has come alive.

On Wednesday night, the Italians Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini put on a late-night show that was given an extra jolt of energy by fans with ground passes being allowed in for the closing stages. Thursday was the sunniest afternoon of the tournament so far and, on UK election day, the place came alive.

A raucous Court 18 was treated to a final set tiebreak between Ben Shelton and Lloyd Harris, while on Court 2 Hubert Hurkacz suffered a nasty injury when diving for a volley. Before exacerbating it. By diving for another volley.

Then on Court 12, there was proper aggro at the end of Fritz’s win against France’s Arthur Rinderknech, when the American said to his opponent “have a nice flight home” having just before said some not-so-complimentary words to his box while pointing straight at the Frenchman.

Elsewhere, there was Britain’s world No 277 Jacob Fearnley giving Djokovic a scare on Centre Court and almost taking the seven-time champion to five sets. Meanwhile, Court 1 hosted two all-British affairs. A fun day ahead of what looks like an entertaining set of third-round matches.

There was a time when Americans used to win Wimbledon titles on July 4. A shift in the tennis calendar and a lull in American prowess on the grass have combined to consign that to history for now, in the case of the second part.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some bright spots on Independence Day. Ben Shelton led the highlight reel, winning a nearly four-hour duel with Lloyd Harris of South Africa for a second-consecutive five-set win.

A little while later, Taylor Fritz took out Arthur Rinderknech in four sets, Bernarda Pera got the Yanks an upset with a three-set win over France’s Caroline Garcia, and Madison Keys was happy after a 6-2, 6-2 win over Wang Yafan of China.

Things went less well for Marcos Giron, who couldn’t keep up with Alexander Zverev of Germany, and for Robin Montgomery, who couldn’t match Ons Jabeur. Jessica Pegula was the biggest American casualty after the world No. 5 lost to China’s Wang Xinyu.

It wasn’t all bad for Pegula though. As the light faded on the Fourth, she and Coco Gauff teamed up to win their doubles match against Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.

It’s the developing story at Wimbledon that no one can quite make sense of. Why do comebacks from two sets to love down keep happening?

We’re only four days and two rounds into the competition and already this year’s Championships has equalled the Wimbledon Open Era record for the most such victories (nine).

Grigor Dimitrov was the latest man to pull off the feat, beating Shang Juncheng 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday. He was at a loss to explain why there have been so many comeback wins, unconvinced by the idea that he might have been subconsciously inspired by his colleagues.

One theory is that a number of the wins have been in rain-interrupted matches and it’s possible the rhythm of the player leading might have been disrupted by having to stop.

Then there’s the fact that for some players who can hold serve comfortably but aren’t great returners on grass, one bad game is all it takes to swing things against them. No one is going to be feeling especially comfortable with a two-set lead over the next few days. Read more below.

Here's Huw Phillips, the racket stringer at Wimbledon.

I wonder what he does for the other 50 weeks of the year?!