Defending Champion Muguruza and No. 22 Seed Konta Lose at Wimbledon; Halep, Kerber Advance
(July 5, 2018) More upsets took place on day four of Wimbledon on Thursday as defending champion Garbine Muguruza, the third seed became the sixth top ten women’s player to fall during the first week.
Muguruza was beaten in the second round 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 by No. 47 Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium.
“Yes, I think she played big today,” admitted the Spaniard. “She took a lot of risk, and it worked for her. I also think that my level today was not where I wanted it to be. That’s also why she could develop that kind of level.
“But, yeah, is a little bit sad because I wanted to, you know, really go out there. But I think she played great. Think she played great.”
“I just think it’s a very tough match. We are there running both of us a lot. I think she was playing really good. So it was a little bit tough for me, you know, to have an opponent that is having a great day, and the match is slipping out of your hand a little bit.”
Van Uytvanck decided to play aggressive tennis. “So that was my plan to do in the second set and in the third, and obviously it worked well. I played actually a very good match. So really happy to actually be through to the third round for the first time for me.”
“Obviously she’s so aggressive, so if I would keep, I mean, let her play, I would lose anyway. So I was, like, Let’s try this and maybe if it works we have a chance.”
“I mean, anyone on a good day can beat anyone. That’s what I think. I still think the top players, their average level is higher than, let’s say, sub-top players. But anyone on a good day can beat anyone, for sure.”
Last year’s semifinalist, 22nd seed Johanna Konta was another upset victim among the women’s seeds when the Brit lost to world No. 32 Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-4.
Slovakia’s Cibulkova was upset that she did not get a seeding at Wimbledon due to Serena Williams being given the 25th seed. She let her racquet do the talking on Thursday.
“In reality she’s a very good player,” Konta said. “She demonstrated today. I think she played pretty incredibly well.
“So obviously it’s always tough to have a tough match like that. However, there’s a lot of players who aren’t on the seeding list who are equally tough to play. I wouldn’t say it’s tougher because she would have been seeded. I think it’s just tough because she’s a great player.”
“When she’s playing well, I think she goes for her shots very much so. She looks to dictate. When she’s playing well, she plays incredibly freely. I mean, she was hitting winners from five meters behind the baseline kind of thing. She was obviously seeing the ball very well and feeling very good in the way she wanted to play. I found it very difficult to really get a foothold into the match. That was a lot to do with how she played.”
No. 1 Simona Halep, trailed 3-5 and won the next ten straight games to beat No. 126 Saisai Zheng of China 7-5, 6-0 in the second round of Wimbledon.
“I think there are very good thoughts because I came back after 5-3 down,” noted the Romanian. “I started to play much better. I started to calm down and just opening the court better.
“I stopped missing that much. Again, the serve was pretty, pretty good today.”
“I had pressure little bit of losing that set. But I didn’t panic. I think this was the best thing that I did. I didn’t panic. I was just calm, just to play every ball.
“I really believe that I have the power to come back if I stay focused. As I said, I just opened the game better, I opened the court, then I went to the net pretty much today. After the first set, was much better.”
Halep, who won her first major at Roland Garros, admits that she fells no pressure since she has won a major title.
“Pressure, no. Definitely no. No more. I’m relaxed. Of course, is not easy to play on grass. I didn’t have official matches before this.
“But step by step I start to feel better the game. I start to feel better on the court. Even if I have pain everywhere because of the grass, it’s okay. I just started to get used to it.
“But as I said many times, on grass you never know what is going to happen on court. Every match is really important. Every match I’m going there very focused.”
“Itself going to be a huge thing, of course, to win Wimbledon,” she said. “But in this moment, I’m really far to do that. You need a better game, in my opinion, to win on grass. You have to be more aggressive, to go to the net more. I’m trying just to adjust myself on this surface as much as possible.
“Of course, I have the courage to say maybe I have a chance to win this title. But I don’t want to focus on that. I just want to focus match by match. If I will be in the end of the tournament, that is going to be a big challenge.”
Former Wimbledon finalist Angelique Kerber had to come from a set down to oust American qualifier and last year’s Junior Wimbledon champion Claire Liu in the second round 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
At 18, the No. 237 Liu was the lowest-ranked woman to make the second round at Wimbledon.
Another Wimbledon finalist, Eugenie Bouchard lost to 17th-seeded Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 7-5.
DAILY RESULTS
July 5, 2018
The Championships, Wimbledon
July 2-15, 2018
Wimbledon, Great Britain
$21,969,327
Singles – Second Round
[1] S.Halep (ROU) d. S.Zheng (CHN) 75 60
A.Van Uytvanck (BEL) d. [3] G.Muguruza (ESP) 57 62 61
[11] A.Kerber (GER) d. C.Liu (USA) 36 62 64
[12] J.Ostapenko (LAT) d. K.Flipkens (BEL) 61 63
[14] D.Kasatkina (RUS) d. Y.Putintseva (KAZ) 62 63
[15] E.Mertens (BEL) d. S.Vickery (USA) 61 63
[17] A.Barty (AUS) d. G.Bouchard (CAN) 64 75
[18] N.Osaka (JPN) d. K.Boulter (GBR) 63 64
D.Cibulkova (SVK) d. [22] J.Konta (GBR) 63 64
[23] B.Strycova (CZE) d. L.Tsurenko (UKR) 61 64
[26] D.Gavrilova (AUS) d. S.Stosur (AUS) 64 61
[27] C.Suarez Navarro (ESP) d. S.Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 64 61
[28] A.Kontaveit (EST) d. J.Brady (USA) 62 76(4)
K.Siniakova (CZE) d. O.Jabeur (TUN) 57 64 97
B.Bencic (SUI) d. A.Riske (USA) 16 76(10) 62
A.Sasnovich (BLR) d. T.Townsend (USA) 60 64
S-W.Hsieh (TPE) d. L.Arruabarrena (ESP) 63 63
V.Diatchenko (RUS) d. S.Kenin (USA) 64 61
Doubles – First Round
[1] T.Babos/K.Mladenovic (HUN/FRA) d. E.Hozumi/M.Kato (JPN/JPN) 64 63
[2] A.Sestini Hlavackova/B.Strycova (CZE/CZE) d. P.Hercog/B.Pera (SLO/USA) 46 61 64
[3] B.Krejcikova/K.Siniakova (CZE/CZE) d. A.Guarachi/E.Routliffe (CHI/AUS) 62 26 62
[5] L.Chan/S.Peng (TPE/CHN) d. R.Olaru/Y.Wang (ROU/CHN) 75 63
[6] G.Dabrowski/Y.Xu (CAN/CHN) d. A.Riske/O.Savchuk (USA/UKR) 67(5) 62 108
[7] H.Chan/Z.Yang (TPE/CHN) d. Y.Bonaventure/B.Schoofs (BEL/NED) 64 61
[8] E.Mertens/D.Schuurs (BEL/NED) d. S.Cirstea/S.Sorribes Tormo (ROU/ESP) 75 64
[9] K.Bertens/J.Larsson (NED/SWE) d. M.Adamczak/R.Voracova (AUS/CZE) 62 63
[11] R.Atawo/A-L.Groenefeld (USA/GER) d. X.Knoll/A.Smith (SUI/GBR) 46 63 63
[15] I.Begu/M.Buzarnescu (ROU/ROU) d. D.Gavrilova/V.Lapko (AUS/BLR) 63 76(3)
B.Mattek-Sands/L.Safarova (USA/CZE) d. [16] L.Kichenok/A.Kudryavtseva (UKR/RUS) 76(6) 75
[17] V.King/K.Srebotnik (USA/SLO) d. D.Jakupovic/I.Khromacheva (SLO/RUS) 62 62
E.Makarova/V.Zvonareva (RUS/RUS) d. A.Blinkova/M.Vondrousova (RUS/CZE) 63 64
P.Martic/M.Rybarikova (CRO/SVK) d. L.Kerkhove/L.Marozava (NED/BLR) 75 63
H.Dart/K.Dunne (GBR/GBR) d. K.Bondarenko/A.Krunic (UKR/SRB) 61 63
T.Maria/H.Watson (GER/GBR) d. C.Liang/S.Zhang (CHN/CHN) 62 62
A.Rosolska/A.Spears (POL/USA) d. E.Hrdinova/G.Olmos (CZE/MEX) 61 64
V.Kudermetova/A.Sabalenka (RUS/BLR) d. D.Collins/J.Moore (USA/AUS) 57 64 62
L.Arruabarrena/A.Parra Santonja (ESP/ESP) d. B.Bencic/K.Kozlova (SUI/UKR) 63 64
A.Rodionova/M.Zanevska (AUS/BEL) d. O.Kalashnikova/M.Ninomiya (GEO/JPN) 64 62
