Hsieh Upsets No. 1 Halep to Reach Fourth Round at Wimbledon, Kerber, Ostapenko and Cibulkova Advance
(July 7, 2018) In a match which had 14 breaks of serve, No. 1 Simona Halep lost to No. 48 Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan at Wimbledon in the third round 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday. Hsieh, saved a Halep match point in the tenth game of the final set. Halep served for the match at 5-3 in the third set. With the loss by the Romanian, only one Top Ten seed remains in the women’s singles draw – No. 7 Karolina Pliskova.
“The difficulty was bigger today because of her game,” said Halep. “She played really well. She stayed there for every point. All the credit to her.
“Actually it was okay as a game. I just believe that I was not very positive on court. The match was very unprofessional for me. But I am too tired. I was too tired. I have pain everywhere.
“I will not find the excuses about this match, she deserved to win, but still I’m sad about myself today.”
“I know she’s mixing the rhythm, she’s playing everything. It was really hard on grass court to do better. Still I had 5-2 in the third set. I had match point. Just didn’t go my way today.
“She deserved to win. She had, like, more things to do on court today. She was mixing the game. She deserved to win.”
It was Hsiesh’s first win over a No. 1 player.
Hsieh talked about coming back from 2-5 down in the deciding set, and reflected on losing a match to Lucie Safarova at Roland Garros when Hsieh had match points and could not serve it out.
“So today I have a fault (the first serve, serving for the match). “Oh, my God, not going to be happen again.” People was kind of like laughing or say, Aah. I go, I need cool down a little bit. Was helping me cool down little bit.”
“With the 5-2 down, normally you feel like, Okay, you are close to finish the match, so you got run harder, “ Hsieh said. “You need to try to hit the ball little bit heavier. Simona, the best player, they going to smash you at this moment. I need to not going too much. Like first set, I was a little bit tight, tried too much, every ball was little bit off. I try to hang in there at 5-2.”
With nearly all of the top ten seeds ousted, Hsieh was asked if she feels she has a chance to win the tournament. “I think all the girl not silly,” she responded. “We don’t thinking too much.
“For me, I just try to enjoy the tennis and enjoy the city, enjoy the food. I feel I’m really lucky to be a tennis player, stay here until the second week. I’m very, very grateful and thanksful [sic] for about all this.”
“It’s important thing for me right now is I need to keep calm and keep concentrate on the court. I was doing better this year, then I have my family and my boyfriend traveling with me. I was getting all of the support from them every point. So it helps a lot.”
2016 Wimbledon finalist Angelique Kerber has reached the round of 16 ousting Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4. The 11th seeded German played clean tennis, making a mere five errors against Japanese opponent.
Kerber is now the second highest seed left in the women’s draw.
“For me, I’m just looking from my rounds, every single day,” she said. “You can just see how close it is. You have to be ready for every single round. Especially at the Grand Slams, you have to play your best tennis and go through it.
“But for me, I have just my eyes on my way, on my days, my matches.”
“I think it was a really tough match,” said the winner. “Especially because I know how she’s playing and what to expect. For me it was important to play my game from the first point, to really be aggressive, have the tension on my side of the court, just trying to enjoying also the match on the Centre Court.
“Yeah, actually I’m happy how I played now the match against her.”
Osaka evaluated her match: “For me, I think it went pretty bad, like, not in a negative way. Just I think I could have enjoyed it more, being on Centre Court. It was my first time. To always see it on TV, to just go there and not really enjoy the moment, I think that was the part that I regret the most.”
Kerber will face former Top Ten and current No. 56 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland who defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 7-6. Bencic has had to overcome recent injuries and is fighting her way back up the rankings.
Kerber talked about her poor record against Bencic. “We never played on grass, so it will be the first time as well. Yeah, she’s a tough opponent. She has nothing to lose. She is always a dangerous, yeah, player. She likes to play on grass.
“We played a lot of matches. Yeah, I think the last one was in Perth, Hopman Cup this year. Yeah, it’s another tough match to play.”
“She’s always a fighter. I know her since, yeah, years. She’s coming back always. She had always the problems with her body. She’s always finding the way to coming back and playing good tennis from the first point. She has nothing to lose. She’s enjoying to playing on grass.”
Former French Open champion and 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko beat Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko, 6-0, 6-4. Diatchenko beat Maria Sharapova in the first round.
Unseeded Dominika Cibulkova beat No.15 seed Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 to make second week of Wimbledon for a third time. Cibulkova would have been seed 32nd if the All-England Club had not given Serena Williams the 25th seed.
Other winner on the day were Alison Van Uytvanck, No. 14 Daria Kasatkina and Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
