In stark contrast to Friday’s order of play when only one women’s match opened up proceedings at 11:30am, this morning there were three! I’ve been double streaming all week and began my main focus on Court No.2 where Garbiñe Muguruza was taking on Sorana Cirstea. The pair last met at the Australian Open where Muguruza won in straights, 6-2 6-3.
In a very similar scoreline, dropping one game less, Muguruza produced a superb display to beat Sorana Cirstea, 6-2 6-2. The scoreline was a tad harsh on Cirstea and it was actually a very entertaining match with some fab rallies. Muguruza has rather gone under the radar this week, but was in brilliant form and is one to watch in the second week.
Muguruza built the points behind her serve (78% of first serve points won) and found the right time to step up, be aggressive and come forward – Muguruza won 11 of 14 points up at the net. Cirstea hit a handful of flashy winners, but wasn’t consistent enough and often missed the final shot or didn’t choose the right shot at the right time.
On my second stream I had Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Polona Hercog, which was out on Court 12. Hercog was competing well at the start of the match, but from 4-3, Kuznetsova rolled through nine straight games, finally sealing the win on her fifth match point. Kuznetsova won, 6-4 6-0 and has now reached the second week at all three Slams this year.
I was wary for Magdalena Rybarikova in backing up her stunning upset win of Karolina Pliskova on Centre Court on Thursday. I didn’t need to be as Rybarikova delivered another fantastic display, beating Lesia Tsurenko, 6-2 6-1 in just 66 minutes. Surprisingly, this is the first time that Rybarikova has reached the last 16 at Wimbledon. With her game, it’s a shocker it has taken this long. Furthermore, this is the first time that Rybarikova has reached the last 16 at ANY Slam!
Rybarikova next gets Petra Martic which is a HUGE opportunity for both players to reach a first ever Wimbledon quarter-final. As i’ve written many times over the past few weeks, Rybarikova and Martic are both on the comeback this year and have combined for a whopping 60 match wins in 2017!
Martic is having an extraordinary run having reached the last 16 at Roland Garros, also as a qualifier. Like Rybarikova, this is her best ever performance at Wimbledon! The 26-year-old saved three set points in the first set and defeated Zarina Diyas in straight sets, 7-6(6) 6-1.
Agnieszka Radwanska secured her best win by ranking since the second week of the year in Sydney, fighting back from a set down to defeat a fading, Timea Bacsinszky, 3-6 6-4 6-1 in two hours and nine minutes. The Swiss player took a medical time-out at the end of the second set to have her thigh strapped. Take nothing away from Radwanska who played one of her best matches of the year. Directing more balls to Bacsinszky’s forehand and playing more aggressively, Radwanska eventually wore her opponent down in the final two sets.
Timea was the last of my three faves so i’m sad! Timea is awesome and i’m looking forward to following her progress for the rest of the year.
CoCo Vandeweghe posted another straight sets win, beating Alison Riske, 6-2 6-4. It was Vandeweghe’s first win over Riske since 2012. Vandeweghe had been rolling at 6-2 4-0 and even had break points for a 5-0 lead in the second set. Rather inexplicably, Vandeweghe lost her way with Riske doing what she does best and competing superbly. Vandeweghe threw in two double faults in a terrible game to get broken back to 4-4. CoCo refocused to win the last two games and reach the last 16 of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year.
The start of CoCo’s press conference 😂😂😂
In the most anticipated match of the day, Caroline Wozniacki battled back from the brink to beat Anett Kontaveit, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-2. It was a bit of a heartbreaker for Kontaveit who served for the match at *5-4 and *6-5 in the second set. Kontaveit had delivered another bruising baseline display, in particular going to town on the Wozniacki second serve. However, she did tighten up with the finish line in sight and Wozniacki stepped it up and took advantage of her opportunity.
The final set was one-sided but I liked that Kontaveit kept battling at the end. There was also a nice handshake at the end. This was a classic Caro comeback and for Anett, I hope she will use this as a learning experience and come back stronger during the US summer hard court season.
This was pretty awesome from Anett to win the point!
And finally from the women’s third round matches, the world number one survived a wild battle with Shelby Rogers. Break point down at 4-6 *2-4 *30-40, Kerber was staring down another early exit at a Slam. In the end, Kerber showed impressive resolve to win, 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4. Kerber was passive at times, but played a superb second tiebreak and utilised the drop shot to great effect in the third set.
Both into the second week…
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In the women’s doubles, the number two seeds, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina are into the third round after beating Oceane Dodin and Tatjana Maria on Friday. Loveddd the point linked below!
Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua are into the third round after two three setters and having saved a match point in their second round win against Chuang Chia-Jung and Misaki Doi.
At the time of writing, there were no major shocks in the women’s doubles results from Saturday with the likes of Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova, Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova, Julia Goerges and Barbora Strycova, and Sania Mirza and Kirsten Flipkens all winning through to the third round.
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Bethanie posted on Twitter last night.
Sorana and Sania visited Beth in the hospital 🙂
Beth went on Facebook Live to give an update on her condition. It was pretty emotional although Beth did manage some laughter! The prognosis doesn’t sound great with surgery required. My guess would be at least a year for her recovery but we’ll wait and see. Again, all the best to Beth and wishing her a very speedy recovery.
Manic Monday is all set and i’m so excited. This is a SENSATIONAL line-up of fourth round matches! I think it’s been another fantastic Slam for the women so far and hoping that it will continue into the second week.
Two preview posts are already up on the blog including the first full match preview of the tournament for Simona Halep vs. Victoria Azarenka. Snap previews are up for the three remaining matches from the bottom half of the women’s draw. Previews for the 4th round matches from the top half should be up tomorrow morning and then i’m taking the day off!
Moo's Tennis Blog 
I think this is the first time that I am finding all of the 4th round matches at a grand slam very very interesting, probably because there are so many seeded players.
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It’s a great line-up, one of the most interesting I can remember in all my time of watching the WTA.
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I never cared for Garcia before because of her complete lack of plan B and inability to handle pressure and higher ranked players, but I guess she is slowly getting there, she has all the tools it’s just the mental part.
I dont think as far as true WTA fans are concerned that any of us will be surprised by who makes it to the finals except for may be Martic (not trying to take anything away from her wonderful run so far). We know all of these ladies are great tennis players!
At least I wont be like “wait whaaaattttt she is in the finals?” No not this time!
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Agreed, I could see all eight of these R4 matches going either way and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised.
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Aga is one of my favs so I am very pleased to see her playing well again. I think that the final score flattered her but she played some good tennis. The top part of the draw looks the weakest and I think that she has a reasonably good chance of making it to the semi’s but I am probably being too optimistic. Going to be spoilt for choice on Monday with so many good matches to watch and the weather forecast is quite promising so it is a day to look forward to.
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Monday will be a mad day. Likely that six women’s matches will be on at the same time. Aga fought hard vs. Timea, I think her match vs. Sveta really could go either way.
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Intrigued to know everyone’s updated draw predictions, mine are:
QFs: Radwanska d. Muguruza, Rybarikova d. Vandeweghe, Svitolina d. Venus, Halep d. Konta
SFs: Radwanska d. Rybarikova, Halep d. Svitolina
F: Halep d. Radwanska
After Halep beat Pliskova in the SF of RG, I predicted Radwanska to make Wimbledon final. This is because I continuously said neither would make another GS final again but as Halep did I felt Radwanska would follow suit. This was also because Radwanska was entered into all 3 grass weeks – so I thought she’d have good runs and be a form player into the championships. If it wasn’t for her injury issues forcing her to withdraw from 2 of the events & lose her 1st match in the other, I would’ve still predicted her reaching the final when the draw came out.
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As stands mine are:
Muguruza d Kuznetsova
Rybarikova d Coco
Venus d Ostapenko
Halep d Garcia
Muguruza d Venus
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I can see Muguruza winning the tournament. At the start of the year I thought she would win one of RG or Wimbledon. Only thing that stops me thinking she will win is the 2-slam cap.
No player besides Serena has won more than 2 slams in the 2010s: something always goes wrong that leaves people capped at 2. Examples: injuries leading to retirement of Li, injuries/preganancies for Vika, knife attack for Petra, doping suspension for Maria
With only 10 slams in this decade left (including this one) I can easily see them all being won by someone who has not reached 2 slams in the 2010s or Serena. Therefore, I can’t see Muguruza winning as I don’t know what would stop her exceeding 2 slams in 2018-2019 (besides injury)
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Muguruza has only won one Slam, so how would your so called 2 Cap affect her?…
The only person really standing in Muguruza’s way now is Muguruza. She has the game to take anyone still in this. She’s looking confident in every part of her game right now.
Kerber loves playing big hitters, so she’ll be well up for this one. The problem for her is that Garbine has looked menacing on return and a wall at the net.
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I kept bringing doom to any player I picked favourably when I re-predicted for the French Open but here goes!
QFs
Muguruza d. Kuznetsova
Rybarikova d. Vandeweghe
V.Williams d. Ostapenko
Halep d. Konta
F
Muguruza d. Halep
Sorry, Garbi! 😂😂😂
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Andrew, what I meant was that if Muguruza won here she would get to 2 slams and then I don’t know what would stop her overcoming the cap in the final years of this decade (2018-2019).
Therefore, I think its more likely she won’t win anything this year and win something in one of the next two years so that she fits with the cap rule comfortably.
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That QF line-up is possible, I’m still on the fence with Halep/Vika. But….it will be ‘an act of God’ to see Radwanska in the Wimbledon final. Don’t know if I am ready for such an event but stranger things have happened 🙂 .
Thought you weren’t in favour of feel good stories Vithun. It doesn’t come bigger than your prediction.
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I’m not some evil person that is against all forms of happiness 😛 I only don’t like feel-good stories when it is based on being at the right place right time rather than playing well and beating many top opponents who are in good form.
If Radwanska were to make final (with my draw predictions), she would have had to beat Bacsinszky, Kuznetsova and Muguruza back-to-back, a well deserved feel-good story.
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The one thing I’ll give you with Muguruza is that generally when a player wins their first Slam, it takes more than one year to back up with another win.
Serena won US Open in 1999 and next was French Open 2002
Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 and next was US Open in 2006
Kuznetsova won US Open in 2004 and next was French Open 2009
Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011 and next was Wimbledon 2014
Li Na won French Open in 2011 and next was Aus Open in 2014
The recent exceptions being Henin and Kerber, who won their first 2 Slams in the same calendar year, and Azarenka who won the Aus Open in 2012 and 2013.
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I think you missed a certain french woman Amelie Mauresmo (Momo) in your exceptions, if I am reading your post correctly.
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Even though we have lost our two big favourites for the title, 8 of the worlds top 10 are in the second week here.
Kuznetsova showed a couple signs of feeling being a frontrunner but then managed to tap into her A game and produce some great stuff. I really like her chances against Aga.
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I think Rybarikova is the floating danger in the top half. Her variety on the surface is great and she seems fresh enough mentally to go 3 sets against anyone( power hitters and all rounders). I like the way she is able to take the net play away from her opponents. If Martic can find a way to match her on that or even prevent it she can do it. The further Rybarikova goes the more dangerous she gets.
Azarenka is doing a similar thing with her net play and I would have loved to see her play this on form Rybarikova. This has me piqued about her match with Halep. Having fairly similar abilities, I wonder how much intensity Halep will have keep up to get past Vika. Being too defensive will be costly to her. In my view Victoria is the underdog and she has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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I like Rybarikova too, my only concern is nerves as this going to be uncharted territory for her!
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