 | « Back to article | Print this article |
IMAGES from Day 4 of the Wimbledon Champions at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, on Thursday.
Nadal grinds past Berankis into Wimbledon third round
Some days at the office are bit of a grind, even if in Rafael Nadal's case his place of work on Thursday was Wimbledon's sunny but chilly Centre Court for a match against Ricardas Berankis.
The second seed duly won 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the third round but his 307th Grand Slam match win, putting him one ahead of Martina Navratilova and fourth on the all-time list, will not linger long in his memory.
An off-key Nadal never looked in serious danger of having his bid for the calendar-year Slam wrecked by the world number 106, but he knows he will have to play much better in the rounds ahead to claim his third Wimbledon title.
The statistics rather told the tale with Nadal unusually making more unforced errors than winners -- 39-35.
Lithuanian Berankis struck the ball crisply and matched Nadal for long periods but gifted away a scrappy first set when he chose the worst possible time to hand over his serve with a bunch of poor errors, when trailing 5-4.
The Centre Court crowd probably expected Nadal to move through the gears then but the usual fizz was missing from his groundstrokes and he had to recover a break of serve in the second set as he grafted towards victory.
Berankis broke serve again early in the third set with a sweetly-struck backhand and had a point for a double break and a 4-1 lead. Nadal averted that but could find no inspiration to recover the break of serve and was forced to do some overtime as an increasingly confident Berankis held serve to love at 5-4.
It was the second time in two matches that Nadal had lost the third set having won the opening two, but he responded by winning 12 of the first 13 points of the fourth for a 3-0 lead only to be stopped in his tracks when a cloudburst forced a delay as the roof was rolled across the court.
When play resumed nearly an hour later, 106th ranked Berankis held serve three times and played a full part in some eye-catching baseline exchanges but Nadal was a man in a hurry and polished off the match with his 13th ace.
The bottom half of the draw looks inviting for Nadal, with so many top seeds already removed, but Italian 27th seed Lorenzo Sonego will provide a test of his form and fitness on Saturday.
Tsitsipas steams into third round to set up Nick Kyrgios clash
Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas romped into the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday with an accomplished 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Australian Jordan Thompson under the new roof on Court One.
The 23-year-old Greek displayed none of the jitters that lost him a set against qualifier Alexander Ritschard in the first round on Tuesday, breaking Thompson's serve twice in each of the first two sets and winning the match when the Australian put a forehand long after a tight rally.
Thompson, 28, and ranked 76 in the world has never beaten a top-10 player at a Grand Slam tournament and was upset when the umpire overruled a line call, earning his opponent a break point in the seventh game of the second set.
He thumped a ball in frustration when Tsitsipas took the set while the Greek, who next meets another Australian -- temperamental showman Nick Kyrgios -- kept his cool on the other side of the net.
Erratic Swiatek reaches third round, extends winning streak to 37
World No 1 Iga Swiatek struggled with unforced errors but found her composure when it mattered most to see off Dutch lucky loser Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the third round of Wimbledon and extend her winning run to 37 matches.
Swiatek, a 2018 junior champion at the grasscourt Grand Slam, got off to a slow start in her first meeting against her 138th-ranked opponent but recovered to bag four straight games to win the opening set.
Dutchwoman Pattinama Kerkhove, who lost in the final round of qualifying but was granted a main draw berth when Danka Kovinic withdrew with injury, did not give up and fought back to win the second set with a crucial break in the seventh game.
Swiatek, who committed 31 unforced errors, found her groove in the deciding set and nosed ahead with a break of serve in the fourth game and then took a 4-1 lead. It proved enough for the 21-year-old to go on and win in two hours and four minutes.
Swiatek will next meet Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who earlier defeated American Claire Liu 6-3 6-3, for a chance to match her best performance at the All England Club where she reached the fourth round in 2021.
Boulter shocks Pliskova, Broady stuns Schwartzman
Two unsung British players raised the home mood after Wednesday's woes with Katie Boulter and Liam Broady causing huge upsets in the Wimbledon second round on Thursday.
Centre Court witnessed the back-to-back exits of Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray on day three, but world number 118 Boulter had the home fans cheering as she stunned last year's runner-up Karolina Pliskova with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 win.
Over on Court Three, Broady, who like Boulter was handed a wildcard, looked down and out against 12th seed Diego Schwartzman when he lost 11 successive games midway through the match but hit back to win 6-2 4-6 0-6 7-6(6) 6-1.
Both Broady, ranked 132, and Boulter have reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
They are joined in round three of the singles by fellow British players Cameron Norrie and Heather Watson while Jack Draper could make it five later on Thursday.
The experienced Watson reached the third round earlier by beating China's Wang Qiang in a match that was interrupted by bad light the previous evening.
Boulter, ranked 118th in the world, beat Pliskova last week at Eastbourne and was too resolute for the powerful Czech again as she battled back from losing the first set.
She refused to be overpowered by the sixth seed and seized her chance by breaking serve at 4-4 in the deciding set.
Boulter, 25, stayed remarkably cool as she finished the match off in style with a volley.
She was clearly emotional afterwards, revealing that her grandmother had passed away two days ago.
"I'm going to get so emotional. I'd like to dedicate it to her," she said on Centre Court.
When the 28-year-old Broady trailed 3-0 in the fourth set his hopes of avenging his loss to Argentine Schwartzman at the same stage of Wimbledon last year looked slim.
But he dug deep to change the momentum, nicked the tiebreak to set up the decider and took control, the crowd roaring him home to the biggest win of his career.
It was his second successive five-set victory after edging Lukas Klein in his opening match and he will now face either Draper or Australian 19th seed Alex De Minaur on Saturday.
Twice former champion Petra Kvitova overcame a second-set wobble to reach the Wimbledon third round with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) defeat of Romanian Ana Bogdan on Thursday.
The big-hitting Czech, seeded 25th, was cruising at 6-1, 5-1 but Bogdan staged a remarkable comeback.
Kvitova had a match point when serving at 5-4 but was broken for the second time in a row as Bogdan levelled.
Bogdan then had two set points as Kvitova served at 5-6, one saved with an ace, the other with a forehand winner.
A relieved Kvitova finally got the job done in the tiebreak when Bogdan's backhand found the net under pressure.
Kvitova, champion at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, will now play Spain's fourth seed Paula Badosa who enjoyed a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over Irina Bara, also of Romania.
Since winning her second title, Kvitova has only managed to reach the Wimbledon fourth round on one occasion but is in good form after winning the Eastbourne grasscourt title last week.
Kyrgios serves up masterclass to blow away Krajinovic
Australian Nick Kyrgios delivered a devastating serving masterclass at Wimbledon as he blasted past Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in 85 minutes on Thursday to charge into the third round almost without breaking sweat.
There were none of the chuntering umpire complaints or run-ins with fans that were a feature of his first-round match -- Kyrgios barely had time -- as he pounded down 24 aces, with only one double fault overall. He took the first set without dropping a point before many fans had even taken their seats.
Krajinovic, ranked 31st but seen as a dangerous floater on grass after reaching the Queen's Club final earlier this month, could do nothing in the face of the barrage as Kyrgios did not let up from start to finish.
In all he dropped just nine points on serve and smoothly mixed up power and finesse to hit 50 winners - a stark contrast to his five-set struggle to overcome British wild card Paul Jubb in the first round.
"I think just getting over the line in that first round was massive," Kyrgios said.
"I've been playing some really good tennis in the last month so I was really surprised the way I played the other day. But I was in my zone today, great body language.
"It's nice to remind everyone that I'm pretty good," he added, raising a laugh from the fans on Number Two Court.
"I've been preparing for this tournament, it's been circled on my calendar pretty much all year and I'm so excited to be here again. It's genuinely a tournament I think is my best chance to win a Grand Slam, but I’ll take it match-by-match.
"Obviously I've got an incredibly tough draw but today I couldn't play better and now I can just recover and get ready."
Kyrgios, who has reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals only once, on his debut in 2014, is likely to face fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the next round, with a potential semi-final against Rafael Nadal on the distant horizon.
Former champion Halep rallies to beat retiring Flipkens
Former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep fought back from deficits in both sets to defeat retiring Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday and power into the third round at Wimbledon.
The 36-year-old Flipkens, who is playing in her 50th and final Grand Slam, had a 5-2 lead in the first set and a 4-1 advantage in the second but the 2019 champion rallied on both occasions to complete the victory in straight sets.
It was the sixth win for Romanian Halep against Flipkens in as many matches and the duo hugged each other for a long time at the net after the matchv as the Belgian burst into tears as her singles career came to an end.
With retired Belgian four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters watching from the stands, Flipkens continued crying and left her headband on the court before kissing the grass goodbye as the crowd gave her warm applause.
In the opening set there were seven breaks of serve, but it was 16th seed Halep who came out on top against Flipkens, who achieved her greatest Grand Slam success at Wimbledon when she reached the semi-finals in 2013.
The 2018 French Open champion suffered an early break in the second set but bounced back to break her opponent's serve twice to wrap up the contest in one hour 23 minutes.
Halep will next face Poland's 92nd ranked Magdalena Frech for a place in the fourth round of the grasscourt major.
Don't look away, superman Fritz is in town
American Taylor Fritz said he pulled off the shot of his life to win the second set against Britain's Alastair Gray on the way to a 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3 second-round Wimbledon win on Thursday.
Gray appeared to have saved a set point in the tiebreak with an angled volley and had turned away, fist-pumping, only for Fritz to launch himself across the Court 12 turf.
The 11th seeded Fritz managed to scoop the ball up and play it into the open court with Gray paying the price for his premature celebrations.
Fritz dominated thereafter and the 24-year-old moved through to play Slovakian Alex Molcan when victory would put him into the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.
Asked about his superman-style shot, Fritz said it ranked as the best he had ever hit.
"It was the first thing I looked at when I got off the court," he told reporters.
"That was insane. I mean, it was a huge point. He hit a good volley crosscourt.
"I don't know. I just thought, it bounced up a bit and I heard the crowd cheering like the point was over, but I thought if I fully lay out for this one, I'm pretty long, I feel if I just dive at this one, maybe I can get a racket on it.
"It felt really good. That's got to be number one because especially just the moment, as well, it's a huge set point."
Fritz has never been to the last 16 of any Grand Slam but now has a golden opportunity against the unseeded Molcan.
He said 37-year-old John Isner's win over twice champion Andy Murray on Wednesday was inspiring him and the other Americans and believes the tennis superpower is in good shape, even if there are no obvious candidates to win a Slam.
"It's definitely just improving, improving our games. Becoming, you know, stronger, better players than we all are," he said.
"We are all good inside the top 40, top 30, and any given week we can go really deep in the tournament, but to beat the best players in the world, it's just going to take a little bit more," Fritz added.
"We have a lot of depth and everyone is on the younger side. There's still a lot of time for improvement. If I can kind of keep improving at this rate, then I'll get there.
"The same goes for everybody else."
As well as Fritz and Isner, Tommy Paul, Steve Johnson and Frances Tiafoe are also in the third round and that number is likely to grow later on Thursday.
Nakashima continues American march at Wimbledon with Shapovalov upset
Brandon Nakashima extended the American charge at this year's Wimbledon when he ousted last year's semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6) victory in the second round on Thursday.
Nakashima became the seventh player from the United States to book a spot in the third round of the grasscourt Grand Slam this year with an eighth spot guaranteed as Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock clash in an all-American battle.
Top-ranked American Taylor Fritz, John Isner, Jenson Brooksby, Tommy Paul, Steve Johnson and Frances Tiafoe are the others to have reached that stage -- the most at a Grand Slam since the 1996 US Open and the most at Wimbledon in 27 years.
The 20-year-old Nakashima, ranked 56th in the world, hit 22 winners while limiting his unforced errors to 14 to defeat Canadian left-hander Shapovalov.
"It felt amazing out there. To play against such a high-level player on one of the biggest stages, it doesn't get much better than that," Nakashima said after his win. "With each match I think my game is progressing in the right direction.
"I am learning a lot from these matches, win or loss. I think getting to the third round in Paris was big for my confidence.
"Just knowing that I could compete with these top guys at the Grand Slams. Making the third round here is another step in the right direction."
Shapovalov agreed, predicting a "bright future" for his opponent.
"He stayed extremely solid. It was very difficult to find weaknesses," said the Canadian, who has now lost seven of his last eight matches.
"He didn't give me much at all to fish for. He was just playing a great match, serving well, returning well. Played really well from the back. Yeah, I mean, it was tough for me to kind of find a lot of solutions."
