Roland-Garros champion sets up highly-anticipated Bencic fourth round
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFT The schedule got back on track on Friday with the top half of the women's draw and the bottom half of the men's completing all third round clashes.
Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur were among the winners, while Caroline Garcia and Cameron Norrie suffered upsets on a busy Day 5 at the All England Club.
World No.1 Iga Swiatek has extended her ongoing winning streak to 13 consecutive matches thanks to a 6-2, 7-5 success over Croatian Petra Martic to move into the Wimbledon fourth round for a second time in three years.
The Polish three-time Grand Slam champion lost her serve while serving for the victory but quickly rectified the situation to advance to the second week without dropping a set.
Her reward is a last-16 showdown with No.14 seed Belinda Bencic.
“I feel confident and I feel like I can play with more intuition, play my game a little bit more,” said Swiatek.
“I do feel more relaxed. I think also because I won Roland-Garros and I feel like after that the pressure is a little bit off because I reached my goal kind of for the season. I don't have to think about anything else other than playing.”
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic wrapped up his third-round victory 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(5) over Stan Wawrinka just in time ahead of Wimbledon's 11pm curfew to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the 15th time in his career.
"He was two points from extending this match to another day. Coming into the court today we knew it was going to be incredibly tight to finish the match today. He raised his level in the third, I dropped my a little bit, crowd got involved and hopefully you guys enjoyed it," said Djokovic on court.
The Serbian world No.2 next faces No.17 seed Hubert Hurkacz.
More like battle of the days; Stefanos Tsitsipas went to sleep on Thursday night trailing Andy Murray two-sets-to-one and returned to Centre Court on Friday afternoon to resume their second round affair.
The Greek No.5 seed levelled things up to force a decider and completed his comeback against the two-time Wimbledon champion 7-6(3), 6-7(2), 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 after four hours and 40 minutes of play.
The match coincided with the 10-year anniversary of Murray’s first Wimbledon triumph. Tsitsipas remembers watching that day, when Murray overcame Novak Djokovic to end Britain’s 77-year men’s singles drought at Wimbledon.
“It was nerve-wracking, I had to overcome it, it was an obstacle of course, a big one. It’s extra difficult when you’ve grown up watching him play on this court. I had goosebumps when he won his first Wimbledon title here,” said Tsitsipas of the former world No.1.
“I felt for him, how much it meant to him, this courageous run he had in 2012; he was part of the top four for a very long time, and I looked up to him, I looked up to Novak, Roger and Rafa, these four guys shaped the game and they’re the reason I am the player I am today.”
Tsitsipas’ work was not over for the day as he returned to the court shortly after to play doubles with his brother Petros. The match was suspended for darkness with the Greek duo tied at one-set-all against French pair Lucas van Assche and Arthur Fils.
The completion of that match as well as Tsitsipas’ third-round singles clash with Serbian Laslo Djere are both scheduled for Saturday.
Christopher Eubanks started his grass-court season by texting his friend, former world No.1 Kim Clijsters, and complaining about how much he was struggling adapting his game to the surface and how he had to “problem-solve” until he got back to hard courts.
The American then went on to win his maiden ATP title on the grass courts of Mallorca and is now into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, on his Wimbledon debut no less.
After picking up a first main-draw victory at the All England Club on Tuesday over Thiago Monteiro, the world No.43 pulled off the biggest victory of his career by upsetting last year’s semi-finalist and this year’s No.12 seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) on No.1 Court on Thursday.
“By far the biggest win of my career, by far. Not even a question,” Eubanks told Anabel Croft in his on-court interview.
“There’s tons of really good tennis players who play professional tennis who never get the chance to play the No.1 Brit at Wimbledon, in an atmosphere like this. Like it didn’t even matter how many people were for me or against me, this is something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
Next up for the 27-year-old American is Australian Christopher O'Connell.
Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko edged Ana Bodan 20-18 in a 37-minute deciding tiebreak, to complete a three-hour 40-minute victory 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(18) and reach the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time in her career.
The 38-point tiebreak was the longest tiebreak in a Grand Slam women's singles match in history.
The 60th-ranked Tsurenko saved five match points and converted her seventh to book her spot in the last-16 stage for a second consecutive major.
“I’m glad my husband let me give him a hug.”
– Following her 45-minute second-round 6-1, 6-1 victory over China’s Zhuoxuan Bai, Ons Jabeur tells Anabel Croft in her on-court interview how thrilled she was to meet David Beckham here at Wimbledon. The Tunisian will take on former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the third round on Saturday.
In a match that was initially scheduled for No.2 Court, but began on Court 18 and was completed on No.1 Court (was suspending for darkness on Court 18 after the second set), last year’s quarter-finalist and No.32 seed Marie Bouzkova outlasted French No.5 seed Caroline Garcia 7-6(0), 4-6, 7-5 to set up a fourth-round meeting with fellow Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
ROLAND-GARROS
20 May - 9 June 2024
