Women's round-up: Cibulkova goes the distance to oust Radwanska, Kerber seeks inspiration, Halep win
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ByEurosport
Updated 04/07/2016 at 18:42 GMT
Dominika Cibulková completed an astonishing three-set win over Agnieszka Radwańska, reaching the quarter-finals with a 6-3 5-7 9-7 success on Court Three.
Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova celebrates winning her match against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska.
Image credit: Eurosport
Third seed Radwanska had saved three match points in overcoming Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh, who toiled with injury late in the second round of their match.
But she could not survive another epic contest against Cibulkova despite saving a match point at 5-4 behind in the second set.
Radwanska - the 2012 runner-up - had her own match point at 6-5 in the third set, but she could not complete what would have been an astonishing recovery from a set and a break down as 19th seed Cibulkova scrambled over the line with a forehand winner being set up by her own serve.
The Court Three crowd applauded both women after a brutal three-hour contest, but it will be interesting to see what condition Cibulkova is in when she faces Ekaterina Makarova or Elena Vesnina for a place in the semi-finals.
Cibulkova broke the Pole, whose all-court game lacked energy and precision at the start, in the fourth game of a lacklustre first set and took the set with a big serve that Radwanska knocked tamely into the net.
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Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova celebrates winning her match against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska.
Image credit: Eurosport
The pair exchanged breaks throughout the second set and Radwanska saved a match point in the ninth game, finding some verve and precision to grab the set from the disappointed Slovak.
The two women ramped up the quality in the final set, hitting the lines, producing deft dropshots and fighting through exhausting groundstroke rallies to the delight of the gripped Court Three crowd.
It was the 13th contest between the pair, both 27, and by now they were shrieking with effort as they ran the lines.
Cibulkova, ranked 18 in the world, survived a monumental 11th game in the set, saving match point with a forehand winner.
KERBER SEEKS INSPIRATION FROM MELBOURNE VICTORY
German fourth seed Angelique Kerber aims to heed the lessons learned in winning her first grand slam in Melbourne in January as she cranks up her bid to add a second major title on the Wimbledon grass.
Superior court craft proved decisive for the Australian Open champion on Monday as she pressed the right buttons in motoring past Japanese pocket rocket Misaki Doi 6-3 6-1 in a full-blooded fourth-round match.
"I was trying to play my game and was feeling that my tennis is getting better and better," she told reporters.
Having ground out a straight-sets win on Saturday against compatriot Carina Witthoeft in blustery conditions on the same Court Two, Kerber played with greater consistency and control on Monday.
That is part of the recipe she wants to carry over into her Wimbledon quarter-final from Australia, where she dashed world number one Serena Williams' hopes of winning a record-equalling 22nd grand slam in the professional era.
"For me it is important that I know I can win these things (grand slams). The matches won't get any easier and I know that I have to take control of them and dictate the play," Kerber said.
"(The aim is) not to think too much about what might happen or what one can do or the negative aspects, and to only look one day ahead."
Kerber, who reached the semi-finals at the All England Club in 2012, risked being overpowered early in Monday's first set as her 5-foot-3 (1.59 metre) opponent bludgeoned forehand winners to both sides of the court.
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Angelique Kerber celebrates winning her match against Japan's Misaki Do
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But the German gradually found her range on her groundstrokes while 49th-ranked Doi's radar began to malfunction and, in a match dotted with mesmerising rallies, made 25 unforced errors as well as 20 crunching winners.
Kerber broke twice in the first set, winning it on her third set point, and broke the Japanese again to lead 3-0 in the second.
Doi, who had not dropped a set in becoming the first Japanese woman to reach the last 16 of a grand slam since 2006, briefly rallied, saving two match points in the sixth game.
But Kerber served it out in the next game, blasting a forehand winner on the 15th stroke of the final rally.
The German will play Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep in the quarter-finals.
SHVEDOVA THUMPS SAFAROVA TO REACH QUARTER-FINALS
Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazahkstan swept past Lucie Safarova and into her first Wimbledon quarter-final, beating the Russian 28th seed 6-2 6-4 on Monday.
Ranked 96th but holding a 3-0 head-to-head record against her higher-ranked opponent, the big-serving Shvedova -- making her 10th appearance at Wimbledon -- powered down seven aces and hit the mark with three quarters of her first serves.
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Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova celebrates during her match against Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova.
Image credit: Eurosport
Another serve proved decisive on the final point when Safarova hit her return long.
Shvedova faces the winner of the match between American veteran Venus Williams and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
HALEP HITS BACK TO SINK STRUGGLING KEYS
Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep recovered to beat an emotional and hobbling Madison Keys 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second time in her career on Monday.
The 24-year-old was heading out when she fell a break behind in the second set, having squandered four set points to surrender the opener, but she battled back and then took ruthless advantage as Keys appeared to suffer a leg injury.
She will play Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the last eight.
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Romania's Simona Halep celebrates winning her match against USA's Madison Keys.
Image credit: Eurosport
When Halep double-faulted and then sent a backhand long to drop serve at the start of the second set and Keys held with a huge ace to lead 2-0 the end looked nigh.
But Halep, whose semi-final appearance two years ago disguises an ordinary Wimbledon record, is made of sterner stuff and worked her way back, breaking back in the fourth game as the errors returned to the Keys game.
Keys netted a forehand to hand the second set to a resurgent Halep and the decider became an ordeal for the American as she looked in discomfort and close to tears with a leg injury.
Surprisingly Keys, playing some shots off one leg, did not call for the trainer and Halep calmly moved 5-3 ahead, sealing victory when Keys belted a forehand out.
PAVLYUCHENKOVA OVERCOMES VANDEWEGHE AND FEAR OF GRASS
Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova said she was slowly banishing her fear of grass after she advanced to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time in her career by overpowering a misfiring Coco Vandeweghe on Monday.
The Russian produced an awesome display of power tennis to defeat her American opponent 6-3 6-3. In a match in which both players belted the ball across the net for a succession of blistering winners, the 21st seed played with far greater control on the big points and made fewer mistakes.
"I'm not supposed to say this, but I didn't really like grass at all," Pavlyuchenkova, who has struggled on the faster surface in the past, told reporters after the match. "Now it's kind of changing a little, I don't mind it."
The key was Pavlyuchenkova's miserly seven unforced errors, compared with 22 for 27th seed Vandeweghe.
So great was the American's frustration at her erratic play that, after she was broken for the second time in the second set, she gave her racket away to a delighted child in the crowd.
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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova celebrates winning her match against USA's Coco Vandeweghe.
Image credit: Eurosport
Pavlyuchenkova, who turned 25 on Sunday, was one of four Russians to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon -- the most since 2009. She could now face Serena Williams in the quarter-finals, if the world number one gets through her match against Pavlyuchenkova's compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Pavlyuchenkova said there was a great spirit in the Russian camp and that the players were driving each other on to success.
"It's great, we have this competition, everyone wants to do better than the other one," she said.
Results from the Wimbledon Women's Singles Round 4 matches on Monday
Elena Vesnina (Russia) beat Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) 5-7 6-1 9-7
8-Venus Williams (U.S.) beat 12-Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) 7-6(3) 6-4
1-Serena Williams (U.S.) beat 13-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 7-5 6-0
5-Simona Halep (Romania) beat 9-Madison Keys (U.S.) 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3
Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) beat 28-Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) 6-2 6-4
19-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) beat 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) 6-3 5-7 9-7
21-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) beat 27-CoCo Vandeweghe (U.S.) 6-3 6-3
4-Angelique Kerber (Germany) beat Misaki Doi (Japan) 6-3 6-1
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