Tennis News

An intriguing fourth round contest is scheduled to take place between Polish no. 1 Agnieszka Radwanska and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic at the All England Club on Monday. This marks the eighth time these two competitors will meet on the tour, with Radwanska leading the head-to-head series 5-2. However, Jankovic did win their most recent encounter at last year’s Rome Open on clay. This is the first time they will cross paths on grass.

Following a terrible start to her 2015 season, Radwanska appears to have gotten things under control on grass, as she has been her usual self since moving onto this surface last month. In her most recent match, Radwanska defeated Casey Dellacqua 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon – one of her best performances of the year so far.

“Well, I just feel much better than in the beginning of the year, and also I think the surface makes a huge difference. Everything is just easier for me now that I’m back on the grass,” Radwanska said. “Losing first round at a Grand Slam is always disappointing. I wasn’t happy at all. But I had some days off – well, it was actually a lot of time off. And that’s why I took the wildcard into Nottingham, to play some more matches, and especially since the grass season was a little bit longer this year.

“More matches gives me more confidence. I’ve been feeling good from the beginning of the grass season. That’s why I just kept going in Eastbourne – I had good matches against top players there.”

In a surprising turn of events, No. 28 seed Jelena Jankovic managed to flip the script on Petra Kvitova, as she worked her way back from a set and a break down to oust the defending champion from the tournament. The Serb was down 6-3, 3-1 before she turned things around to close out the match in three sets.

This marks the eighth time these two will meet on the WTA tour, with Radwanska leading the series 5-2. Apart from a loss in their most recent meeting, the Pole won five of their last six consecutive matches dating back to 2011. She is certainly the favourite to win their Monday encounter and reach the quarter-finals at the Wimbledon Championships.

Once a heated rivalry that dated back to their first encounter in 1998, Serena Williams and Venus Williams will meet for just the third time since 2010, yet little has changed about the significance of the two titanic sister’s crossing at the Championships. As two former champions in their own right at the All England Club, the Williams sister will kick off Maniac Monday at Wimbledon as the first match on Centre Court – their 26th overall meeting. Serena leads the head-to-head series 14-11.

While tennis fans will now get to see the latest chapter in one of the great tales of the sport’s history, Serena was just a few points away from suffering a shocking exit in the third round of the tournament. Faced with the task of beating British No. 1 Heather Watson on Centre Court, Williams stood firm in the opening set yet was unable to stop the Brit’s barrage in the second frame to force a decider. There, Williams was within two points of losing the match yet held her nerve and eventually closed out he encounter late in the third set 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. She will next encounter her big sister Venus for a spot in the quarter-final.

“We’re going to do the best that we can. I mean, she’s my sister today. She’s my sister next week. She’s my sister next year. I think that’s a little more important than a match. We’ll leave everything out on the court. When it’s done, you know, we’ll go back to regular life.”

Seeded 16th at this year’s tournament, Venus Williams has looked fantastic through the first three matches on grass at Wimbledon. Her latest win was against Aleksandra Krunic, whom she beat 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 11 minutes.

“I think it will be a really good match,” said Serena of Venus. “Yeah, I don’t know. She’s playing so well. I’m practicing next to her every day and I’m in awe of how she’s doing. It’s a little frustrating because I know I have to play her. I just don’t know how I’m going to do, to be honest. Worst case scenario, I don’t do well. I’ll just try to keep moving ahead. Did better than last year. So I guess it’s a step in the right discussion.”

This is scheduled to be the 26th career meeting between the Williams sisters. Serena leads the head-to-head series 14-11 but has not looked her best this week at the Championships. Given that they are 1-1 over the past five years, this will be an exceptionally intriguing contest to determine the outcome.

As one of the few players who did not get to step out and play professional matches on grass ahead of Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova is actually doing quite well at this year’s Championships. Yet to drop a set at the All England Club, Sharapova will next meet Zarina Diyas for a spot in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Check out the Sharapova vs Diyas Head to Head.

Fourth seed Maria Sharapova looked as though she would be in a competitive match against Irina-Camelia Begu, as the two went toe-to-toe until the scoreline was 4-4 in the opening set. From there, Sharapova won the next seven consecutive games to go up 5-0 in the second set before eventually closing out the match 6-4, 6-3.

“Considering I didn’t play a tournament before Wimbledon, with each match I’ve had a different type of opponent on different courts, and I’ve been handling it quite well,” Sharapova said. “Today was another match against a big server and a big hitter, and on grass that can be quite dangerous. “I was quite happy that I was able to win the match in a solid two sets.”

The Russian will next come up against rising star Zarina Diyas, who upset Andrea Petkovic to advance to the fourth round of the tournament. She defeated the 14th seeded German 7-5, 6-4 to set up the clash against Sharapova.

“I played Diyas in Australia. I think that was our first meeting,” the Russian said. “This one will be a new match, and a chance to get to the quarterfinals, a place where I lost last year.”

This marks the second time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour. While Diyas is capable of taking a set of Sharapova, she does not have the intensity to match the Russian’s resiliency in the longterm, particularly on grass.

2013 champion Andy Murray has certainly lived up to his comments regarding his form, as he has faced little adversary since arriving at the All England Tennis Club a few days ago. His third opponent at the event will be Andreas Seppi, whom Murray holds a 6-1 head to head record against. He will be looking for his sixth consecutive victory against Seppi when they step on out on the grass courts at SW19.

The third seed at this year’s Wimbledon Championships continued his fine form on Thursday when he secured his place in the third round with a straight sets win against Robin Haase. It was a surprisingly lopsided affair, as Murray only lost nine points in the entire first set and hit 25 winners to close out the 87-minute affair 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.

“It’s always difficult to compare. I mean, last year I played some good tennis in the first week. But, yeah, I mean, the first couple of sets were excellent. Then even third set, some of the points were very good. I moved well today, hit the ball a lot cleaner from the back of the court. It was a good match.

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t give him that opportunity. There was a couple of times in that third set where he had maybe Love 30 on my serve, 15 30. Yeah, I managed to stop him from gaining any momentum.”

Faced with a far more gurelling contest in his own right, Andreas Seppi was forced to rally from a set down to defeat Borna Coric in five sets. The No. 25 seed won the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-1 in three hours and 32 minutes.

This marks the eighth time these two competitors will meet on the professional tour, with Murray leading the series 6-1. Seppi’s sole victory came in their first ever meeting back in 2006. The two are 1-1 on grass but Murray’s win was far more recent: 2009 at the Aegon Championships. He should have little trouble closing this contest out in straight sets.

Six years ago, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Ivo Karlovic met in the third round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships to determine who would advance to the following stage of the event. It was a grueling four-set battle that eventually saw the towering Croat snatch victory with his characteristic tiebreaks. Now, with a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head series, Karlovic will look to recreate the scene once again in the third round of the Championships over half a decade later.

Although not impressed with his own showing on court, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earned a comfortable straight sets win to advance to the third round at the All England Club. He defeated Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to secure his place in Saturday’s schedule. It should be noted that the former two-time semi-finalist at Wimbledon has not reached the second week of the tournament in the last two years.

“I will say I did the best part of the job because I won, so that is five points. Then I served pretty good so that is two more points. Seven out of 10, I would say.”

In his scintillating battle against Alexandr Dolgopolov, Ivo Karlovic not only won the match but he also served 53 aces throughout the affair to end up with a total of 95 aces in his first two matches at the Championships. His match-up against Dolgopolov was a grueling affair that ended 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(4), 13-11. He became the only player since 1991 to serve 40 aces or more in consecutive matches.

This marks just the second time that these two competitors will meet on the professional tour. While there is a six-year gap between matches, they two have gravitated back to Wimbledon, where their first meeting took place in 2009. While Tsonga would put up a significant fight, it was the towering Croat who eventually edged the Frenchman 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 7-5 7-6(5) to give himself a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head series.

One of the more intriguing third round matches to take place on Saturday will be featured in the ladies draw, as former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and Italian talent Camila Giorgi will meet again to determine who will advance to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships. This marks the fourth time that the two competitors will meet on the tour, with Giorgi leading the head-to-head series 2-1.

Follow the match: Wozniacki vs Giorgi Live

All things appeared to be running smoothly for Caroline Woznaicki, all until a late scare from Denisa Allertova, which was eventually snuffed out without need for a deciding set. After storming to a 5-1 lead in the second frame, Wozniacki found herself reeling at 5-5 in the set before she worked her way back to win the tiebreak for a final score of 6-1, 7-6(6).

“I felt comfortable and confident. All of a sudden she started playing better,” Wozniacki said. “She started hitting the lines, as well. You know, small things. All of a sudden it’s 5-6 instead of comfortably in the locker room having won the match. At the end of the day, I won. I kept fighting. You know, that’s tennis sometimes. You need to win the last point. That’s when you know you’ve won. I’m just happy to be through.”

Wozniacki will next encounter Camila Giorgi, who secured her place in the third round following a straight sets win against Lara Arruabarrena. The Italian crusied through the match 6-0, 7-6(5).

“Camila is a player that you don’t really know what to expect. She’s hitting every ball as hard as she can. Either it goes in or doesn’t go in,” Wozniacki said. “For me, it’s just about staying focused. I need to try to keep pressure on her. I need to return well, serve well, try not to let her dictate too much.”

This marks the fourth time that the two competitors will meet on the tour, with Giorgi leading the head-to-head series 2-1. However, Wozniacki’s sole win took place on grass, where they met last season in Eastbourne.

Prediction: Caroline Wozniacki in Three Sets

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It has been a turbulent few months for Agnieszka Radwanska. The Polish No. 1 has been on a disappointing trend of surprise losses and upsets that were anything but normal from one of the craftiest players on the tour. However, this week at Wimbledon, and during the grass court in general, she was able to regain some of her long-lost fervor and secured her spot in the third round of the tournament. There, she will come up against Aussie Casey Dellacqua, whom she has only faced twice previously on the professional tour. Radwanska leads the head-to-head series 2-0.

Radwanska had little trouble working her way past Ajla Tomljanovic on Tursday to secure her place in the third round of the Wimbledon tournament. She avenged her earlier loss to the rising star by thumping her with a 6-0, 6-2 shellacking in a match that lasted a mere 49 minutes.

Asked about her partnership with Martina Navratilova, Radwanska admitted that she was going through a tough period and that the timing was not at its best when she hired the Grand Slam great.

“Well, I think it was maybe bad timing to hire her when I really had I didn’t feel good. I was a little bit exhausted. I had a couple really tough months. It was the same time she was working with me. Well, now I think, first of all, I’m just feeling much better. I think also grass changed everything, as well. Helps me go to my best level I can play tennis. Well, for sure a couple of good months of experience working with her. But now we’re just friends.”

Radwanska will next come up against Casey Dellacqua, who defeated Elina Svitolina 7-6(3), 6-3 to earn her upset win against the No. 17 seed and secure her place in the third round.

This is just the third time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional series, with Radwanska leading the head-to-head series 2-0. The Pole’s victory took place during a Wimbledon encounter last season, which should serve as a foreshadowing of their potential third rounder on Saturday. While the Pole should find solace in her solid showing on Thursday, she will have to show consistency if she is to advance on a surface that she doesn’t find overly comfortable.

The fourth day of the Wimbledon Championships saw some surprising results as the seeds continued to fall at the All England Club, including two-time champion Rafael Nadal, who exited the tournament as the 10th seed following a four-set loss to Dustin Brown.

Throughout the match, the Spaniard appeared baffled by Brown’s unorthodox style and serve and volley approach to the match. Stuck with a serve that was far from his best, Nadal was unable to remain competitive in the match and eventually suffered a four-set exit to fall to 0-2 against Jamaican-German Dustin Brown. It was his fourth loss at the Championships to a player ranked outside the Top 100.

“Obviously today is a bad moment for me. I need to accept these things can happen… it’s not the end. It’s a sad moment for me, but life continues. My career, too. I have to keep going and working more than ever to try to change that dynamic.”

“I am a good loser,” Nadal said with a smile. “When I am not that good, I always accept [it]… I never considered myself that good to not accept when somebody’s better than you. The last couple of years, I was not ready to compete well here. So I met some players that were better than me.”

Earlier in the day, world No. 2 Roger Federer reached the third round at the Wimbledon Championships following a straight sets win against Sam Querrey on Thursday afternoon. On one of he hottest days in Wimbledon history, Federer ousted the American 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 with some dazzling shots that only he could have completed.

The third seed at this year’s Wimbleon Championships, Andy Murray, continued his fine form on Thursday when he secured his place in the third round with a straight sets win against Robin Haase. It was a surprisingly lopsided affair, as Murray only lost nine points in the entire first set and hit 25 winners to close out the 87-minute affair 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.