Wimbledon 2018: Jelena Ostapenko beats Dominika Cibulkova – highlights
Watch highlights as 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko defeats Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 6-4 to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Watch highlights as 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko defeats Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 6-4 to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Wimbledon 2018 on the BBC |
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Venue: All England Club, Wimbledon Dates: 2-15 July |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs and the BBC Sport website and app; Live Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra commentary; Text commentary online. |
Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares are through to the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon.
They comfortably beat British brothers Ken and Neal Skupski 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Murray and Belarusian partner Victoria Azarenka later reached the mixed doubles third round with a thrilling late-night 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (6-8) 7-5 win over Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Robert Farah under the roof on Centre Court.
They had trailed 5-1 in the final set.
Murray and Soares, the 2016 Australian Open and US Open champions, are yet to win a Wimbledon men’s doubles title but reached the final in 2015.
They will face 13th seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus next.
Britain’s Joe Salisbury and partner Frederik Nielsen of Denmark booked their place in the last eight with victory over Farah and his fellow Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal.
Salisbury and Nielsen lost the first set but fought back to beat the sixth seeds 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 7-6 (7-1).
In the women’s doubles, Britain’s Heather Watson and German Tatjana Maria are through to the last eight after a walkover against Jelena Ostapenko and Christina McHale.
Ostapenko withdrew to concentrate on her quarter-final in the singles.
Top seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic clinched a 6-3 6-4 win over Kirsten Flipkens and Monica Niculescu.
Second seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova were knocked out 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, who have won five Grand Slam titles together but are yet to triumph at Wimbledon.
Watson and Finland’s Henri Kontinen – who are seeded 16th – triumphed 6-2 5-7 7-5 in their mixed doubles second-round match against Marcin Matkowski and Mihaela Buzarnescu.
Jelena Ostapenko is suddenly a very live contender for the Wimbledon title, now just three wins away from a second grand…
Daria Kasatkina‘s arrival as a top player is finally coming. The Russian is in a grand slam quarter final for the second…
Kiki Bertens and Julia Goerges are bidding for a spot in their first Wimbledon semi final when they face off on Tuesday…
Serena Williams remains the strong favourite to win Wimbledon going into quarter finals day on Tuesday. The American is…
Wimbledon 2018 on the BBC |
---|
Venue: All England Club, Wimbledon Dates: 2-15 July |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs and the BBC Sport website and app; Live Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra commentary; Text commentary online. |
The top 10 seeds are all out and Serena Williams has been grabbing all the headlines, but who stands between her and an eighth Wimbledon singles title?
The highest-ranked player to reach Tuesday’s quarter-finals is 11th seed Angelique Kerber – who Williams was quick to point out is actually the world number 10. Kerber, Williams and Jelena Ostapenko are the only Grand Slam champions left.
This is the first time since seedings were introduced in 1927 that none of the top eight women has made it through to the quarter-finals here.
Here we look at who’s who in the last eight.
Kerber, the 2016 Australian Open and US Open champion, says she is “not feeling the pressure” of being the top seed left.
The German former world number one has played Kasatkina six times, winning half of them, but has lost twice to the Russian this year – including in last month’s Eastbourne quarter-finals.
A left-hander, the 30-year-old – who reached the Wimbledon final in 2016 – is appearing in the last eight at the All England Club for a fourth time.
Kasatkina, 21, is into her first Wimbledon quarter-final but is much more relaxed than when she reached the same stage at Roland Garros this year.
“This is what I call experience,” she said. “You’re getting used to these things. It’s really good because I will go on the court with the feeling that it’s just the next match, it’s not like something huge. I will be not that stressed, for sure.”
Asked how she would describe herself to people who did not know much about her, Kasatkina replied: “I’m just like an artist and I’m playing with the heart.”
Cibulkova would have been seeded, had it not been for the decision by the All England Club to give a seeding to Williams despite her world ranking of 181.
The Slovak, 29, was vocal about how it was “not fair” and has been playing at this tournament as if fired up by a sense of injustice.
The 2014 Australian Open runner-up is in the opposite side of the draw to Williams, so could still get a chance to make her point across the net in the final.
Cibulkova, who knocked out Britain’s Johanna Konta in the second round, has yet to drop a set here.
She faces Ostapenko, who became Latvia’s first Grand Slam champion when she won the French Open in 2017 as an unseeded 20-year-old.
Her title defence ended in the first round this year but she says she is playing more freely because the pressure of defending a title has gone.
“I’m just not afraid to miss,” she said. “I think I’m serving very well this tournament. In general, I think my level is much better than in the last Grand Slam.”
Twentieth seed Bertens and 13th seed Gorges will be appearing in their first Wimbledon quarter-final.
The pair are friends, and have played doubles together.
A French Open semi-finalist in 2016, Dutchwoman Bertens’ five WTA titles have come on clay and she says she is “surprised” to have made it this far at the grass-court Grand Slam.
On her way to the last eight she beat five-time champion Venus Williams and seventh seed Karolina Pliskova, the latter of whom was the only top-10 seed to reach the fourth round.
“It’s going to be tough. We know each other so well,” Bertens, 26, said. “It’s going to be really exciting.
German 29-year-old Gorges lost the Charleston final to Bertens 6-2 6-1 earlier this year.
Asked what she most liked about what she had seen of Williams over the years, world number 52 Camila Giorgi replied: “I don’t follow tennis.”
But even if you do not follow the sport, you probably know all about the 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is on a comeback from having a baby last September.
With the seeds tumbling at a rapid rate, Williams is many peoples’ favourite for the title and is yet to drop a set, though she is also yet to face a top-50 player.
Giorgi, who has one WTA title to her name, is appearing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final and is the first Italian to reach the last eight at Wimbledon since Francesca Schiavone in 2009.
She describes herself as an “aggressive” player, and is likely to need to be just that on Centre Court on Tuesday.
Wimbledon 2018 on the BBC |
---|
Venue: All England Club, Wimbledon Dates: 2-15 July |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs and the BBC Sport website and app; Live Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra commentary; Text commentary online. |
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal remain on course to meet on Sunday, while Serena Williams serenely moved into the last eight.
Meanwhile, Federer suggested that Sunday’s likely clash between the finals of the men’s singles and the World Cup should worry football, not tennis – and Andy Murray announced he has a new job.
Here are five things from day seven at Wimbledon.
It’s been seven years since Nadal last featured in a final at Wimbledon.
The two-time champion made five finals between 2006 and 2011 – only missing out in 2009, when an injury kept him out of the competition.
Yet since 2011, Nadal has failed to go beyond the fourth round – until now.
The world number one looked impressive in overcoming Jiri Vesely 6-3 6-3 6-4. He remains a strong favourite – alongside rival Federer – to go all the way to Sunday’s final.
That could mean a repeat of the 2008 final – which many consider to be the greatest match of all time – when Nadal was victorious in a fixating battle with the Swiss top seed.
Federer produced another near-faultless performance on Centre Court, outclassing France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-0 7-5 6-4 to reach the last eight.
He has won 32 sets in a row at Wimbledon – two short of his personal best streak, between 2005’s third round and the 2006 final.
According to Gracenote, he is five behind Nadal’s 37 sets in succession at the French Open – a sequence that ran from 2016 until the opening set of his quarter-final against Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman in June.
The men’s Grand Slam record is held by Bjorn Borg, who won 41 sets in a row at Roland Garros between 1979 and 1981.
Federer could match that record with straight-set victories in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. A big if, admittedly.
He will play South African eighth seed Kevin Anderson on Wednesday as he bids for a ninth Wimbledon singles title to draw level with record holder Martina Navratilova.
Seventh seed Karolina Pliskova’s defeat by Kiki Bertens means that for the first time in the Open era, there will not be a top 10 women’s seed in the last eight of a Grand Slam.
But who are the new and the newish faces?
Bertens, who ousted Pliskova and Venus Williams in the first round, reached the French Open semi-finals in 2016. A former world number 15, she talked about retiring last year, saying that tennis “just wasn’t fun” any more and that her main goal in 2018 was to feel good.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko is only 21 but is already a Grand Slam champion, having won the French Open last year, and she credits ballroom dancing for helping with her footwork.
Camila Giorgi, who has beaten eight top 10 players during her career, is into her first Slam quarter-final, while Dominika Cibulkova reached the Australian Open final in 2014.
German Julia Gorges dropped out of the top 100 four years ago but is now ranked 13th in the world. She has gone past the first round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2012.
Daria Kasatkina is one of the emerging talents of the WTA Tour. The Russian, 21, won her first title last year and reached the French Open quarter-finals last month.
Angelique Kerber is not exactly a new face. She won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016 – becoming the first German to win a Slam since Steffi Graf in 1999 – and reached the Wimbledon final that year. She is also a former world number one.
As for Serena Williams? Well, you might know a thing or two about her…
England’s footballers play in their first World Cup semi-final since 1990 when they face Croatia on Wednesday, and supporters will be at fever pitch if they win to reach their first final since 1966.
That match kicks off at 16:00 BST on Sunday and the men’s singles finalists will walk out on Centre Court two hours earlier. The chance of it being over by the time the football starts is fairly slim.
If England get there, then surely even the biggest tennis supporter would face a dilemma?
Well, not according to Federer.
“I’m more concerned the World Cup final will have issues because the Wimbledon final is going on,” said the Swiss.
“They’ll hear every point, Wow, Love-15, 15-30. The players are going to look up in the crowd and not understand what’s going on at Wimbledon.
“That’s how important Wimbledon is to me and to us over here. Maybe you should ask the questions over in Russia, how they’re going to feel about Wimbledon being played at the same time.”
All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis, meanwhile, says Wimbledon organisers will not alter the schedule to accommodate a potential England final appearance.
“We are a sold-out event and there’s massive interest. There are absolutely no plans to change anything,” he explained.
“We didn’t have one single complaint of anybody here feeling that the football interfered with their enjoyment of Wimbledon. We have free public wi-fi in many areas, so if people want to watch quietly on their phone or tablet, they are able to do so.”
Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray was not fit enough to compete in this year’s championships but can’t get away from the SW19 buzz.
Murray will be joining BBC’s TV coverage of Wimbledon this week.
He’ll be putting his punditry to the test on Tuesday – joining Tim Henman in the studio – before showing John McEnroe how it’s done on the mic during commentary on Wednesday.
Murray added on Facebook: “What could possibly go wrong?”