Giorgi packs off Svitolina
Birmingham, June 22: World number five Elina Svitolina became the latest in a series of top-10 casualties when she lost to qualifier Camila Giorgi in the second round at Birmingham on Thursday.
It is only a month since the 22-year-old Ukrainian tasted the euphoria of winning the Italian Open in Rome, but while struggling with injury, she slid to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 second-round defeat to a player ranked outside the top 100.
Svitolina often played well in the second set and broke serve to lead early in the third, but her standards dropped away. Afterwards she even suggested she would consider pulling out of Wimbledon.
“There is a question about it,” she admitted. “I will talk with my physios. The season is very long and I must look at the bigger picture.”
The Italian now has an enticing opportunity to enhance that reputation, as she will have a quarter-final against another surprise survivor, Ashleigh Barty, a 21-year-old Australian making her first appearance in the main draw.
Earlier, Petra Kvitova entered the quarterfinals with a straight-sets win over Britain’s Naomi Broady 6-2, 6-2.
Cilic enters
quarters
London: Marin Cilic avoided becoming the latest seeded player to depart early at Queen’s by beating Stefan Kozlov 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday and advancing to the quarterfinals at the Wimbledon war m-up event.
Cilic, the 2012 champion a t Queen’s, lost only 10 points in the first set and didn’t face a break point in the match against the 19year-old Kozlov.
“At a tournament like this, we have so many great grasscourt players,” Cilic said of the slew of upsets so far at Queen’s. “Considering it’s also one of the first weeks on grass, it’s always very tricky.”
Cilic will play Donald Young, in the last eight.
Nishikori retires injured Halle: Japanese world number nine Kei Nishikori was forced to retire injured in the second round of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Halle on Thursday.
Nishikori was trailing 3-2 to Russia’s Karen Khachanov when he felt a pain in his hip.
The 27-year-old had hip treatment courtside but in the end was forced to concede defeat.