TITLE UP FOR GRABS
Kiki stuns Karolina as last top 10 seed falls
KIKI Bertens knocked out the last top 10 seeds in the women’s singles at Wimbledon as the Dutch world number 20 stunned Karolina Pliskova with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) victory in the fourth round yesterday.
Kiki followed her shock third round success against five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams by claiming the scalp of Czech seventh seed Karolina.
The exit of former World No 1 Karolina came after the women’s draw was blown wide open by surprise defeats earlier in the tournament for Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, seeded 11th, is the top ranked player remaining.
But the title favourite is seventime champion Serena Williams, seeded 25th after her lengthy maternity leave, and due to face Russian qualifier — and fellow mother — Evgeniya Rodina later yesterday.
Kiki, a French Open semi-finalist in 2016, is into the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time.
The 26-year-old faces German 13th seed Julia Goerges or Croatian World No 55 Donna Vekic today.
Kiki, who was contemplating retirement last year after losing her enthusiasm for the sport, is the first Dutch woman to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Michaella Krajicek in 2007.
Dominika Cibulkova shrugged off a furious line call controversy to power into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of Taiwanese giant-killer Hsieh Su-Wei.
Dominika was furious when SuWei successfully persuaded the umpire to replay a point that was initially called in the Slovakian's favour and would have given her three set points in the opening set.
But the 29-year-old challenged her anger to crush Su-Wei — who had shocked world number one Simona Halep in the previous round.
Italy’s Camila Giorgi advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Russian World No 35 Ekaterina Makarova.
Camila was making only her third appearance in the last 16 at a major, but there was no big game nerves as the World No 52 cruised to the most significant victory of her career.
The 26-year-old had failed to get past the third round of a major since the 2013 US Open.