Malta Independent

Venus goes out as Federer marches on

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Venus Williams became the latest former champion to be knocked out at Wimbledon.

Her sister Serena is still going strong, though, after overcoming her toughest test so far this week.

In the men's tournament, Roger Federer's latest victory never looked in doubt as he won 37 of 40 first-serve points and stretched his Wimbledon winning streak to 29 sets, beating Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-5, 6-2.

The eight-time champion and No. 1 seed next faces 22nd-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France, who beat Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3.

Venus couldn't complete a third consecutiv­e comeback as she lost to 20th-seeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherland­s 6-2, 6-7 (5), 8-6 in the third round on Friday.

"Just ran out of time in the end," Venus said. "She played really well. You have to win the last point, and I didn't succeed in that today."

She is the fourth former women's champion to get knocked out, joining Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and last year's winner Garbine Muguruza.

That leaves Serena as the only remaining woman to have won the tournament. The seven-time champion came from a break down in the first set to get past Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6 (2).

Venus had rallied from a set down in her first two matches. Her exit means eight of the top 10 seeded women have gone out before the end of Week 1.

The 38-year-old American, last year's runner-up, was the oldest women's singles entrant in 2018.

Serena took her Wimbledon winning streak to 17 matches, thanks in part to 13 aces. She missed last year's tournament while pregnant.

She faces another mother in the fourth round Monday: 120thranke­d qualifier Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, who upset No. 10 seed Madison Keys of the U.S.

"Serena is my idol," Rodina said. "So it will be great to play against her."

Keys also came up short with a comeback attempt after fighting back from a set and two breaks down, losing 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

In a match full of big swings, Keys led 5-2 in the first set before Rodina won the next nine games to go 4-0 up in the second.

The American player won five games in a row to level and then broke back to make it 4-4 in the third set, but Rodina earned another break to secure victory.

Rodina, through to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, was 0-15 against top-20 ranked opponents before Friday's win.

Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev reached the third round in the men's event by beating Taylor Fritz of the U.S. 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (0), 61, 6-2 in a match that was suspended on Thursday after the third set.

Zverev also erased a 2-1 deficit in sets three times to reach the quarterfin­als of the French Open, his best result at a Grand Slam.

No. 8 Kevin Anderson beat No. 25 Philipp Kohlschrei­ber of Germany 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 after losing just eight of 61 points on his first serve, while Gael Monfils of France advanced to the fourth round for the first time by knocking out last year's semifinali­st Sam Querrey 57, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Norrie disappoint­ed to miss out on Wimbledon doubles record

After being knocked out in the second round of the men's doubles on Friday, Cameron Norrie's biggest disappoint­ment was falling short of a Wimbledon record.

The British player and countryman Jay Clarke came up short in a three-day, 87-game, 5-hour, 2minute first-round marathon against Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile and his Argentine partner Marcelo Arevalo.

The 6-4, 6-7 (5), 5-7, 6-4, 22-20 scoreline left the match tied for the fifth-most games in men's doubles at Wimbledon, 15 short of the 102 played when Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa defeated Kevin Ullyett and Paul Hanley 28-26 in the fifth set of their second-round encounter in 2007.

Norrie, ranked 75 in singles, doesn't take doubles "too seriously", but was down after being told how close they had come to topping the long-match list.

"It's tough we just missed the record," he said.

Having started on Wednesday evening, the match resumed late on Thursday and was suspended once more with Norrie and Clarke leading 4-3 in the fourth set.

"I thought it was pretty poor scheduling," said Norrie, who felt the match should have resumed earlier on Thursday.

Melo was also in men's doubles action on Friday, as he and Lukasz Kubot made a second-round exit.

The Brazilian was happy to have held on to his record.

"Only at Wimbledon can this happen," said Melo, referencin­g the fact the other three Grand Slams have made men's doubles best of three sets. "That's why I love to play here."

Those doubles tussles pale in comparison to Wimbledon's longest-ever match.

It took John Isner 183 games to defeat Nicolas Mahut in a 2010 first-round men's singles clash. The American player prevailed 7068 in the fifth set after 11 hours and five minutes.

Norrie said he was thinking about Isner and Mahut as his match went on, and also the possibilit­y of a plaque like the one on Court 18 that commemorat­es their encounter.

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