Halep follows exodus of seeds out of Wimbledon
None of the top five women reach last 16 for first time in tournament history
Simona Halep was ready for a holiday. It’s going to start a week earlier than she wanted after she gave away a big lead, wasted a match point and lost at Wimbledon, joining the procession of top women on the way out.
Ranked and seeded No 1, fresh off winning her first grand slam title at the French Open, so sure she had figured out how to overcome the bigmoment anxiety that was so problematic for so long, Halep chastised herself as “unprofessional” after bowing out in the third round at the All England Club yesterday.
She dropped her last five games while being beaten 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 by Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan.
“I just was too negative to myself, talking too much. Because I’m tired, I couldn’t stay focused for every ball,” Halep said. “Mentally, I was tired. Also physically, I feel tired. My muscles are gone.”
For the first time in Wimbledon history, none of the top five women’s seeds reached the round of 16. Only one of the top 10 seeds will play in week two: No 7 Karolina Pliskova.
The only past champion at the grass-court tournament left is Serena Williams. Only two other women among the 16 left even own a grand slam singles title: Angelique Kerber has two, Jelena Ostapenko one.
“I’m not surprised any more,” said 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, a 6-0, 6-4 winner against Vitalia Diatchenko, who eliminated five-time major champion Maria Sharapova in the first round. “Because every day, something strange is happening in the draw.”
Far less so in the men’s bracket, although No 4 seed Alexander Zverev departed yesterday with a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 loss to Ernests Gulbis, a Latvian ranked 138th who is the first male qualifier since 2012 to reach Wimbledon’s fourth round.
In this case, though, Gulbis already has been a major semifinalist — he made it that far at the 2014 French Open but his ranking slid because of a series of injuries — while up-andcoming 21-year-old Zverev has yet to have that sort of breakthrough.
“I’m glad I went through it,” Gulbis said. “It makes me stronger mentally.”
The victory over Zverev was his sixth in a row over the past two weeks. It also allowed Gulbis to join 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who reached the women’s fourth round with a victory yesterday to give Latvia two players in the round of 16 at a major tournament for the first time.
“It’s great to see him doing this well because I think he is such a talented player and he can play on a very high level,” Ostapenko said about Gulbis. “I hope he’s going even further.”
Tonight, Gulbis will face No 24 seed
Kei Nishikori of Japan, the 2014 US Open runner-up.
Otherwise, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro all won on a day the English spectators were preoccupied with two things: football and the sun. They followed along on cellphones as England beat Sweden 2-0 in the World Cup quarter-finals in Russia, and used umbrellas, fans and lotion to deal with heat that reached 32 degrees.
Halep essentially wilted after leading 5-2 in the third set. She wouldn’t win another game.
“I tried to hang in there,” Hsieh said. Halep was a point from victory while ahead 5-4 as Hsieh served at 30-40. But the 48th-ranked Hsieh got out of that predicament with a backhand winner.
Halep held two break points in the last game but failed to convert either.
Asked when she thought she could win the match, Hsieh responded, “I don’t feel I can,” then leaned forward and laughed heartily. She did a lot of that during her news conference, making jokes and cracking herself up.
She plays an unconventional brand of tennis, relying on drop shots repeatedly — which, she said, tends to drive practice partners “crazy” — and gripping her racket with two hands for forehands and backhands.
Getting to the fourth round equals her best run at a major tournament in singles, although she owns two grand slam doubles championships. All three of her career wins over top10 opponents came at the Australian Open (two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza), French Open (2017 Wimbledon semifinalist Johanna Konta) and now Wimbledon.
Tonight, Hsieh will face 2014 Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake. Other round-of-16 match-ups on the top half of the draw: No 12 seed Ostapenko against 50thranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who stunned two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the first round; No 14 Daria Kasatkina against 47thranked Alison Van Uytvanck, who beat defending champion Muguruza in the second round; and No 11 Kerber against 56th-ranked Belinda Bencic, who defeated No 6 Caroline Garcia in the first round.
In the bottom half of the bracket’s matches tonight, seven-time champion Williams plays 120th-ranked qualifier Evgeniya Rodina; 35thranked Ekaterina Makarova faces 52nd-ranked Camila Giorgi; Pliskova meets No 20 Kiki Bertens; No 13 Julia Goerges plays 55th-ranked Donna Vekic, who eliminated 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the first round.
I’m not surprised any more because every day, something strange is happening in the draw. Jelena Ostapenko on the number of seeds tumbling out of Wimbledon