Venus rising as Kerber falls back and Coco is cooking

Venus Williams booked a Wimbledon quarter-final clash with French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko on the day Angelique Kerber lost her grip on the world No.1 ranking.

Five-time Wimbledon champion Williams produced a rock-solid 6-3 6-2 victory over Croatian 19-year-old Ana Konjuh on Centre Court, teeing up an appointment today with Latvian 20-year-old Ostapenko, who was a 6-3 7-6 winner against Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina.

Kerber needed to reach the final for a second successive year to stay at the top of the rankings but a collision with Spaniard Garbine Muguruza looked to be loaded with peril for Kerber and eventually it proved that way as the 2015 runner-up beat last year’s beaten finalist 4-6 6-4 6-4.

Muguruza goes on to tackle veteran Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who downed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-4 to reach her fourth Wimbledon quarter-final but first for 10 years. American Coco Vandeweghe may be the 24th seed but she has been strongly fancied to do well this fortnight, with her attacking game perfectly suited to the grass. She marched on with an impressive 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 victory over the fifth seed, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, and her next opponent will be unseeded Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova, who extended her career-best grand slam performance by overcoming Croatian Petra Martic 6-4 2-6 6-3 on Court 18.