Defending champ Muguruza, No. 3 Cilic join exodus
way.”
The match was contested on No. 2 Court, site of Muguruza’s thrilling three-set victory over the top-seeded Angelique Kerber in last year’s Round of 16. Muguruza’s warm memories of that 2-hour, 20-minute match against Kerber were little comfort against the free-swinging Van Uytvanck, who shifted to a go-for-broke strategy after coughing up a 4-2 lead in the first set. In the last two sets, Uytvanck produced 18 winners to Muguruza’s seven.
Muguruza rubbed her temples during changeovers and yelled at her racket, but in the end all she could do was credit the fearlessness and fine play of her opponent, as had No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 4 Sloane Stephens before her.
“She took a lot of risk, and it worked for her,” Muguruza said, adding, “I think she was playing really good. So it was a little bit tough for me to have an opponent that is having a great day and the match is slipping out of your hand a little bit.”
The last remaining top five player, No.
Tribune News Service Defending Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza gestures after losing a point to Alison Van Uytvanck on Thursday in London. Muguruza became the sixth woman seeded in the top eight to lose before the third round.
1 Simona Halep, is coming off of her first Grand Slam at the French Open, and she certainly hasn’t lost her edge. Halep found herself tried early by China’s Zheng Saisai, but after winning the first set 7-5 she
stormed back to win 6-0 in the second to complete the sweep. Halep has now won her first four sets at this year’s Wimbledon.
Pella, who had never won a main-draw match at Wimbledon until this year, took out Cilic in a match that took two days to complete. Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, won the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club less than two weeks ago, and he looked sharp while taking the first two sets Wednesday before the match was suspended by rain.
Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, continued to roll with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 sweep of Mikhail Kukushkin, continuing his dominance.
Nadal won five break points in the match and an insane 77 percent of his second serves. He continues his collision course through the bracket, and will now find himself facing off against Alex de Minaur.
Novak Djokovic, the three-time champion, needed treatment on his left knee buut still had too much for Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
Djokovic has now made the third round for 10 consecutive years.
No. 15 Nick Kyrgios also continued his strong run with a sweep of Robin Haase. The Aussie, whose highest win percentage is at Wimbledon, will now find himself in the third round of a major for the second time this year (he lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January.