Seeds’ carnage continues
World No. 1 Halep shocked in 3rd round, Nadal retains top spot
London, July 7: World number one and French Open champion Simona Halep was knocked out of Wimbledon on Saturday, losing to Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round as the All England Club seeds’ carnage claimed another victim.
Defeat for Halep means that Karolina Pliskova, at number seven, is the only women’s top 10 seed to reach the fourth round.
It also further boosted Serena Williams’s chances of becoming an eight-time Wimbledon champion.
Hsieh, the world number 48, battled back from 2-5 down in the final set and saved a match point when the Romanian served for the match at 5-3 in the decider.
Two-time champion Rafael Nadal reached the last 16 for the eighth time and made sure of keeping the world number one ranking.
The second seed comfortably defeated Australian teenager Alex De Minaur 6-1, 6-2, 64.
Nadal, the 11-time French Open champion and bidding for an 18th career major, will face either Italy’s Fabio Fognini or Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic for a place in the quarterfinals.
Juan Martin del Potro made the last 16 for the first time in five years when the Argentine fifth seed defeated France’s Benoît Paire 6-4, 76 (7/4), 6-3.
Other early winners on Saturday included Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck who followed her upset of defending champion Garbine Muguruza by beating Anett Kontaveit, the 28th seeded Estonian, 6-2, 6-3.
Van Uytvanck will meet fellow last-16 debutant Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina, who defeated Ashleigh Barty of Australia 7-5, 6-3.
Late on Friday, it was business as usual for defending men’s champion Roger Federer who enjoyed a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 win over Germany’s JanLennard Struff.