Women’s carnage continues
LONDON: Even in her wildest dreams, 11th seed Angelique Kerber could not have imagined that by the end of the first week of this year’s Wimbledon she would be the highestranked player left in the top half of the women’s draw.
But after six days of destruction involving the women’s seeds, and with world No 1 Simona Halep’s demise yesterday, Kerber is favourite to reach the final from her section after a 62, 64 win over Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
The German’s win left her among only five of the top 16 seeds to reach the fourth round.
On a hot and sticky day, the players might have thought they were in the Australian outback. Barely anyone could be spotted in the 15,000seater centre court, as the match clashed with England’s World Cup football quarterfinal against Sweden. Even the Royal Box was deserted.
The lack of atmosphere, how ever, did not seem to throw Kerber off her stride as she did not face a single break point during her 63minute outing against Osaka.
Despite emerging unscathed from the seeding carnage, Kerber refused to get carried away over the chances of emulating her run to the 2016 final, when she was runnerup to Serena Williams.
‘‘I have my eyes just on my way, on my days, my matches,’’ said the German, who next faces Swiss Belinda Bencic.
Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova and 13th seed Julia Georges of Germany have survived from the bottom half, while Kerber, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina complete the notsofamous five.
Pliskova is the sole top10 seeded survivor to make it into round four — a women’s record at any of the four majors since tennis turned professional in 1968.
Seventimes champion Serena Williams is still in the mix but is seeded only 25th, on the comeback trail, after a yearlong maternity break.
The number of giantkillers in the draw appears to be multiplying daily, as Grand Slam champions of the calibre of Halep, defending champion Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova have all been felled.