Kerber standard bearer for seeds in top half
No.11 German makes short work of Osaka
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 highest ranked 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 on Saturday, Kerber is favourite to reach the final from her section after a 6-2, 6-4 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 as barely anyone could be spotted in the 15,000-seater Centre Court as the match clashed with England’s soccer World Cup quarter-final against Sweden.
Even the Royal Box, which had been heaving with sporting greats such as England’s 1966 World Cup-winner Bobby Charlton and Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia for Rafael Nadal’s win minutes earlier, was deserted.
The lack of atmosphere on the Centre Court, however, did not seem to throw Kerber off her stride as she did not face a single break point during her 63-minute 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 faces Swiss Belinda Bencic on Monday. “You can just see how close it is.” 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 not-so-famous five.
Pliskova is the sole top 10 seeded survivor to make it into round four — a women’s record at any of the four majors since tennis turned professional in 1968.
Seven-time champion Serena Williams is also still in the mix of title contenders but is only seeded 25th as she is on the comeback trail, having taken a year-long maternity break.
‘UNPROFESSIONAL’ HALEP
Halep described her performance as ‘unprofessional’ after the world No.1 suffered a shock third-round defeat by Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday.
The 26-year-old French Open champion never got to grips with the unorthodox Hsieh and lost 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 despite having a match point in the deciding set on a balmy Court One.
She is the first women’s top seed to lose to an unseeded player at Wimbledon for 10 years.
“I will not find the excuses about this match, she deserved to win, but still I’m sad about myself today,” she said.
“I just was too negative to myself, talking too much. I think because I was tired, because I’m tired, I couldn’t stay focused for every ball.
“I was leading the match, I was up, and I couldn’t finish it. I’m not [being] hard [on myself ]. I’m just realistic and honest. I accept that it was an unprofessional attitude today.”
QUALIFIER STUNS ZVEREV
Former world No.10 Ernests Gulbis became the first qualifier to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since Brian Baker in 2012 when he upset fourth seed Alexander Zverev 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday.
The Latvian, 29, handed the young German a lesson in perseverance and solid shot-making to reach the fourth round for the first time after 11 attempts.