WIMBLEDON
Halep out in a heap of trouble NOVAK’S KYLE PILEDRIVER
SIMONA HALEP collapsed in a heap as Hsieh Su-wei continued the scattering of the seeds from the women’s draw.
World No.1 Halep fell to a smiling Taiwanese rival, who laughed when she appeared to be fluffing her chance on No.1 Court, but then found a ruthless streak on match point.
The shock 3-6 6-4 7-5 victory for 31-year-old Hsieh – ranked 48th in the world – means only one survivor from the top 10 women has made it through the heat to the second week
The rest have gone the way of the exhausted flies among the debris of chilled smoothie cartons.
Romanian Halep admitted her fatigue has been of body and mind since she won the French Open, her first Grand Slam title, in May.
“I think because I was tired, I couldn’t stay focused for every ball,” Halep said.
“I was leading the match, I was up, and I couldn’t finish it. I accept that it was an unprofessional attitude from me today.
“I had tough matches in Paris, but I was also tired mentally. The last six months have been great, so I’m tired with everything.
Nerves
“But I will not find excuses about this match. She deserved to win.”
Hsieh trailed 5-2 in the final set, but found the tenacity to survive a match point at 5-4 and then bewildered Halep when she found consistency to match her range of two-handed slices, angles and drop shots on both forehand and backhand.
The Taiwanese tiger – who has been feasting on lobster and strawberries this week – found her claws when it mattered to nail Halep on her first match point, before revealing her smiling was to help her nerves.
“Today, I have a fault and people were kind of laughing and saying, ‘Aah’. So that was to help me cool down a little bit,” she said.
“I try to enjoy the tennis, enjoy the city, and enjoy the food. I feel I’m really lucky to be a tennis player and stay here until the second week.”
Only Czech Karolina Pliskova, No.7 seed, remains from the top 10, although seven-times champion Serena Williams lurks for her in a likely semi-final.
The highest other seed is German Angelique Kerber, No.11, who beat Naomi Osaka of Japan 6-2 6-4. KYLE EDMUND, the last British player standing in this year’s Wimbledon singles, was dumped out in the third round last night.
The 23-year-old, who has shot up the world rankings in the last 12 months and reached the Australian Open semi-finals, couldn’t cope with a resurgent Novak Djokovic (right).
Despite raising hopes when he took the first set, Edmund ended up losing 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 as Djokovic showed flashes of the form that made him three times Wimbledon champion.
Edmund gave his best. But his defeat still means that for the first time since 2007, there won’t be a home player in the last 16 in either the men’s or women’s tournament.
The Yorkshireman, cheered on by a Centre Court crowd, was game but on a surface that is not his best he was outmuscled by Djokovic. HE’S still No.1 – and next Monday when the new world rankings come into play, Rafael Nadal is guaranteed to retain his spot at the top.
Nothing terribly new there. It will be the 180th week during his career that the Spaniard has officially been recognised as the greatest tennis player in the world.
But maybe what has set the 32-yearold apart from the rest for so long is the way he views that achievement, guaranteed to him after his three-set victory yesterday over promising Australian teenager Alex de Minaur.
Because if he isn’t also celebrating holding the Wimbledon trophy aloft for the third time in his career, then his place at the top of the rankings won’t mean too much.
“Of course I prefer to be No.1 than No.2, no doubt about this,” said Nadal after the two-hour Centre Court exhibition which he won 6-1 6-2 6-4.
“But I really didn’t come here to be No.1, I just came here to try to do the best tournament possible.
“Maybe back in 2008 when I first achieved that ranking it meant more.
“In some way I felt I had been playing that well for three years without being No.1, so it was an important moment for me to finally get there.
“But today is a different story. It’s not my biggest goal.
Awkward
“The most important thing for me is to be healthy, to be happy, playing good tennis. Those things are very close.”
He certainly showed 19-year-old De Minaur, highly rated as one of the younger generation who could win Grand Slams in the future, just how high the standards will be for him.
You got the sense of the imbalance the moment they walked on court – Nadal was waving to the crowd, De Minaur kept his head down and went straight to his seat like an awkward kid arriving for the school bus.
And even in the warm-up the Spaniard JAMIE MURRAY kept the family honour intact at Wimbledon as he moved into the third round of the men’s doubles with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
Murray and his partner Soares beat Australian Matthew Ebden and American Taylor Fritz in straight sets – 7-5 6-3 6-1.
Brother Andy may have been forced to pull out as he continues his recovery from a hip injury, but Jamie could end up doing the work of two men.
He also made a late decision to play in the mixed doubles and resumed the defence of his title last night with former world Mo.1 Victoria Azarenka.
A year ago, Jamie won the mixed