Del Potro and Ferrer Survive the Wimbledon Upset Bug
Fourth-seeded David Ferrer moved in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Monday after winning his match against Croatia’s Ivan Dodig, 6-7(3), 7-6(6), 6-1, 6-1. Dodig is ranked 49th in the world. Ferrer failed to win a point on Dodig’s serve for four consecutive games in the second set, but broke three times in the third and twice in the fourth to finish up the match. The win marks Ferrer’s advancement to his seventh successive grand slam quarter-final.
Ferrer will face off against eighth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. del Potro did not let his left knee injury get in the way of advancing to the quarterfinals, beating eighth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi, 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-3. Seppi converted only two of his 11 break points. In his match against Grega Zemlja on Saturday, del Potro hyper-extended his knee and twisted his left ankle in the third set. He has been constantly icing his knee since the injury, but is still fit enough to play.
In other men’s action, Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Kenny De Schepper (France) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Lukasz Kubot (Poland) won his match against Adrian Mannarino (France) 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; and 24th-ranked Jerzy Janowicz (Poland) defeated Jurgen Melzer (Austria) 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Second-seeded Andy Murray advanced to the quarterfinals for the sixth straight year on Monday, defeating the number 20 seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-1 on Centre Court. It extended Murray’s grass court winning streak to 15 matches, and the Scot has yet to drop a set in four matches this year at the All England Club. Murray, who finished runner-up to Roger Federer in the 2012 Wimbledon finals, takes an 8-1 head to head record into his match with his next opponent, Verdasco.
Rounding out action on Monday, it was top-seeded Novak Djokovic beating the 13th-ranked Tommy Haas oin the fourth round. The Serb had lost both his previous grass court meetings in 2009 with Haas, but was in impressive form during his 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4) victory to reach his 17th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. Djokovic will face Tomas Berdych on Wednesday as he looks to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.
On the women’s side, American Sloane Stephens advanced to her second Grand Slam quarterfinal of the year after beating 19-year old Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. The 17th-seeded Stephens finished her victory soon after world number one Serena Williams lost to Sabine Lisicki. The 20-year old Stephens is the last American singles player left at Wimbledon. No men representing the U.S. advanced to the third round of Wimbledon this year—a first in the past 101 years.
Stephens defeated Serena in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open this year to make it to her first career major semifinal. She will be playing number 15 Marion Bartoli in her next match.
Also today, eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova was a 7-6, 6-3 winner over Carla Suarez Navarro. Navarro was the last Spanish woman in the draw.
"I was pretty nervous today…I didn’t play my best, especially in the first set. But it’s important to win the last point which was what I did," Kvitova said. Kvitova will next challenge Kirsten Flipkens, the 20th seed, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
"I lost against her last time in Miami. So I hope that I can play better tennis than in the last match," Kvitova said. "We’ve never played on the grass, which is quite difficult."
Li Na of China has also advanced to the quarterfinals for the third time, defeating Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-2, 6-0. Sixth-seeded Li broke the 30-year-old Vinci six times for the win in just under an hour. She will play the fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in her next match. Radwanska secured her trip to the quarterfinals after beating Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Radwanska was a finalist at last year’s WImbledon where she lost to Serena.
