Halep Rolls Into Wimbledon Third Round; Former Champ Muguruza Ousted
Top-seed Simona Halep cruised into the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday as she defeated China’s Saisai Zheng 7-5, 6-0.
Halep fell behind 3-5 in the opening set before rallying to win the final 10 games of the match.
“It was not easy. I had pressure a little bit of losing that set,” said Halep. “But I didn’t panic. I think this was the best thing that I did: I didn’t panic. I was just calm, just to play every ball.
I really believe that I have the power to come back if I stay focused. I just opened the game better, I opened the court, and then I went to the net pretty much. After the first set I was much better.”
The French Open champion moves into a showdown with Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh.
Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck sent former champion Garbine Muguruza crashing out of the tournament as she upset the third-seed 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
Dominika Cibulkova knocked out the highest-ranked British lady, 22nd seed Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-4.
“It feels great. Of course, it was a tough draw today and I can only be happy with my performance,” said Cibulkova. “Everything was just coming together for me. My serve was really working and I saw that Johanna, she had some troubles reading my serve. The balls are jumping perfect for me [right now].”
The unseeded Slovak takes on 15th seed Elise Mertens of Belgium, who eliminated American Sachia Vickery 6-1, 6-3.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, a former finalist, ended the run of American Claire Liu by coming back to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and advance. Kerber will play 18th seed Naomi Osaka, who was a 6-3, 6-4 win over Katie Boulter.
Former finalist Eugenie Bouchard, who came through qualifying and won her opening round match, was defeated by 17th seeded Australian Ashleigh Barty on Thursday. Barty moves on to play 14th seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina, who knocked out Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3.
Russian Vitalia Diatchenko followed up her win over Maria Sharapova in the first round by taking out American Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 on Thursday. Diatchenko will play 12th seed Latvian and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who defeated Kristen Flipkens 6-1, 6-3.
Americans Taylor Townsend and Jennifer Brady both saw their Wimbledon runs come to an end on Thursday as they lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich and 28th seed Anett Kontaveit, respectively.
Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic continued her inspiring play in London as she fought back to beat American Alison Riske 1-6, 7-6(1), 6-2. She gets 27th seed Carla Suarez-Navarro next.
