Serena Williams reached the Wimbledon last 16 on Saturday with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 9-7 win over China’s Zheng Jie.
Sixth-seed Williams faces Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan for a place in the quarter-finals.
Lukas Rosol, the shock Wimbledon conqueror of Rafael Nadal, returned to familiar anonymity yesterday when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber sent him crashing out in the third round.
Photo: EPA
Czech world No. 100 Rosol had caused one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport when he beat world No. 2 Nadal in five sets in the second round under the Center Court roof on Thursday.
However, out on Court 12, normal service was resumed as German 27th seed Kohlschreiber, who had also beaten Nadal on grass at Halle two weeks ago, eased to a 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) victory and a first appearance in the fourth round.
Kohlschreiber, who claimed victory on a fourth match point, will tackle US qualifier Brian Baker for a place in the quarter-finals.
Photo: AFP
Defending women’s champion Petra Kvitova wasted little time moving into fourth round as the Czech took just 53 minutes to crush the US’ Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-0.
Kvitova has yet to drop a set in defense of the title she won with a shock triumph against Maria Sharapova and Lepchenko, ranked 53rd, had no answer to the world No. 4’s power.
The 22-year-old, who has lost just 13 games in her three matches, blasted 15 winners and forced the out-classed Lepchenko to make 38 errors in a brutal demolition on Court One.
Kvitova, seeded fourth, will play former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone for a place in the quarter-finals.
Kazakh wildcard Yaroslava Shvedova defeated Italian 10th seed and French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-0, 6-4 to reach the last 16 for the first time.
Shvedova also made history by winning all 24 points in the opener to achieve a rare Golden Set.
Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, the 14th seed, reached the last 16, coming from behind to clinch a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Germany’s Julia Goerges.
Ivanovic will play second seed Victoria Azarenka, who reached the Wimbledon last 16 yesterday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Slovak qualifier Jana Cepelova, the world No. 178.
Also going through was Austria’s Tamira Paszek.
On Friday, Roger Federer kept his dreams of equaling Pete Sampras’ record of seven Wimbledon titles narrowly alive as top seeds Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova also reached the last 16.
Six-time champion Federer survived a huge scare, coming within just two points of crashing to his worst Wimbledon defeat in 10 years before battling from two sets down to beat French 29th seed Julien Benneteau.
Women’s top seed Sharapova cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei as the world No. 1 set up a Wimbledon rematch with Sabine Lisicki.
Sharapova breezed past world No. 63 Hsieh, despite some serious issues with her serve in the windy conditions on Court One.
The French Open champion’s reward for a typically gritty display is a last 16 meeting with German 15th seed Lisicki in a repeat of last year’s Wimbledon semi-final clash, which the Russian won in straight sets.
Hsieh seemed not to be particularly frustrated by her inability to become one of the last 16.
“Being able to break her serve in the second set helped boost my confidence greatly,” said Hsieh, who achieved her career best by getting into the third round and became the first Taiwanese female player to advance to the last 32 of the women’s singles event at Wimbledon.
The 26-year-old player, ranked world No. 63, penned back the world No. 1 in the second set with gusty two-handed forehand and backhand groundstrokes that saw her take a 4-2 lead over the Russian ace.
After fending off several of Sharapova’s powerful serves, however, she said she found that “it is not too far to get to where the tennis queen stands.”
Sharapova steamrolled Hsieh in the first set, playing at a pace that overwhelmed the Taiwanese player and freely pounding powerful groundstrokes that Hsieh had trouble returning. However, Hsieh got to break the Russian to open up the second set, and caused her fiery opponent to serve a total of five double faults during the match.
Hsieh will continue to play at Wimbledon with Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in the women’s doubles and with Colin Fleming, also a German, in the mixed doubles.
Defending champion Djokovic avoided another Czech Republic Center Court ambush with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win over veteran Radek Stepanek.
Djokovic, like Federer, playing under the roof on the same court where Rafael Nadal had been stunned by world No. 100 Czech Lukas Rosol on Thursday, overcame dropping his first set of the tournament to see off 33-year-old Stepanek.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but