It was a day of mixed emotions for Taiwan’s Chan sisters at Wimbledon on Monday, with elder sister Chan Yung-jan advancing to the third round of the mixed doubles, while younger sister Chan Hao-ching bade farewell to the grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club for another year.
Fifth seeds Chan Yung-jan and Nenad Zimonjic took just 47 minutes to see off Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the mixed doubles.
The Taiwanese-Serbian duo fired five aces, hit 11 winners and converted four of six break points, winning 61 of the 101 points contested to set up a third-round clash with Scott Lipsky of the US and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, who ousted Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung in the second round on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
In was not such a good day for fourth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, who crashed out of the second round after a 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Gabriela Dabrowski and Nicholas Monroe in 57 minutes.
The Canadian-American duo saved two of three break points and converted four of six, winning 63 of the 112 points contested to advance to a third-round clash with 15th seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah of Colombia.
In the boys’ draw, 18-year-old Wu Tung-lin of Taiwan lost in the second round to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
In the singles, Andy Murray saw off the mercurial challenge of Australian Nick Kyrgios with little fuss on Monday, before just as smoothly playing down growing expectations that a second Wimbledon title is his for the taking.
The second-seeded Scot’s straight-sets win over a dangerous opponent maintained his standing, following the shock third-round exit of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, as the bookies’ odds-on favorite to lift the Challenge Cup again on Sunday.
Murray, who in 2013 beat Djokovic to became the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, has finished runner-up to the Serbian in both of this year’s Grand Slams in France and Australia.
On Monday he reached his ninth consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final, hanging on to Kyrgios’ coat-tails for much of a pulsating first set before the Australian lost focus to concede the second and third sets tamely in a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 defeat.
Murray has not yet dropped a set — but neither has Roger Federer, who made the quarter-finals by beating American Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
The Briton said his focus was on his next match, a quarter-final against French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who won his fourth-round match when fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet retired with a back injury with the score at 4-2 in the first set.
“I know the next one is a very tough match against Tsonga. He’s a really, really good grass court player, very, very dangerous,” Murray told reporters. “I’m aware I’ll have to be playing at my highest level to win.”
If Kyrgios had shown half as much spark on court as he did in his post-match news conference, the Australian might have scraped more than the 10 games he won.
Despite crackling with natural ability, even Kyrgios at his best would have struggled against world No. 2 and former champion Murray, who on Monday was firing on all cylinders.
That would have been understandable. The seemingly half-hearted manner of the defeat was unfathomable and, to some, barely forgivable.
“I hope he sees the writing on the wall before this gets chronic and irreparable,” former Wimbledon great John McEnroe said after the defeat. “He’s got as lot of thinking to do, a lot of work to do. He’s got to ask himself how badly he wants to become the best player in the world.”
The 21-year-old youngster himself gave a typically unvarnished verdict: “Pretty pathetic.”
It was an apt summary of a match which he started by pummeling almost unreturnable serves, but ended muttering sarcastic self-criticism and refusing to take a seat during a change-over, preferring instead to skulk in the shadows at the back of the Centre Court baseline.
It was a mental collapse that Kyrgios did not try to dodge.
“I thought I was playing some really good tennis. I believed that I could win the match,” he said of the early stages. “As soon as I lost the first set, I just lost belief.”
Marin Cilic earned a quarter-final against Federer after Kei Nishikori quit with a rib injury midway through their fourth-round match, while Sam Querrey of the US beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to set up a match against Canadian Milos Raonic, beat Belgium’s David Goffin 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Tomas Berdych defeated Jiri Vesely 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (11/9), 6-3 after their fourth-round match was completed yesterday, after darkness ended their encounter on Monday night after the fourth set.
Berdych faces Lucas Pouille, who made the last eight by seeing off Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.
In the women’s draw, Serena Williams overcame a few stumbles on the slick Centre Court grass to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0.
“I’m so intense on the court. I give 200 percent every time I’m out there. Every single point. Sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and relax. I just needed to do that. I can do that on the timeouts,” said Williams, who queried chair umpire Marija Cicak about the retractable roof being open despite some showers.
Action was delayed for nearly 30 minutes while the cover was closed.
Williams said the break gave her a chance to calm down and she completely dominated the rest of the way, taking the last nine games to beat the 13th-seeded Kuznetsova.
“That’s one thing the past four years I’ve been really doing a lot of, just really taking a deep breath, re-collecting myself,” the No. 1-ranked Williams said. “I had a little more time to do it this time.”
Williams moved into her 12th quarter-final at Wimbledon and was joined by her sister at that stage of the tournament for the first time since 2010 after Venus Williams eliminated 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
Venus faces Yaroslava Shevodva, while Serena faces 21st-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Dominika Cibulkova might have to postpone her wedding after defeating Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 5-7, 9-7. Cibulkova thought there was no way she would make it deep into Week 2, so scheduled her wedding for Saturday, the day of the women’s final.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
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