On day 7 of the All-England Championships, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Serena Williams reached the quarterfinals. Joining them in the last eight were; Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Sam Querrey, Marin Cilic, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Dominika Cibulkova, Elena Vesnina and veteran American Venus Williams. India’s Sania Mirza also reached the women’s doubles quarterfinal with her Swiss partner Martina Hingis but Rohan Bopanna went out of men’s doubles. The biggest upset of the day was the injury-driven exit of Japan’s no.5 seed Kei Nishikori, who retired in the second set during his match with Croatia’s Marin Cilic.
Swiss maestro Roger Federer stands on the verge of another milestone in his glittering career. For the fourth match in a row, he recorded straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Steve Johnson and spoiled the American’s July Fourth celebrations. By that result, Federer had won his 306th match in Grand Slam tournaments and equaled Martina Navratilova’s record. Federer will most likely pass that mark, when he meets 9th seeded Croat Marin Cilic in the quarterfinal. He should be thankful to Johnson’s doubles partner, Sam Querrey, who had taken out Federer’s biggest hurdle in the tournament, when he beat the defending champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday. If Federer beats Cilic, he will likely face Milos Raonic in the semifinal and in all probability Andy Murray in the title game. Incidentally, Querrey also reached the quarterfinal by beating Spain’s Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6, 6-4.
AELTC/Joel Marklund . 04 July 2016
Meanwhile, another title aspirant Great Britain’s Andy Murray destroyed the defenses of Australian Nick Kyrgios in his fourth round match. Like Federer, Murray too hasn’t dropped a set in his four games so far, though Kyrgios matched him ball-by-ball in the first set. However once Murray took that set at 7-5, Kyrgios’ challenge faded away under sustained consistency of the 2013 champion Murray, who finished with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 victory. On Wednesday, Murray will have to deal with 12th seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in the semifinal. Murray also reached a landmark by reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 9th consecutive time and equaled the joint record of Pete Sampras and John McEnroe.
Sisters Venus and Serena Williams, collective winners of 11 Wimbledon singles titles, entered their umpteenth quarterfinals. The siblings proved that age was just a number as they beats players several years younger to them. The 36-year old Venus is now the oldest women’s singles quarterfinalist in 22 years. Venus defeated Spain’s 12th seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6, 6-4 while the 34-year old Serena was back to her devastating best against 13th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. The defending champion shut out the Russian 7-5, 6-0 with 43 winners against just 14 unforced errors. For a place in the semifinals, Serena will have to conquer another Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
AELTC/Eddie Keogh . 04 July 2016 Kei Nishikori
Japan’s Kei Nishikori suffered another disaster under Marin Cilic’s sustained onslaught and the recurrence of the rib injury he picked up at Halle. Like last year, Nishikori retired during his fourth round match after losing the first set 1-6 and trailing 1-5 in the second. Canada’s no.6 seed Milos Raonic had a five-set battle with Belgian 11th seed David Goffin before winning at 4–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4. Another major upset came in women’s singles draw, when no.3 seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska lost 3-6, 7-5, 7-9 to Slovakian pint-rocket 19th seeded Dominika Cibulkova. However, no.5 seeded Romanian Simona Halep advanced to the quarterfinal by disposing of 9th seeded American Madison Keys 6-7, 6-4, 6-3. Fourth seeded German Angelique Kerber had an easy 6-3, 6-1 victory over Japan’s Misaki Doi and in a contest between two unseeded Russians and doubles partners, Elena Vesnina Prevailed over Ekaterina Makarova 5-7, 6-1, 9-7.
AELTC/Eddie Keogh . 04 July 2016 Angelique Kerber
In women’s doubles, Indo-Swiss defending champions Sania Mirza/Martina Hingis entered the quarterfinals by thrashing their American/Latvian counterparts Christina Mchale/Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-0 in just 46 minutes. But the other Indian Rohan Bopanna playing with his Romanian partner Florin Mergea went out of the reckoning. Bopanna/Mergea lost their third round match 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-8 to 10th seeded Henri Kontinen/John Peers in a fierce battle lasting close to three hours.
