The Ukrainian comeback beats Azarenka in the super tie break, the No. 1 cancels two match points from Bencic and hits the quarterfinals for the first time. And then there’s Mirra…
Should Iga Swiatek win Wimbledon 2023, we will remember this middle Sunday as the turning point of his tournament. The Pole, number 1 in the world, entered the quarterfinals for the first time at the All England Club by overcoming an inspired Belinda Bencic (n.14) when she seemed already out of contention. Swiatek disallowed her two match points before making (4)6-7 7-6(2) 6-2. This means that Aryna Sabalenka, n.2, will be able to overcome her in first place in the ranking only if she were to win the tournament in Swiatek and fail to overcome Elina Svitolina, her next opponent after defeating Vika Azarenka in the super tiebreak (in name and in fact) of third set.
swiatek resurrection
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With number one it’s not over until it’s over. Sometimes even when it’s over. It is said that one wins or one learns. Iga Swiatek won and also learned, for the first time in his Wimbledon, what it means to face a top seed with good affinity for the surface. Both conditions were known before, the surprise was that Bencic could exhibit such a state of form, with so few games played lately and a showy bandage on his right arm. The first partials were a total exhibition of the Swiss backhand, from all angles and in all ways. But what made the difference was his concentration: in the first, hard-fought, set, he saved six break points. In the tiebreak, Swiatek missed everything with her forehand and only lit up at 6-1: too late. And then? “You had two match points, didn’t you?” Swiatek wondered in the post-game interview as he retraced the roller coaster she had just gotten off. She had them all right. It wasn’t too late when the forehand, after a game of whims, brought her two screaming winners as a gift to cancel those very two match points from Bencic. You can learn to play on grass, but champion you are born there. The more the match went on, the more the tension load increased, the more the quality dropped. In the third set Bencic fell victim to her sore arm, which she waved restlessly towards her corner with each lost point like a white flag. “I felt I needed a win like this to build confidence. Every day my love for weed grows”. How much more can it grow? And above all how fast? These are questions for the next episodes.
SVITOLINA, WHAT A VICTORY!
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“After giving birth to my daughter, this is the happiest moment of my life.” This was stated by Elina Svitolina, former n.3 in the world who has just returned from maternity leave after having reassembled another mother, Vika Azarenka (n.20 in the world). The match, among the best of the entire women’s draw, ended with fireworks in the tiebreak of the third set 2-6 6-4 7-6(9). “It was very hard, when I was 0-2 down in the second I felt you shoot and I wanted to cry”, commented Svitolina after throwing herself on the ground with joy. “How did I keep my nerves? I don’t know…”, began the Ukrainian tennis player with teary eyes, one of the sportswomen who most raise her voice against the Russian invasion and who continues to donate a large part of her prize money to the children victims of war. “I was thinking there would be so many people at home cheering me on… I know how much these moments of happiness mean they can share. I thought these are tough times in Ukraine and I can’t complain, I have to fight on every point.” So she did. Then, as she has got used to us by now, she didn’t shake her opponent’s hand because she was Belarusian. There was the illustrious precedent of Roland Garros, but the Wimbledon crowd didn’t understand the gesture, booing the innocent Azarenka for lack of etiquette, as she left the court.
good pegula
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Jessica Pegula did what she does best: get to the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam. It was her best result in any other major, now she has become it at Wimbledon too. The problem is that the number 4 in the world is “tired of being the constant one”, as she said some time ago. Someone will also remember the post-US Open press conference, where she showed up with a can of beer in her hand because, yes, “I’m trying to pee for anti-doping, but it helps to swallow the defeat”. Whether this is the right time, instead, for a bottle of champagne is a question for the future, the present tells us that, today, she earned her quarter-finals with another dominant performance. After clearly beating Cocciaretto, it was Lesia Tsurenko’s turn, outclassed by 6-1 6-3 in 1h15′. “I played very well, just like I wanted to,” said Pegula, who commanded the exchanges with great quality from start to finish, with Tsurenko finishing the match out of breath and without a drop of fuel. Her words, her next opponent will be a “really dangerous, very talented, very complex to face”. We are talking about Market Vondrousova, who rose to No. 27 in the live ranking after defeating her compatriot Marie Bouzkova (No. 33) by 2-6 6-4 6-3.
I DREAM ANDREEVA
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In 2003, 16-year-old Maria Sharapova beat two seeds to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon. Exactly twenty years later, another sixteen year old, also Russian, followed the same path. With the difference of her, given that times change, of having had her followed in every step by the Netflix cameras. The name is Mirra Andreeva, already a superstar in her third tournament on the circuit, who defeated No. 22 seed Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5 — a match in which, among other things, the referee gave the ‘most Wimbledon announcement ever: “Spectators are asked not to open the Champagne when the players are serving”. Andreeva will find Madison Keys in the next round. The only minor left in the draw, the qualified and number 102 in the world is the first teenager to reach this point of the competition since Coco Gauff, in 2019.
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