Defending champion Petra Kvitova wasted little time moving into Wimbledon fourth round as the Czech took just 53 minutes to crush America’s Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-0.
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.
“I’m feeling better with every match I play here,” said Kvitova. “The third round today was much better than the first round. I’m so happy that I played well and I’m glad that I made such few unforced errors.”
Kvitova will now play former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, who beat Klara Zakopalova 6-0, 6-4 earlier in the day for a place in the quarter-finals.
Ivanovic battles through
Former world number one Ana Ivanovic gave the perfect response to her critics as she battled into the Wimbledon fourth round with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Germany’s Julia Goerges.
Ivanovic, who has failed to get past the fourth round in her 17 Grand Slam appearances since that triumph in Paris, arrived at the All England Club with little expectation of emulating her 2007 run to the semi-finals after being forced out of the Eastbourne event with a hip injury last week.
But she is now within touching distance of finally returning to the last eight of a Grand Slam after showing impressive grit to hold off the talented Goerges. Ivanovic will play second seed Victoria Azarenka in the next round who eased past Jana Cepelova 6-3, 6-3.
Shvedovaw claims first ever Golden Set
Yaroslava Shvedova completed the first Golden Set in Grand Slam history as the Kazakh wildcard won all 24 points and conceded none in a 6-0 first set whitewash en route to defeating French Open runner-up Sara Errani.
Shvedova, world number 65, hit 14 winners and took just 15 minutes to demolish Italian 10th seed Errani in an incredible first set on Court Three. The 24-year-old couldn’t dominate quite so emphatically in the second set but still landed the decisive break to secure a 6-0, 6-4 victory in 57 minutes.
She set up a potentially feisty match with American Serena Williams who came from a set behind to overcome China’s Jie Zheng in three sets 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 9-7.
Bhupathi, Sania crash out
In the mixed doubles’ matches, defending champions Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza of India crashed out in the second round.
Bhupathi and Mirza were beaten 6-3, 6-1 by Paul Hanley of Australia and Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva on Court 5.
Meanwhile in men’s singles, Lukas Rosol, the shock Wimbledon conqueror of Rafael Nadal, returned to familiar anonymity on Saturday when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber sent him crashing out in the third round 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2012.
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