Kerber through after straight-sets win over Coco Gauff while Ons Jabeur and Aryna Sabalenka need three sets to book their quarter-final places
Monday 5 July 2021 21:32, UK
Angelique Kerber continued her quest for a second Wimbledon crown on a busy Monday at Wimbledon where Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Pliskova kept alive their hopes of a maiden Grand Slam title.
While world No 1 Ashleigh Barty and Britain's teenage star Emma Raducanu were grabbing star billing, there was plenty to thrill in the rest of the women's draw.
Kerber proved too good for teenager Coco Gauff, whose run ended at the same stage as her remarkable debut in 2019 after the German, champion in 2018 and runner-up in 2016, ran out a 6-4 6-4 winner.
It means three-time Grand Slam champion Kerber and Barty are the only previous major singles champions in the draw and remain on course for a possible semi-final showdown.
In the bottom half, Jabeur continued his brilliant run of form to end the hopes of 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek with an impressive three-set victory. Jabeur will next face second seed Sabalenka, who also needed three sets to see off Elena Rybakina.
Kerber needed three sets in her second and third-round matches, so her clash with 20th seed Gauff was expected to be another tough contest but she beat the 17-year-old American teenager in straight sets.
The 33-year-old converted four of the five break points she created and saved four of the six that she faced closing out the contest with a third ace of the match.
She will next face Karolina Muchova, the 19th seed who was a quarter-final at the All England Club two years ago when it was last played.
The Czech was too strong for Spain's 30th seed Paula Badosa, Muchova running out a 7-6 6-4 winner to reach the second Grand Slam quarter-final of the year after making the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
Fresh from becoming the first Arab woman to win a WTA title, Jabeur continued her remarkable run by sending a third Grand Slam champion packing.
The 21st seed from Tunisia won her maiden title just a couple of weeks ago when she beat Daria Kasatkina in Birmingham and she arrived at Wimbledon as one of the WTA Tour's form players.
She converted all seven break points that she faced in 5-7, 6-1 6-1 win over Swiatek, who had rallied from a break down to take the opener.
But 26-year-old Jabeur, rattled through the next two sets - losing just two games along the way - to reach the last eight of a Grand Slam for only the second time in her career.
"I've been going to the second week almost every Grand Slam right now, being more consistent," said Jabeur, whose only previous Grand Slam quarter-final was a three-set defeat to eventual champion Sophia Kenin at the Australian Open last year.
"My goal is to break this quarter-final and be able to go to the semi, and why not the final? I'm enjoying my time here in Wimbledon, enjoying the grass a lot."
Next up for her is Belarus' Sabalenka - the highest-ranked player in the tournament without a singles Grand Slam title to her name.
The 23-year-old does have doubles titles at the Australian and US Open on her CV, but she made a little history of her own with a three-set win over the 18th seed Elena Rybakina.
In her 14 previous majors, Sabelenka has never progressed beyond the fourth round in the singles draw, but a battling 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory on Court Three saw her through to her showdown with Jabuer,
While Sabalenka and Jabeur are in largely unchartered waters, eighth seed Pliskova is back in the last eight of a Grand Slam for the eighth time - but the first since the 2019 Australian Open.
The 29-year-old has only turned one of those previous seven quarter-final visits into a final, when she was beaten at the US Open, a remarkable record given her consistency in the upper echelons of the women's game.
The Czech needed just 75 minutes to beat Russian wild card Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 6-3 and book her first quarter-final in SW19 where she will face world no 66 Viktorija Golubic, who until this week had never been beyond the third found of a Grand Slam.
Golubic beat 23rd seed Madison Keys 7-6 6-3 to keep her run going.
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