Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Serena Williams cruised into the Wimbledon last eight on ‘Manic Monday’ as Dominika Cibulkova pondered cancelling her wedding following her shock run to the quarter-finals.
Murray racked-up his 50th Wimbledon match win while Federer reached the quarter-finals for the 14th time as the top two remaining seeds edged closer to a dream title match.
Sania, Paes through; Bopanna out
Defending champions Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis demolished the challenge of Christina Mchale and Jelena Ostapenko to move into the quarterfinals but Rohan Bopanna lost a marathon third round with partner Florin Mergea to bow out of Wimbledon.
The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Sania and Martina overpowered the American-Latvia combination 6-1 6-0 in the third round contest that lasted just 46 minutes.
Dishing out a dominating performance, Sania and Martina broke their rivals five times and saved two chances they faced in the match.
Meanwhile, sixth seeds Bopanna and Mergea lost a fiercely fought men’s doubles third round 6-2 3-6 4-6 7-6(8-6) 6-8 to 10th seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers in two hours and 55 minutes.
Defending mixed doubles champions, Leander Paes and Hingis won their second round match comfortably. Sixteenth seeds Paes and Hingis romped to 6-4, 6-4 victory over New Zealand-German pairing of Artem Sitak and Laura Siegemund on No.1 Court to advance to the mixed doubles third round.
MANIC MONDAY ROUND-UP
Second seeded Murray, the 2013 champion, eased to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over fiery Australian Nick Kyrgios and will next face French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Federer went equal with Jimmy Connors’ mark of 14 quarter-finals at Wimbledon and tied Martina Navratilova’s all-time Slam record of 306 match wins by seeing off Steve Johnson of the United States 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
Kyrgios condemned his own performance.
“The first set was OK but after that it was pathetic,” said the 21-year-old.
Williams sisters on track
Serena Williams powered into her 12th Wimbledon quarter-final as the defending champion clinched a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Russian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
World number one Williams hit 43 winners and served 14 aces as she won the last nine games on Centre Court to remain on course for a record-equalling 22nd major title and a seventh Wimbledon crown.
“She has played really well against me in the past and she beat me earlier this year so I know that I had to play really well to win this,” Williams said of the Kuznetsova clash.
Venus Williams became the oldest Wimbledon women’s quarter-finalist for 22 years as the five-time champion defeated Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
Cibulkova could be forced to postpone her wedding after knocking out world number three Agnieszka Radwanska.
Cibulkova is due to marry fiance Miso Navara in her hometown of Bratislava on Saturday.
Cibulkova’s walk down the aisle will have to wait if she defeats Russian world number 50 Elena Vesnina in Tuesday’s quarter-finals.
“If I win, then we will change it. We will postpone it because it will be a lot of rush,” Cibulkova said.
Vesnina won 5-7, 6-1, 9-7 against compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, who is her long-term doubles partner.
All results from Manic Monday
Men’s singles, 4th rd
- Sam Querrey (USA x28) bt Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
- Milos Raonic (CAN x6) bt David Goffin (BEL x11) 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
- Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Steve Johnson (USA) 6-2, 6-3, 7-5
- Marin Cilic (CRO x9) bt Kei Nishikori (JPN x5) 6-1, 5-1 – retired
- Lucas Pouille (FRA x32) bt Bernard Tomic (AUS x19) 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8
- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x12) bt Richard Gasquet (FRA x7) 4-2 – retired
- Andy Murray (GBR x2) bt Nick Kyrgios (AUS x15) 7-5, 6-1, 6-4
- Tomas Berdych (CZE x10) level with Jiri Vesely (CZE) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (9/11) (Suspended due to darkness)
Women’s singles, 4th rd
- Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x13) 7-5, 6-0
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS x21) bt Coco Vandeweghe (USA x27) 6-3, 6-3
- Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x19) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x3) 6-3, 5-7, 9-7
- Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 5-7, 6-1, 9-7
- Simona Halep (ROM x5) bt Madison Keys (USA x9) 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-3
- Angelique Kerber (GER x4) bt Misaki Doi (JPN) 6-3, 6-1
- Venus Williams (USA x8) bt Carla Suárez (ESP x12) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4
- Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) bt Lucie Safarova (CZE x28) 6-2, 6-4
Agency inputs (featured image: AFP)