Muguruza Mauling Leaves Wimbledon Without 6 of Top 8 Seeds Thru 2 Rounds

The upset of defending champion Garbine Muguruza on Thursday at Wimbledon made for six of Top 8 seeds out of The Championships through the first two rounds at the All England Club.
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The No. 3-seeded Spaniard was shocked 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 by Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck.

“It is a huge win,” said fellow Belgian and BBC analyst Kim Clijsters. “Van Uytvanck is a super-nice girl. She had to deal with injuries in 2016 and worked hard to come back. For her to have this result is amazing. I am really happy for her.”

In the only other upset on the day veteran Dominika Cibulkova sent No. 22-seeded Brit Johanna Konta out of the tournament 6-3, 6-4.

“Yeah it feels great,” said Cibulkova, who had 18 winners to only nine unforced errors. “Of course it was a tough draw today and today I can only be happy with my performance. Everything was just coming together for me. My serve was just really working and I saw that Johanna, she had some troubles of reading my serve. The balls are jumping perfect for me.”

World No. 1 Simona Halep overcame some early difficulties to subdue Saisai Zheng 7-5, 6-0.

“I feel good on grass now,” said Halep, who after the first set overcame the difficult Zheng slice.

Other seeded winners Thursday were No. 11 Angie Kerber who needed three sets and fought off match points against American Claire Liu, No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko, No. 14 Daria Kasatkina, No. 15 Elise Mertens, No. 17 Ashleigh Barty, No. 18 Naomi Osaka, No. 23 Barbora Strycova, No. 26 Daria Gavrilova, No. 27 Carla Suarez Navarro, and No. 28 Anett Kontaveit.

Barty dismissed the former Wimbledon finalist Bouchard 6-4, 7-5.

“This is a happy hunting ground,” Barty said afterwards. “I love playing here. I play well here. Even if I’m not necessarily playing my best leading up you know you feel comfortable on the courts, you know you can play well..I’ve sort of learnt much better over the last 18 months to play with more freedom regardless of whether it’s a first round or a final and just try to play the way that I want to play.”

Third-round match-ups coming out of Thursday results include No. 12 Ostapenko vs. the Sharapova-killer Vitalia Diatchenko, who beat American Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1; No. 11 Kerber vs. No. 18 Osaka; and No. 27 Suarez Navarro vs. Belinda Bencic, who edged American Alison Riske 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-2.

“Playing against her, you have to expect long rallies because she doesn’t really miss,” Osaka said of Kerber. “I’m actually looking forward to playing against her on grass.”

Matches to look for on Friday at the All England Club include (25) Serena Williams vs. Kristina Mladenovic, (9) Venus Williams vs. (20) Kiki Bertens, and (10) Madison Keys vs. Evgeniya Rodina.