Serena Wins, Pliskova Upset Makes for Seeded History Monday at Wimbledon

Manic Monday completed a manic first eight days at Wimbledon, seeing off No. 7 seed Karoline Pliskova, and making for the first time in the Open Era that no Top 8 seeds made it into the quarterfinals at the All England Club.
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No. 20-seeded Kiki Bertens saw off Pliskova 6-3, 7-6(1). Bertens in the quarterfinals will meet No. 13-seeded German Julia Goerges who stopped Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-2.

No. 25 seed Serena Williams was all business in her all-mommy match against Russian Evgeniya Rodina, quickly wrapping up the affair 6-2, 6-2.

“I’m a perfectionist, I always find something wrong,” Serena said afterwards. “I thought it was a good scoreline, but it was tougher than the scoreline. She can hit the ball well, which is why she made it so far…I knew we were both mums, I’m not sure how often that’s happened, if ever. It shows you can be a mum, you can be in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. You can do whatever you want.”

Williams’ next foe will be unseeded Italian Camila Giorgi, who advanced after seeing off Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-4.

Also lining-up quarterfinal meetings were No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko and unseeded Dominika Cibulkova, and No. 11 Angie Kerber and No. 14 Daria Kasatkina.

Cibulkova beat the Halep-killer Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 6-1, and Ostapenko wore down Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6(4), 6-0.

“It’s showing that all the girls — top 10, top 50, top 100 — the tennis is really, really even,” Cibulkova said afterwards.

Kerber stopped comeback kid Belinda Bencic 6-3, 7-6(5), and Kasatkina beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2.

“I’m trying not to look left or right, just focus on my play, and improve my tennis every single match,” the German Kerber said. “I have a lot of tough matches still and the next one will be the same as this.”

After losing the first set, double-faulting on set point, Kasatkina won 11 of the last 15 games.

“I’m just like an artist and I’m playing with the heart,” said the 21-year-old Kasatkina, in a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the second consecutive time. “This is me, for sure. I’m completely crazy. Yeah, these things I can do are ridiculous sometimes. My friends and my team know it. I mean, I am not boring in life and I’m not boring on the court. Together, it’s connected.”

Pliskova afterwards gave her assessment of the remaining competitors.

“There is Kerber, there is Williams, I don’t think the draw is open,” she said.