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Women's defending champion crashes out, as Nadal and Halep march on

Garbine Muguruza. (AP Photo/David Vincent)
Roar Guru
6th July, 2018
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A first week of upsets at Wimbledon has seen defending champion Garbine Muguruza the latest big name to crash out.

The third seed went down to Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck in three sets, in what was the earliest defeat by a women’s defending champion at the All England Club since Steffi Graf lost in the first round of 1994.

The Spaniard fell behind 2-4 in the opening set but broke back to take it 7-5. After breaking van Uytvanck’s serve early in the second, she appeared to be on her way to the third round.

However, the Belgian broke back, and from that point dropped only two more games en route to registering her first-ever victory against a top-ten player.

It marks just the second time, and first at Wimbledon, that the 24-year-old has advanced past the third round of a Major. The only other time was at the 2015 French Open, where she reached the quarter-finals.

Muguruza’s loss comes hot off the heels of the early departures of fellow former champions Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova, as well as recent Major title winners Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki.

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki.(Tatiana / Flickr)

The 25-year-old is the sixth top-eight seed to depart SW19 within the first two rounds, thus marking the worst performance by the women’s top-eight seeds at Wimbledon in Open era history.

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This leaves French Open champion Simona Halep and former world number one Karolina Pliskova as the only top eight seeds remaining.

What all this means is that Halep will retain the world number one ranking, regardless of how she fares for the rest of the tournament.

The Romanian dodged the upset tsunami to defeat China’s Saisai Zheng 7-5, 6-0 to progress to the third round, where she will next face Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei – a straight-sets winner over Lara Arruabarrena.

Pliskova, on the other hand, advanced to Wimbledon’s third round for the first time by defeating fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka in straight sets.

Should she beat Mihaela Buzarnescu in her next match, then ninth seed Venus Williams could await in the Round of 16. Last year’s finalist is up against Kiki Bertens in her own third-round match.

Seven-time champion Serena Williams is also due to play her third round match against Kristina Mladenovic on Friday night (AEST). All going to plan, the Williams sisters could meet in the semi-finals.

Eleventh seed Angelique Kerber progressed to Round 3 after coming from a set down to defeat reigning girls’ champion Claire Liu, but Johanna Konta’s dismal 2018 season continued when she fell to Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets on Centre Court.

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Daria Gavrilova won her all-Australian showdown against Samantha Stosur, while Ashleigh Barty’s impressive recent form continued by way of a straight-forward win over former finalist Eugenie Bouchard.

Daria Gavrilova Australia Tennis

Daria Gavrilova (AP Photo/Theron Kirkman)

In the men’s draw, third seed and last year’s finalist Marin Cilic became the highest-seeded casualty so far, as he surrendered a two-sets-to-love lead to go down to Argentina’s Guido Pella in five sets.

It was evenly poised in the third set when play was suspended on Thursday morning (AEST) due to poor weather. Pella took advantage of the break to register the biggest victory of his career and reach the third round of a Major for the first time.

Cilic is the fourth top-ten seed to depart before the third round, with Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin having all lost their first-round matches.

There were no such problems for world number one Rafael Nadal though, as he thrashed Mikhail Kukushkin in straight sets to keep alive his pursuit of a third Wimbledon title (and third Channel Slam).

Next for the Spaniard is rising Australian Alex de Minaur, who defeated Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in four sets to reach the third round in his Wimbledon debut.

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There is some sense of deja-vu attached to this clash, as this will be the first time (and second overall) Nadal faces an Aussie at Wimbledon since his upset loss to Nick Kyrgios (then ranked 144th in the world) in 2014.

As was the case four years ago, Nadal is the second seed despite being ranked world number one, this coming about due to his struggles on the grass courts in recent years.

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

Kyrgios, now 23, was aged 19 when he defeated Nadal on Centre Court in 2014. Similarly, de Minaur is aged 19 ahead of what will be the biggest match of his fledgling career.

Speaking of Kyrgios, the highest-ranked male Australian advanced to the third round after defeating Dutchman Robin Haase in straight sets, sending down 19 aces in the process (adding to the 30-plus he served against Denis Istomin in the first round).

Next for the Canberran is 24th seed Kei Nishikori, who came from a set down to defeat lucky loser Bernard Tomic in straight sets.

Tomic’s loss was the only dampener on an impressive Day 4 for the Aussies, after Matt Ebden backed up his win over 10th seed David Goffin with a four-set victory over Stephane Robert.

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A win for Ebden over Gilles Simon could see him line up former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in the round of 16.

Like Ebden, del Potro is up against another Frenchman in Benoit Paire, who cashed in on Andy Murray’s withdrawal (they were due to have met in the first round before the Brit pulled out) to advance to the last 32.

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