Staff Reporter.
Former French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time on Sunday with a three-set win over Czech compatriot Marie Bouzkova.
World number 42 Vondrousova came through 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the back of 37 winners and 44 unforced errors.
The 24-year-old will face either US fourth seed Jessica Pegula or unseeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine for a place in the semifinals.
It will be Vondrousova’s first appearance in the last eight of a major since reaching the French Open final in 2019 where she was defeated by Ashleigh Barty.
Breathless Andreeva, 16, into Wimbledon Fourth Round
Mirra Andreeva’s fairytale season continued on Sunday when the 16-year-old Russian reached the Wimbledon fourth round.
Andreeva, who came through the qualifying tournament, defeated 22nd-seeded compatriot Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5.
“Even if I wanted to show my emotions, I couldn’t because I was out of breath on every point,” said Andreeva.
The teenager had to battle hard in the second set, coming back from 1-4 down before squandering seven break points in the ninth game.
But she held her nerve to break Potapova in the 11th game before securing victory when her opponent buried an overhead into the net.
It was Potapova’s 45th and final unforced error.
“It was an amazing battle,” said Andreeva. “She played really well. I was 4-1 down in the second set and I didn’t feel great.”
Andreeva arrived at Wimbledon having made a run to the third round at the French Open, also out of qualifying.
She will rise in the rankings from 102 to the top 65 at least after Wimbledon.
However, she has loftier ambitions and is targeting the seeded players’ dressing room at Wimbledon in 2024.
Pegula produces dazzling display
Jessica Pegula enjoyed one of those scarcely believable days at Wimbledon as her racket oozed winners left, right and centre in a 6-1 6-3 fourth-round destruction of luckless Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
Tsurenko was left slapping her thighs and talking animatedly into her racket but no matter what she tried, it seemed like her game had slipped into a terminal coma.
Pegula took full advantage of her opponent’s woes as she walloped thunderous winners from the baseline to streak into a 5-0 lead in 18 blinding minutes.
Perhaps still feeling the effects of the mammoth effort she put into overcoming Ana Bogdan in the previous round, when Tsurenko won the longest women’s singles tiebreak (20-18 in the third set) at a slam in the Open Era, the Ukrainian could do little to stop the on-fire Pegula’s charge.
Tsurenko was lucky not to be completely wiped out from the opening set as the American fourth seed missed a set point in the sixth game.
That blip allowed Tsurenko to finally get a look-in as she registered her name on the scoreboard, earning her a round of sympathetic applause from the Court One crowd.
That respite, however, was brief as Pegula went on another three-game winning spree to take a 6-1 2-0 lead.
The mounting errors from Tsurenko left her trailing 5-1 in the second set too and while she managed to break Pegula when the American was serving for a place in the quarterfinals two games later, it seemed her body had faced enough punishment for the day.
After saving two match points, the 34-year-old winced in pain on the baseline and wasted little time in removing her right shoe and sock, revealing a bloody underfoot blister.
The on-court intervention from the trainer only delayed the inevitable as two points later Pegula was celebrating with a clenched fist as she booked a last-eight showdown with Marketa Vondrousova.
“I hope to be in the locker room above next year,” added the teenager, who will face US 25th seed Madison Keys on Monday for a place in the quarterfinals.