Staff Reporter.
World Number 1 Aryna Sabalenka was pushed hard by her former doubles partner Elise Mertens before winning through 6-4, 7-6 (4) to reach the quarter-finals.
This has been a tournament in which many seeds have tumbled and Sabalenka was the only top six seed remaining in the women’s draw.
It hasn’t been plain sailing for Sabalenka as she came through a tough match against Emma Raducanu to set up her meeting with Mertens.
This again was perhaps tougher than expected, particularly as Sabalenka had beaten 24th seed Mertens nine times in a row prior to meeting at Wimbledon.
“I am super happy with the performance. It was a battle. I was happy to get this win,” said Sabalenka.
“She is a great player and great person. I know how smart she is and I knew she would fight until the very end. She really challenged me today.”
It did initially look like being a comfortable win for Sabalenka as she got an early break on her way to racing into a 4-1 lead, but Mertens got a break back as she started to move her opponent around the court more.
Sabalenka broke Mertens again to take the opening set – but the Belgian continued to cause problems with her aggressive tennis.
She continued to play with poise, mixing nice touch with crisp groundstrokes and good serving and the Belgian claimed a 3-1 lead in the second set. Again Sabalenka dug deep, breaking back for 3-3 and taking command of the tie-break to win it 7-4 and take her place in the last eight.
Sabalenka will next face world number 104 Laura Siegemund for a place in the last four.At 37, Siegemund is the oldest woman left in the Wimbledon singles draw.
The veteran German ended lucky loser Solana Sierra’s hugely impressive run at the tournament.
Sierra had lost in qualifying but was invited into the main draw after a withdrawal, only finding out 15 minutes before her first-round match.