Sunday, July 5, 2015

Wimbledon Day 6 recap: Jankovic stuns Kvitova

Jelena Jankovic rallied to beat defending champion
Petra Kvitova. 2014 photo by Paul Bauman
   Upset of the day -- No. 28 seed Jelena "Weird Al" Jankovic of Serbia rallied to beat No. 2 Petra "Fied Forest" Kvitova, the defending champion from the Czech Republic, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the third round. Kvitova, who also won the title in 2011, led 4-2 in the second set. She had lost only three games in her previous two matches after withdrawing from Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon with an undisclosed illness. The 30-year-old Jankovic, who reached No. 1 in the world in 2008, has never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon. She had won only one match at the All England Club in the last four years. See my story on this year's Indian Wells finals, in which Jankovic lost to Simona Halep.
   Match of the day -- Canada's Vasek "Anything Is" Pospisil, the reigning men's doubles champion with American Jack Sock, topped James "Montgomery" Ward of Great Britain 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 8-6.
   Notable -- "Cheech" Marin Cilic, the ninth seed and reigning U.S. Open champion, outlasted No. 17 John "Wayne" Isner 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-7 (4), 12-10 in the completion of a match suspended by darkness.
   Dustin "Hoffman" Brown, who upset "San" Rafael Nadal in the second round, lost to No. 22 Victor "Leon" Troicki 6-4, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3. It's the fourth straight year in which a man ranked No. 100 or worse has beaten Nadal at Wimbledon and fallen in the next round. 
   No. 15 Timea "Ted" Bacsinszky, a French Open semifinalist last month, dismissed No. 18 Sabine Lisicki "Day," the Wimbledon runner-up two years ago, 6-3, 6-2. 
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Roger Federer "Express," No. 3 Andy "Bill" Murray, No. 6 Tomas "Free As A" Berdych, No. 9 Cilic, No. 12 Gilles "Paul" Simon, No. 20 Roberto "Clemente" Bautista Agut, No. 22 Victory "Leon" Troicki, No. 23 Ivo "Longoria" Karlovic.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 13 Jo-Wilfried "Sing A" Tsonga, No. 17 Isner, No. 18 Gael "Sayers" Monfils, No. 25 Andreas Seppi "Blatter."
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 5 "Sweet" Caroline Wozniacki, No. 13 Agnieszka "Moorehead" Radwanska, No. 15 Bacsinszky, No. 20 Garbine Muguruza "Bader Ginsburg," No. 21 Madison "Where The Hell Are My" Keys.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 2 Kvitova, No. 10 Angelique "Jolie" Kerber, No. 18 Lisicki, No. 31 Camila Giorgi "Girl."
   Stars and stripes -- The United States has four women -- Serena "Vanessa" Williams, Venus "And Mars" Williams, Keys and CoCo "Chanel" Vandeweghe -- and one man -- wild card Denis "The Menace" Kudla -- in the round of 16. The Williams sisters will meet in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2009 on Monday at 5 a.m. PDT (ESPN). Kudla figures to lose to Cilic.
   Fast facts -- Sam "Adams" Groth of Australia hammered a 147-mph (237-kph) serve, the second-fastest in Wimbledon history, in his 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 loss to Federer. The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter), 215-pound (97-kilogram) Groth holds the unofficial record for the world's fastest serve with a  163.4-mph (263-kph) rocket in a 2012 Challenger in Busan, South Korea.
   You might say the women's draw is a little top-heavy. Remaining players in the top half have combined for 34 Grand Slam singles titles (Serena Williams 20, Venus Williams seven, Maria "Shriver" Sharapova five and Victoria "Station" Azarenka two). Remaining players in the bottom half have won none. 
   Northern California connection -- Anabel Medina Garrigues and Jarmila Gajdosova, both of whom are scheduled to play for the Sacramento-based California Dream in World TeamTennis after Wimbledon, reached the third round of women's doubles with different partners. Medina Garrigues is seeded 16th with fellow Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja.
   Another member of the Dream, Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan, lost in men's doubles.
   In the second round of mixed doubles, top-seeded Mike Bryan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won, but fourth-seeded Bob Bryan and Caroline Garcia fell to Nenad Zimonjic and Gajdosova 3-6, 6-3, 9-7. The 37-year-old Bryan twins are scheduled to play three of the Dream's 14 regular-season matches.
   Also in mixed doubles, 10th-seeded Raven Klaasen and Raquel Kops-Jones, a San Jose resident and former Cal standout, advanced by walkover.
   Michaela Gordon, 15, of Saratoga beat Rebeka Masarova of Russia 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the first round of junior girls singles. 
   Quote -- Jankovic: "I cannot stop smiling. ... I was very brave at the end. You know, here I am. Unbelievable."
   Monday's top matches (beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on ESPN) -- Centre Court: Serena Williams (1) vs. Venus Williams (16), Murray (3) vs. Karlovic (23), Federer (2) vs. Bautista Agut (20).
   Court 1: Sharapova (4) vs. Zarina "Williams" Diyas, Stan "The Man" Wawrinka (4) vs. David "Gerry" Goffin (16), Novak "It's No" Djokovic (1) vs. Kevin Anderson "Cooper" (14).

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