Wimbledon round of 16 goes on after Serena Williams exits
WIMBLEDON, Britain -- And in other news …
Yes, there were other noteworthy results at Wimbledon on Monday besides defending champion Serena Williams’ stunning three-set loss to No. 23 Sabine Lisicki of Germany in the round of 16.
With Williams out, No. 17 Sloane Stephens became the lone American left in the men’s or women’s singles competitions. Stephens lost her first set to Monica Puig but won, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, to reach her second Grand Slam quarterfinal. Stephens’ quarterfinal opponent will be Marion Bartoli of France, who defeated Karin Knapp of Italy, 6-2, 6-3.
Williams said Stephens now has a good path to the final.
“I think Sloane has a really good chance of winning,” Williams said. “She has a great draw. I think she can take it. It would be really nice to see her win.”
Stephens was flattered to hear that. “That’s very nice of her. I have a couple more matches to go till that happens,” she said. “I’m just going to go out and play my hardest and see what I can do.”
Among the top-seeded men, No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain avoided the wave of upsets that took out Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal last week and defeated Ivan Dodig of Croatia, 6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 on Court 2. In later matches, No. 2 Andy Murray of Great Britain faced No. 20 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia was to face No. 13 Tommy Haas of Germany.
On a historic note, Jerzy Janowicz and Lukasz Kubot of Poland won their respective matches to create the first all-Polish match at a Grand Slam event. Janowicz, seeded No. 24, defeated Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on far-flung Court 12, while Kubot defeated Adrian Mannarino of France, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Janowicz is ranked 22nd in the world, while Kubot is 130th.
Women’s No. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland was involved in a three-set match against Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, and she could be the third Polish athlete to reach the quarterfinals here.
British darling Laura Robson had a good run but lost to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 7-6, 6-5, on Court 1. In other women’s matches, No. 8 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic — the 2011 Wimbledon champion--defeated Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, 7-6, 6-3, No. 6 Li Na of China rolled past No. 11 Roberta Vinci of Italy, 6-2, 6-0, and No. 20 Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium defeated Flavia Pennetta of Italy, 7-6, 6-3.
ALSO:
Serena Williams knocked out of Wimbledon by Sabine Lisicki
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