It was a story of surprise and disappointment on Centre Court on the second Monday at SW19, as two of the women’s fourth-round matches ended in both – for different reasons.
In the first match on a sunny but breezy afternoon, the defending champion Elena Rybakina took on Beatriz Haddad Maia, the underdog but nevertheless a two-time previous conquerer of Rybakina and a player who excels on grass. Last year, she won back-to-back grass-court tournaments (Nottingham and Birmingham).
But any hope of a blockbuster encounter was thwarted early on when, in the fourth game, Haddad Maia was broken after shunting a forehand into the net, and immediately grimaced and grasped her lower back. She trudged off court for a medical time out, and gamely tried to continue on her return with the score at 1-3. But a 40-0 service game from her Moscow-born Kazakhstani opponent for a 1-4 deficit proved the writing on the wall, with Haddad Maia barely able to move or rotate. In tears, she approached the net and was consoled by a sympathetic Rybakina and loudly applauded by a disappointed crowd.
“It’s never easy to finish a match like that,” Rybakina said in her on-court interview, and offered kind words for her stricken opponent. “It just seemed one moment and it’s just really unlucky for Beatriz. I am just happy to play another round.”
Later, Ons Jabeur – the sixth seed who was defeated in three sets by Rybakina in last year’s final – took on Petra Kvitova, a Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014. Kvitova, at 33, is still going strong. At the Miami Open in April she won her 30th career title and her ninth Masters (her adversary then? Rybakina).
Jabeur, meanwhile, who has a picture of the famous Venus Rosewater dish as her phone background for inspiration, and whose genial personality and fun style of play has made her a fan favourite, had a blip of form early in the year, knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open. But her performances this past week have been sublime.
Here she routed Kvitova, including a first-set bagel which lasted a mere 21 minutes, barely long enough to finish one’s Pimm’s. She took the first break with a mixture of her own super-light touch drop shots, and Kvitova’s unforced errors, and was relentless from then on. That Jabeur managed to take the set 6-0 with a first-serve percentage under 40% was testament to her creative play, scurrying court coverage and the extraordinary lack of control coming off her Czech opponent’s racket. Kvitova hit just a single winner and won 11 points in total in the first set.
Wildcards Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden hailed becoming the first all-British pair to reach the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon women's doubles in 40 years as "surreal".
The rookie duo added Slovakians Viktoria Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova to their impressive list of scalps thanks to a stirring 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-3 win.
Jo Durie and Anne Hobbs were the previous British team to reach the last eight of the tournament in south-west London, doing so in 1983 before being beaten by top seeds Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver in the semi-finals.
"I guess it puts it in perspective, doesn't it? That's something we didn't know," said Leeds-born Bains. "It feels surreal to be honest. We wanted to back up last year's result of a first-round win. We wanted to go one better. But we're just taking it one match at a time and can't complain."
Bains and Lumsden, both 25, led by a set and a break on Court 18 but were forced to dig deep after being taken to a decider having narrowly failed to overturn a four-point deficit in the second-set tie-break.
Victory over Hruncakova and Mihalikova in two hours and 36 minutes sets up a last-eight clash with the winners of Tuesday's meeting between third seeds Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens and Czech duo Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova.
The British pair's fine run at the All England Club is even more impressive given Lumsden feared her professional playing career may be ended by long Covid.
"During it, I didn't think I was going to get back playing sport," the Scot said of coronavirus, which she contracted in October 2020. That was like a year where I couldn't really do any exercise.
"I never really thought I would get back to playing professionally, so it's obviously unbelievable that I have got back to it now and I'm very grateful that I can." PA Media
Kvitova was in trouble not long into the second set, digging herself a hole when she lost her serve yet again, to trail 1-3. The crowd, already somewhat downbeat after the opening women’s match was cut short, were quiet. But they perked up when Jabeur volleyed a dead ball after a service fault, in the manner of her football hero Cristiano Ronaldo.
With a stunning down-the-line forehand winner, Jabeur went on to earn another break to go 4-1 up, sealed with a fist pump and a look towards her box where her husband (also her trainer) applauded.
A double fault in the following service game from Jabeur brought a first break-back point for Kvitova, which she was gifted as Jabeur hit a forehand into the net. But there remained a cushion. Later, she held on with a 40-love hold to lead 5-3, and brought up three break points – match points – in the next, with a skip-and-a-jump forehand down-the-line off a Kvitova drop shot. She took the first to win 6-0, 6-3 as a Kvitova lob sailed wide.
Now, she will play her quarter-final against Rybakina. “I’m going for my revenge,” Jabeur, who is known as the Minister of Happiness back home in Tunisia, told the adoring crowd. “I’m hoping to play like today and get the win, because she’s an amazing player. She’s like boom boom all the time, no mercy.” An accurate description of the performance she had just put in herself.
