Wimbledon 2023 is at the quarter finals stage and sadly all my faves are out. Petra Kvitova had a good run to thr 4th round but was heavily beaten 6-0, 6-3 by last years finalist, Ons Jabeur. I missed the first set – probably for the best – and while Petra put up more of a fight, Ons had the answer to all Petra’s shots and Petra just could not get the ball away for winners. The huge shock in the stats was she only had 4, yes FOUR, winners in the whole match. Petra averages 20-30 usually and it was a further sign of the fact she wasn’t in this match. While Ons played really nicely with variety and power, it was a massively disappointing performance from Petra. However, looking in the bright side, she had her best run at Wimbledon since 2019 a d rises to number 8 in the rankings.
In better news, Katerina Siniakova had a great win at the WTA250 in Bad Homburg, Germany. She made the final here 2 years ago and played some terrific tennis, especially in a rain interrupted win over hard hitting Ludmilla Samsonova.
All the more disappointing that she was knocked out of Wimbledon in round 2 by Lesia Tsurenko after a very good win over the highly rated Qinwen Zheng, the 24th seed.
The first round also saw Barbora Krejcikova get a good win over Britain’s Heather Watson on court 1, however in the last few games, Barbora did something to her ankle. She was forced to retire when a set and 4-0 down to 16 year old phenomenon, Mirra Andreeva. There was a lot of rain at Wimbledon, which meant she had less than 24hours to try to recover. Krejcikova was clearly hampered and worse was to come. She delayed as long as she could but ultimately, she and Siniaková were forced to withdraw from the ladies doubles, where they were defending champions. After they were beaten in the first round at Roland Garros as Siniakova was not really recovered from a wrist injury and Krejcikova in the midst of a very poor clay court swing, this looked a great chance to get back on track. With Katka taking the title in Bad Homburg and Barbora making the singles final and winning the doubles in Birmingham, it was looking hopeful. Really sad news for Barbora Krejcikova.
I visited Wimbledon on Tuesday and Friday and had a great time. Unfortunately Tuesday – day 2 – had about 50 minutes of play before the rain came. As I had centre court seats, I was able to see Rybakina and Sabalenka but not much else.
Friday was much better weather wise – but 28-29 degree temperatures was very hot. That day did allow me to watch Petra live and she played a solid if unspectacular match to beat Sasnovich, and I still have bad memories of the defeat to her in round 1 in 2018! To be blunt though. Sasnovich was pretty poor. I managed to see loads of great tennis. Jule Neimeier, Azarenka v Kasatkina, Vondrousova v Vekic and Svitolina v Kenin. All good matches, especially Marketa Vondrousova’s win over a tired looking Vekic, who had had an epic win over Sloane Stephens the day before. The schedule definitely punished her as she looked very tired against a spritely Vondrousova.
Vondrousova had long been my least favourite Czech, but I have to say I’ve had a change of heart. She is a super talented player and plays with variety and guile. She can be inconsistent, but remarkably, is the last Czech standing and plays Pegula in the quarter finals tomorrow. Most of us would have had Kvitova, Muchova, Krejcikova and Siniaková ahead of her. Probably Bouzkova too who made the quarters in 2022. However, Vondrousova took out Bouzkova in the 4th round for by far her best result on grass.
More to come…!
