Radwanska Again Fails to Seize Opportunities
With the exit of the tournament's top two seeds, 2014 became the fourth consecutive year where Aga Radwanska seemed to have a strong chance to grab her maiden Grand Slam title. In 2012, she ran all the way to the finals, falling to Serena Williams. Last year, Aga's chances seemed even better. After toppling Na Li she faced Sabine Lisicki for a chance to return to the finals, but was unable get the win. This year, she again failed to take advantage of a wide open draw as she fell in straight sets to Ekaterina Makarova.
Three in a Row
Eugenie Bouchard advanced yesterday with a straight sets win over Alize Cornet, who beat Serena Williams on Saturday. Bouchard has been on an undeniable roll so far this year. With her latest win, Bouchard has reached the quarterfinals or better in every Grand Slam so far this year. With one more win, she can make it three straight Grand Slam semifinals, but Bouchard will likely have to get through former Wimbledon Champion Maria Sharapova to accomplish that feat.
Notable Quarterfinal Streaks
With his straight set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Novak Djokovic ran his Grand Slam quarterfinal streak to 21 in a row—good enough for third place on the all-time list behind Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors. Djokovic's potential semifinal opponent, Andy Murray, also booked his spot in the quarterfinals for the seventh straight year.
A Grass Court Marvel
Sabine Lisicki finished off the 11th seeded Ana Ivanovic yesterday in a match that was held over from Saturday. If you've watched or read much coverage of this year's Wimbledon, chances are you've heard something about how well Lisicki plays every year on Wimbledon's grass courts. To put it in perspective consider this: Lisicki's career winning percentage—including her three wins so far at Wimbledon 2014—is 60.9% (248-159) but at Wimbledon, her winning percentage is 81.5% (22-5).
American Hopes Dashed
Coming into Day Seven yesterday, John Isner and Madison Keys were the last Americans standing. Keys' match started on Saturday, but was postponed due to darkness. The day of rest seemed like a stroke of good luck for Keys, who suffered a leg injury during the match. Unfortunately, when Keys came out to warm up yesterday she decided that she would be unable to continue her match and was forced to retire. On the men's side, Big John was unable to get past tricky lefty Feliciano Lopez, despite winning the first set in a tiebreak. The pair unloaded 135 winners (to just 37 errors) including 86 aces during the four set match. Notably, this is the first time since 1911 that no player from the United States has made it to the fourth round in singles at Wimbledon.
Fortunately, There's Still Doubles
The Bryan brothers forged onward in the men's doubles draw as did Eric Butorac—who's partnering Raven Klaasen of South Africa. Jack Sock and Canadian Vasek Pospisil are still alive as well, but haven't played their second round match yet. The Williams sisters are still in the women's doubles, as is the Kops-Jones/Spears duo but neither team has played their second round match either. There are also several American players alive in the mixed doubles, including both Mike and Bob Bryan.
A Slightly Less Manic Monday
Normally Manic Monday at Wimbledon sees all 32 remaining singles players in action, moving both singles draws into the quarterfinals by the end of the day. This year's edition of Manic Monday is… well, a little bit less manic thanks to Wimbledon's typically rainy weather. A lengthy delay on Saturday bumped several matches to Monday and two rain delays yesterday further thinned out the normally dense Manic Monday schedule.