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Siegemund stuns Keys as seeds continues to tumble
Laura Siegemund celebrated her first Wimbledon fourth round with a 6-3, 6-3 upset over Madison Keys, as top seeds face early exits.
Mumbai: Laura Siegemund jumped, danced, smiled and threw her racquet in the air. That was one mighty big celebration from a 37-year-old German who had made it to the fourth round of the women’s singles event at Wimbledon for the first time.
With that 6-3, 6-3 win over the reigning Australian Open champion and world No.8 Madison Keys, world No.104 Siegemund had beaten another seeded player. This was the biggest upset of the day as the draw at Wimbledon continues to open up.
Four of the top 5 and six of the top 10 have now made early exits from the All England Club in what has been an astonishing edition of the Grand Slam this year.
Seeded sixth, Keys would have been in with a good chance to go deep in the tournament. She had proven her grit in the opening three-set match against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, followed by a better showing against Olga Danilovic.
But the 30-year-old was error prone on Friday against Siegemund – Keys committed 31 unforced errors to the German’s 11.
A win would have put Keys in the fourth round against Lucky Loser Solana Sierra of Argentina. But instead, there will now be at least one unseeded player in the top half of the draw in the women’s singles quarter-final.
Keys’s was the only defeat suffered by a seed at the hands of an unseeded player in the women’s draw at time of writing. However, 13th seed Amanda Anisimova was given a scare by world No.110 Dalma Galfi. The American did eventually win 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
In the men’s singles event on Friday, fifth seed Taylor Fritz had to battle it out in four sets against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, eventually winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1.
Hungarian Marton Fucsovics beat veteran French player Gael Monfils 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, while 14th seed Andrey Rublev was clinical in his 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino.
The day started well for the home players on Court No.1. Sonay Kartal got the better of French player Diane Parry 6-4, 6-2 followed by former Wimbledon semi-finalist Cameron Norrie’s 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-3 win over Italian Mattia Bellucci.
Play on Saturday could possibly throw up a few more upsets, especially since most players have struggled to transition from the clay court season to the grass swing.
Former world No.1s Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic will be in action against Danielle Collins and Miomir Kecmanovic on Centre Court, where Jannik Sinner will begin proceedings against Spaniard Pedro Martinez.
On Court No.1 though, defending women’s champion Barbora Krejcikova, the 17th seed, will have a tough match against 10th seed Emma Navarro of USA.
