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Wimbledon: Angelique Kerber, Johanna Konta handed tough quarterfinal draws
Second seed Simona Halep, the French Open finalist, may face Johanna Konta who is bidding to become Britain’s first women’s Grand Slam winner since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
With defending champion Serena Williams and former champion Maria Sharapova both missing from the women’s tournament, this year’s Wimbledon is being considered as the most wide open in years.
Top seed Angelique Kerber, the runner-up to Williams last year, was drawn to face former French and US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last-eight Friday.
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Second seed Simona Halep, the French Open finalist, would face Johanna Konta who is bidding to become Britain’s first women’s Grand Slam winner since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
Konta’s participation, however, was thrown into doubt as she withdrew from her semi-final at Eastbourne on Friday with a thoracic spine injury.
The world number seven banged her head in a heavy fall in her quarter-final win over top seed Kerber on Thursday.
Konta was drawn to face Hsieh Su-Wei in the first round in Wimbledon just weeks after the Taiwan player defeated her in the first round at Roland Garros.
The other quarters would see Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic meet Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina, who is battling a heel injury, playing Dominika Cibulkova.
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Five-time champion Venus Williams opens against Belgium’s Elise Mertens while new mother Victoria Azarenka, a former number one and playing her first major for more than a year, tackles young American Cici Bellis.
Emotional favourite Petra Kvitova, the two-time champion and slowly recovering from a terrifying knife attack at her home in the Czech Republic last December, begins against Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.
