Only one woman – Serena Williams (twice) – has done the French Open-Wimbledon double over the past 20 years, an obvious indication of how difficult it is to win back-to-back grand slams on clay and grass. For the world No 1, Simona Halep, who won her first grand slam title in Paris last month, Wimbledon proved a step too far as she was bamboozled by the wizardry of Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, going down 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to the world No 48 in the third round.
On a blisteringly hot day, the top seed led 5-2 in the final set and had a match point on the Hsieh serve at 5-4, but could not convert as the 32-year-old Taiwanese reeled off the last five games for a famous victory. Halep’s defeat means nine of the top 10 seeds have gone out. The Romanian said the efforts of the past six months had caught up with her.
“Because I won a grand slam and I had tough matches during Paris, I am tired also mentally,” she said. “I think I played well these six months. I played the final in Melbourne. Even if it’s long time ago, like five months ago, still all the pressure, all the tension is in my body. I was tired, I had some pain everywhere in my body. I’m not saying that I couldn’t focus because I won a grand slam. It’s the most important thing that happened in my career. I take it positive. But this was my power for this tournament, so now I’m done.”
Halep has always been refreshingly honest with the media and she was critical of her inability to focus as well as she needed to, especially when she led 5-2 in the third, even using the word “unprofessional” to describe how negative she had been on court. But she was doing herself a disservice, for Hsieh must be the most frustrating of opponents, her two-handed style on both wings increasing her disguise and her ability to change pace and use angles and different spins enough to give most players a headache.
In one rally alone, she hit a drop shot off the return of serve, followed it up with a lob over the incoming Halep and then, as the Romanian chased back and hoisted a lob of her own, strolled forward and hit the most delicate of drop volleys. Even when Halep led in the decider she looked rattled and Hsieh, as Halep admitted, was a deserving winner.
Having been to the semi-finals once before, in 2014, Halep has shown she can play on grass but it is a surface that frustrates her. “The ball is not bouncing two times in a row the same,” she said. “I cannot play my best tennis here but I hope to improve more for the next years, to have a better result in the future.”
Halep will now go on holiday while Hsieh takes her place in the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time. She has never enjoyed her tennis more, as she showed on match point when, after serving a fault on the first serve, she stopped, smiled and waved her arms to encourage the crowd to cheer, rather than sigh, as they had done.
“Because last year I was playing against [Lucie] Safarova,” she said. “I had two match points. I make double-fault. Then she had one match point, I make double-fault again. So today, I have a fault. ‘Oh, my God, not going to be happen again.’ People were saying aah. I [waved my arms around]. It was helping me cool down a little bit.”
In the last 16 Hsieh will play Dominika Cibulkova, the Slovak who would have been seeded No 32 had Wimbledon not decided to elevate Serena Williams into a seeded spot.
In a week when seeds have fallen by the wayside, the progress of the 11th seed Angelique Kerber has not gone unnoticed. The two-times grand slam champion was at her very best in beating Naomi Osaka of Japan, the No 18 seed, 6-2, 6-4. The former junior champion Belinda Bencic awaits.
The unseeded Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck backed up her win over the defending champion, Garbiñe Muguruza, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Anett Kontaveit of Estonia. She will meet the No 14 seed, Daria Kasatkina, after the Russian saw off Australia’s 17th seed, Ash Barty 7-5, 6-3.
Last year’s French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, crushed Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko 6-0, 6-4. She will play the unseeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who ousted Petra Kvitova in round one and on Saturday hammered Daria Gavrilova of Russia 6-3, 6-1.
Cibulkova is smiles better after seeds of discontent disappear
The scowls have gone, replaced by a skip and beaming smile. Dominika Cibulkova, the player who lost her seeding to accommodate the returning Serena Williams, is into the second week of Wimbledon.
After beating Johanna Konta in the second round, the Slovak made short work of the Belgian No 15 seed, Elise Mertens, winning 6-2, 6-2. When a fierce backhand down the line forced Mertens to push a final forehand into the net, Cibulkova celebrated gleefully.
This was in stark contrast to her mood earlier in the week when Cibulkova bemoaned the draw that meant she faced last year’s semi-finalist Konta so early in the tournament. Now she is enjoying the benefits that come from winning such an encounter.
“It gave me a lot of confidence,” Cibulkova said. “It’s not easy to play Jo on Centre Court. But I played well and handled a tough situation. Today that’s helped me and I played great in key moments.” Paul MacInnes
