Any exciting day at Wimbledon awaits. Below I preview the Round 4 women’s matchups.
(1) Serena Williams v (16) Venus Williams
Serena and Venus Williams play each other for the 26th time when they meet in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Monday. Serena leads the h2h 14-11, but this is their first Grand Slam tie since the 2009 Wimbledon – a straight set win for Serena.
“She’s my sister today, she’s my sister next week, she’s my sister next year: I think that’s a little more important than a match – Serena said.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s so soon in the tournament, but we’re going to do the best that we can. We’ll leave everything out on the court. When it’s done we’ll go back to regular life.
“I expect more people to be rooting for Venus. I would be rooting for Venus. She’s been through so much. She’s been so inspiring to me and to a lot of people with the same things that she goes through. She’s just an incredible individual.
“I just don’t know how I’m going to do, to be honest. I’m playing the toughest player I’ve played in women’s tennis.”
“There’s no easy points against Serena. No matter how Serena’s playing, she knows how to win.” – Venus shared her view
“I’ll probably be cheering for her. No matter what she’s been through, she’s never complained.”
“You see players that continue to talk about injuries that are like 9,000 years old.”
“She never complained once. You have to give her credit for that. She’s gone through so much that no one could even imagine.”
Serena is still in the hunt for completing Grand Slam – Winning all 4 Majors in 1 year. And she fought from a brink of defeat, coming back from double break in the 3rd set vs Heather Watson. But ever resilient American got her through once again.
(23) Victoria Azarenka v (30) Belinda Bencic
Belinda’s streak continues here in London as she is currently on a 9 game roll. She has had an incredible grass season with a title in Eastbourne and is now into the second week in Wimbledon. She now faces Vika Azarenka while trying to get to a QF for the second time in her career with US Open 2014 to her credit.
Due to a low ranking mainly because of injuries last year Azarenka had to go through nightmare draws and met Serena on multiple occasions early. But at Wimbledon 2015 she has had her share of luck and has been going smoothly without dropping a set. Her match with Carla Suarez Navaro, the seed she had to face in R3 didn’t happen because the Spaniard lost in R1 to Jelena Ostapenko.
This couple of weeks of non stop action for Belinda on the courts could start to take its toll and fatigue may become an issue as she also carries a slight knee injury on the right leg and had strapping on it versus Mattek Sands.
(4) Maria Sharapova v Zarina Diyas
The second meeting between the two, after Australian Open this year when Sharapova dropped only 2 games to Diyas. Despite her recent wins Maria hasn’t been sharp and has made more double faults than aces, alongside a not pretty figure in the winners/unforced errors ratios.
Zarina has already defeated two seeded players – Pennetta and Petkovic, and surprised many, including me, with taking part in the second week in Wimbledon.
Diyas has won only 1 match vs top 10 opponent, Jankovic in 2010, when the Serbian was still no.1 and since has lost 11 in a row vs that kind of opposition.
Sharapova should dictate what’s happening on court and only a serious drop in her play could see her having any trouble in this contest.
Coco Vandeweghe v (6) Lucie Safarova
First time in the 4th round in a Major for Coco as she faces now the Roland Garros Finalist – Lucie Safarova.
The American hasn’t dropped a set in this tournament and has seemed focused, applying pressure on her opponents and not giving them much rhythm.
Safarova is a grass lover and a defending semifinalist. She has come back from a set down twice – in R1 vs Riske and in R3 vs Sloane Stephens.
With improved confidence and making the R4 in Grand Slams in of 5 of the last 6 she has played Safarova surely is looking as a favorite once again to come through this tricky obstacle.
(5) Caroline Wozniacki v (20) Garbine Muguruza
Garbine leads the h2h 2-1 with Caroline taking the last match in Tokyo last year.
Caroline hasn’t been able to get through R4 in four attempts here in All England Club. She looks in decent form and quickly won against Giorgi in the previous round. But the Italian imploded with 30 unforced errors and 9 DF to hand the match to Wozniacki on a platter.
Muguruza had a grueling encounter with Angelique Kerber in last round when she saved 9 set points to get a 14-12 win in the tiebreak In S1 and despite the loss of the 2nd set she was ready and hitting the lines in the 3rd set to get away with the victory. This is the Spaniard’s third consecutive run to at least R16 of a Major with losing to the previous Champions in both occasions.
Woznaicki can defend really well and Garbine is more of a risk taker so the contrast of styles will be evident and will be an audience treat to witness this fascinating encounter.
(15) Timea Bacsinszky v Monica Niculescu
After a run to Roland Garros Semifinals, Timea continues where she left off and finds herself deep into a Grand Slam again. Surprisingly she trails the h2h 4-1 vs the unpredictable and very unorthodox play of Monica Niculescu. Worth to say that this will be their first meeting since 2011 so this is perhaps irrelevant.
The Swiss hasn’t lost a set and the most games she lost in a single set came during R1 vs Goerges. She ended the road of Sabine Lisicki in the latest round, with some really great point construction and shots selection and her backhand has been firing in all cylinders.
Monica took advantage of the draw and hasn’t faced a player inside top 80 to get here. She had to come from a set down to defeat Monica Puig. She had no trouble getting the best of Jana Cepelova. And the Slovakian won against Simona Halep, and then against Kristyna Pliskova, the lower ranked of the Twin sisters.
Will the h2h be a factor as Timea’s quest for the top 10 continues?
(q) Olga Govortsova v (21) Madison Keys
Olga is a surprise participant in R4 and has already won 6 matches here, while coming from the Qs, and taken out a Seeded player in the process – the 25-th one Alize Cornet.
With her recent run, despite the result of this match, she will re-enter top 100, taking a giant step from 122-nd to around 80.
Madison’s road has seen her going through Voegele from a set and a break down in R1 and then taken out Kulichkova and Maria in straights. She still hasn’t faced an opponent inside top 70 and this will come in the QF so a huge chance for the American to make it further again on the big stage after Australian Open this year.
Keys won their one and only meeting, a 2012 Miami Q match, when Madison was 275-th in the rankings.
Madison has the bigger shots and serve but as she previously said she is still finding her way on this surface and with the low unforced error count that Olga shows here this may become closer than expected.
(13) Agnieszka Radwanska v (28) Jelena Jankovic
With the final in Eastbourne, Agnieszka finally doesn’t have that much dark clouds over her head as she reached the 4th round here. Struggling in most part of the 2015 and dropping out of top 10 with some poor results finally her game begins to get back together.
“Well, I just feel much better than in the beginning of the year, and also I think the surface makes a huge difference. Everything is just easier for me now that I’m back on the grass,” Radwanska said. “Losing first round at a Grand Slam is always disappointing. I wasn’t happy at all. But I had some days off – well, it was actually a lot of time off. And that’s why I took the wildcard into Nottingham, to play some more matches, and especially since the grass season was a little bit longer this year.”
“More matches gives me more confidence. I’ve been feeling good from the beginning of the grass season. That’s why I just kept going in Eastbourne – I had good matches against top players there.”
With the biggest surprise maybe from the entire tournament Jankovic took down the defending champion Petra Kvitova in a tight 3 set affair. Petra was even up by 6-3,3-1 before Jelena turned it around and made everybody around remembered her once again.
The way the season has been going for Jankovic with only 19-12 W/L record and struggling early rounds with 10-8 3rd set win over Vesnina and coming from a set down to win vs Rodina it came as a complete shock she was the one to take out the Czech.
Head to head is 5-2 for Radwanska, but their first meeting on Grass. The Pole has won 5 times on Hard court while Jelena was victorious twice on Clay.
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