Kvitova, Radwanska and Bartoli all advance to Wimbledon quarterfinals

While 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki's upset of defending champion and top seed Serena Williams was the big Wimbledon news today, it wasn't the only news. Commentators carried on about "who was left," but this is what I noticed: The 2011 champion is still in the draw. The 2012 runner-up is still in the draw. Perhaps most interesting, the 2007 runner-up is still around, though not a word has been said about her.

Laura Robson isn't around anymore, though. The Brit played Kaia Kanepi, and she served for the first set. She was broken and the set went to a tiebreak. Robson led 5-2, but lost it. Kanepi won the second set 7-5. I'm all for Laura, but the British crowd really needs to find some new behaviors. The crowd's responses to Robson's opponents only served to give me an even worse attitude about all the "tradition" nonsense.

Petra Kvitova beat Carla Suarez Navarro in straight sets, Li Na pretty much ran over Roberta Vinci (a bit of a surprise), and Sloane Stephens beat a really hard-working Monica Puig. I thought Puig's chances against Stephens were pretty good, actually.

Marion Bartoli efficiently beat Karin Knapp, and Kirsten Flipkens beat Flavia Pennetta, marking the first time in her career that the Belgian has reached the quarterfinals of a major. And Agnieszka Radwanska won a (predictably) entertaining three-setter against Tsvetana Pironkova. Radwanska's
"trickster" persona wasn't too flashy today, but it was present, and it went after Pironkova's forehand weakness. Radwanska won, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and I was sad to see it all end. I wish both of them could have somehow gone to the next round.

But sad wasn't all I was feeling. First, I got up way too early this morning, having made an error in viewing the day's schedule. Once I'm up, I'm up, though, and the payoff was that I got to see some other matches. But then, the cable repairmen showed up (for the third time) to try to finally solve my television problems. They showed up in the middle of the third set of the Williams vs. Lisicki match. Talk about timing (I did get to see a replay). I couldn't get on the Internet, either, while they were working, so I missed most of the first set between Radwanska and Pironkova. I don't usually enjoy replays, but today, they were necessary.

There was a significant upset in doubles today. The unseeded team of Jelena Jankovic and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni defeated 4th seeeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who looked like they were on track to reach the final. Another upset occurred when 12th seeds Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua beat 5th seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.

Here is the singles quarterfinal draw:

Sabine Lisicki (23) vs. Kaia Kanepi
Agnieszka Radwanska (4) vs. Li Na (6)
Sloane Stephens (17) vs. Marion Bartoli (15)
Petra Kvitova (8) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (20)