Monday, July 5, 2021

Kerber, Barty and Jabeur all advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals

Throughout her career, Angie Kerber's serve has ranged from "needs improvement" to "good enough" to "very good." Most of the time, she's in the "good enough" range. Today, in her Wimbledon round of 16 match, she was in the "better than her opponent" range. Though she's known for her big serve, and though she did serve six aces, Coco Gauff didn't deliver quite as well as Kerber in the service department. She also made more unforced errors than her opponent.

Kerber, in every way imaginable, looked like--well, like Angie Kerber. She kept the ball in play for long periods of time, she hit wicked angles, and she solved problems on the run. The 2018 Wimbledon champion defeated Gauff 6-4, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals.

Also looking like herself--though it took her a while to get there--world number 1 Ash Barty defeated 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 6-3. Later in the day, Krejcikova and partner Katerina Siniakova, played doubles against Viktoria Kuzmova and Arantxa Rus. 

The Czech pair, running behind in the first set, sneaked in and won it. The teams were on serve at 2-3 in the second set when the match was suspended, and this had to feel like a gift for Krejcikova, who looked like she was one rally away from collapsing. I suspect that both physical and mental fatigue finally caught up with Krejcikova, who won a WTA 250 event (her first singles title), then went straight to Paris, where she won both the singles and doubles titles.

2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina, Victorija Golubic upset Madison Keys, Karolina Pliskova defeated Liudmila Samsonova, and Karolina Muchova defeated Paula Badosa (of whom we will definitely be seeing more). Sadly, the up-and-coming British player, Emma Raducanu became ill and had to retire in the middle of her second set against Ajla Tomljanovic.

And then there was Ons Jabeur, who lost her first set to 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek, but then pretty much ran over the Polish star in the next two sets, defeating her 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. Jabeur's service game was spot-on, and that description includes the nine aces that she hit. She hit 30 winners to Swiatek's 20, and she made 23 unforced errors. Good serving creates confidence, and confidence creates good serving. With every match, Jabeur steps farther into the zone.

Here is the quarterfinal singles draw:

Ash Barty (1) vs. Ajla Tomljanovic
Karolina Muchova (19) vs. Angie Kerber (25)
Karolina Pliskova (8) vs. Viktorija Golubic
Ons Jabeur (21) vs. Aryna Sabalenka (2)

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