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A trio of first-time Wimbledon – and Grand Slam – quarter-finalists emerged on Sunday at the Championships, in the women’s draw. Germans Tatjana Maria and Jule Niemeier, and Czech Marie Bouzkova were the players who won their respective fourth-round matches en route to accomplishing this feat.
Bouzkova was the first to advance after posting a 7-5, 6-2 win against Caroline Garcia in an hour and 23 minutes. Garcia who wasn’t missing her shots much in the initial three rounds struggled to do the same against her 23-year-old opponent.
Bouzkova went up an early break across both sets. However, in the first set, she surrendered the break back but broke the French player for the second time towards the business end of the set to wrap it up in her favour. The second set was way more one-sided in Bouzkova’s favour as Garcia’s error count multiplied causing her to lose her serve twice.
In the eighth game, while serving for the match, Bouzkova lost the first point of the game with a forced error but won the next three points in a row to bring up match points and then converted the win on her first match point.
Wimbledon: Ons Jabeur outlasts Elise Mertens
Garcia had 24 winners and 25 unforced errors both of which outnumbered Bouzkova’s 13 winners and four unforced errors. Bouzkova won 78% of her first-serve points to Garcia winning 64% and 60% of her second-serve points to Garcia’s 36%.
Of the two, it was Bouzkova who had more success coming to the net, winning all seven points she played. On the other hand, Garcia frequented the net 38 times but was able to win merely 20 points. In the quarter-finals, Bouzkova will play third seed Ons Jabeur.
The Tunisian beat 24th seed Elise Mertens in their round-of-16 encounter. Jabeur was made to work hard for her 7-6(9), 6-4 win by the Belgian. Meanwhile, Maria and Niemeier set up a derby at the bottom of the women’s draw at Wimbledon.
Maria ousted 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko in a roller-coaster of a match that involved her staving off two match points in the 10th game of the second set. In the end, after two hours and eight minutes of play, Maria won 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.
Niemeier, in her match against Britain’s Heather Watson, didn’t need to go the full distance as she clinched a 6-2, 6-4 win after an hour and 17 minutes of play. Photo Credit: Marie Bouzkova Twitter