Holder Petra Kvitova suffered a shock defeat by Serbia’s former world number one Jelena Jankovic who rolled back the years to produce an inspired Centre Court display in the Wimbledon third round yesterday.
World number two Kvitova had breezed through her first two matches of the tournament but after taking the first set against 30-year-old Jankovic, the Czech made too many errors allowing the 28th seed to triumph 3-6 7-5 6-4.
Kvitova, who won the Wimbledon title in 2011 as well as last year, was at a loss to explain how she had gone from a set and 4-2 up to losing a match that looked well within her control.
“Tough to explain. If I knew what happened, I would tell you. But I’m not really sure what happened out there. I was kind of up in the second set. Suddenly I felt like she’s, you know, coming back, playing a little bit aggressive,” said Kvitova.
“Suddenly from my side, I didn’t have an answer for it. My serve didn’t help me at all this time, as well. I was really struggling with each shot which I played.”
In the last 16, Jankovic faces Poland’s 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska who beat Casey Dellacqua, of Australia, 6-1 6-4.
In the men’s singles, Dustin Brown’s Wimbledon flame fizzled out in a four-set defeat by Viktor Troicki, two days after the dreadlocked journeyman illuminated the All England Club by beating twice champion Rafa Nadal.
The 30-year-old German and his distinctive waist-length hair sent tremors through tennis when he roughed up the Spaniard with a serve-volley barrage to reach the third round, but the 22nd-seeded Troicki brought the fairytale to an abrupt end.
The Serb wrapped up a 6-4 7-6 4-6 6-3 win to add Brown’s name to a group of players who beat Nadal when ranked 100 or below and then exited the tournament at the very next stage.
Troicki, who equalled his best grand slam performance by reaching the round of 16, will now face Vasek Pospisil who beat Britain’s James Ward in five sets.
Earlier, Roger Federer showed that you need more in your arsenal than a bullet serve if you want to seriously trouble the grasscourt masters these days as he snuffed out the threat of Sam Groth in four sets.
Federer’s Australian opponent holds the record for the fastest ever delivery in tennis and regularly launched 140mph missiles but only briefly threatened the Swiss’s serene progress to the fourth round and eventually succumbed 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-2.
“I am very happy. It has been a hot week the first week but thankfully I have had easy matches going through without too many long four- or five-setters,” said Federer, who now faces 20th-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bau-tista Agut.
Meanwhile, a match between two missile-serving giants had the potential to go on for hours but luckily for Marin Cilic he only needed 15 minutes and two games yesterday to complete a 7-6 6-7 6-4 6-7 12-10 win over John Isner.
With the Wimbledon third-round match suspended at 10-10 in the fifth set under gathering gloom on Friday, the duo who hold the distinction of winning the annual tournament’s two longest matches, returned to lock horns on a sun-drenched Court One yesterday.
But fears the encounter could be a reprise of the “never-ending match” never materialised as the American surrendered with a double fault on the US Open champion’s fifth match point.
Murray through
Andy Murray is the last Briton standing in the singles after he overcame a third-set blip to beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi and book his place in the fourth round.
In the late match, Murray looked on course for a comfortable victory after winning the opening two sets with relative ease but two successive medical time-outs, one for each player, dictated changes in momentum before the Scot came through 6-2 6-2 1-6 6-1.
Croatia’s 23rd seed Ivo Karlovic now awaits Murray in the fourth round, as the 28-year-old continues his bid for a second Wimbledon title.