London: The jinx in women’s singles continued as top seed Simona Halep was sent packing Saturday by Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei at Wimbledon, but sanity prevailed in the men’s segment with Rafa Nadal registering a fluent victory over Australian Alex de Minaur.
Romanian Halep who claimed her first Grand Slam last month at the French Open lost 6-3, 4-6, 5-7 to Su-wei. The tricky 32-year-old Taiwanese battled back from a 3-5 deficit in the final set to claim a stunning victory. A weary-looking Halep ended the match with successive forehand errors. Her defeat means only one of the top 10 seeds has reached the last 16 in the women’s draw.
Nadal, however, was dominating against Australian de Minaur and won 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in their third-round encounter. The 19-year-old Alicante-based Australian played his part in an entertaining duel as he chased after everything Nadal could throw at him but the World No.1 stuck to his own game plan to chalk up his third successive straight-set win.
The Spaniard will next play against Jiri Vesely who defeated Fabio Fognini 7-6(7-4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Nadal has never lost to Vesely the 11 times they have played.
In another match fifth-seed Juan Martin del Potro overcame service troubles and Benoit Paire’s fine serve-and-volley game to beat the Frenchman 6-4, 7-6(7-4), 6-3 on Court Two and reach the Wimbledon fourth round for the fourth time. It was a tight match and the first two sets could have been won by the Frenchman had he played the crucial points better.
Sharan, Sitak enter 3rd round
London: The duo of Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak showed remarkable resilience Saturday while fighting back from two sets down to prevail over Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos and enter the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s doubles event in Wimbledon here. The Indian combined with Sitak of New Zealand to win the five-setter 6-7(5-7), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7-5), 6-4 in a match that lasted three hours and 22 minutes on court number 17.
