Serena, Venus and Caroline out of Wimbledon

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Wilson Blade 9

What a day at Wimbledon! The first matches of the second week of the grass-court Grand Slam said goodbye to world No.1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki, twice-defending champion Serena Williams and five-time champion Venus Williams. My poll has now lost three more of the eight names included (the only players still standing are Maria Sharapova, Marion Bartoli and Petra Kvitova).

Wozniacki lost to Dominika Cibulkova 1-6 7-6(5) 7-5 and has yet again failed to reach the quarterfinals of Wimbledon even though in her first three wins this year she hadn’t lost more than three games per set, the least of any other player in the draw, and as you can see, she started the match with Cibulkova in similar fashion. Wozniacki is already on the defensive: “I don’t really care what people think or say or do.”

As for the Williams sisters, who had won nine of the last 11 women’s singles titles at Wimbledon, Serena’s 17-match winning streak was ended by Marion Bartoli 6-3 7-6(6), while Venus lost to Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2 6-3. The 2007 Wimbledon finalist Bartoli won two marathons in the previous two rounds, against Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Flavia Pennetta, and followed them up with the biggest victory of her career, a dream victory, as Bartoli herself described it. The world No.33 Pirokova played the semifinals of Wimbledon last year and to reach them she defeated Venus by the same score as today! Pironkova beat Venus in their last three encounters, and is now 3-1 against her in head-to-head.

Wimbledon 2011 quarterfinal pairs (seedings in brackets):

Dominika Cibulkova (24) vs. Maria Sharapova (5)

Sabine Lisicki vs. Marion Bartoli (9)

Tamira Paszek vs. Victoria Azarenka (4)

Petra Kvitova (8) vs. Tsvetana Pironkova (32)

14 COMMENTS

  1. caroline is afraid on winning big tournaments? She’s world’s number one and in the last year she never played a grand slam final! OMG! Wta is doing bad bad!

  2. Unfortunately, I was able to watch only Serena’s match, I think she was too passive during the match,she did great at those match points, but Bartoli played great today. Serena needs more practise and matches to get back into her good form. Venus,how could she loose like this, again?! Pironkova is a tricky player, but gosh, this is just too much. As for Caroline, again, very disappointing. Actually, before the match i thought Dominika could win,and she did. I know this isn’t Caro’s surface, BUT- she is no.1 and this is the match she just had to win. I started feeling bad for the girl ’cause of the critics she’ll get, but after this statement of hers, I sure NOT! Her reaction was so not appropriate for her ranking, and immature. Girl, you are a number one, and in almost 2 years, you haven’t played 1 GS final, actually this year you’ve played 1 SF, 3rd round and now 4th, it’s obviuos why people wonder what is going on! So, go on with your stupid attitude and game style which is obviously wrong for greatest achievments, and will see how you’ll go. Right now, it seems to me she only wants to stay no1 and get more sponsors, and for slams- whatever.-_- For the record, i don’t hate Caro, i’m just very frustrated and disappointed by her behaviour, and whole attitude!

  3. agree with you! Mirjana! Last year caroline was my favorite plater..i was happy when she became n1…but she dissapointed me! Her attitude on slams is horrible! And now i want a big champion to be onthe top! I think the same as you about the sponsors! Good point!

  4. Poor Caro. But I must admit that she doesn’t have a lot of excuse for the whole story, in and out the tennis court.

  5. Concerning Caro, she did defend her QF points, others like Vera, Li Na, Kim and Serena didn’t defend theirs so they’ll have points dropping off. As I’ve said before Woz is playing the numbers game, she’s got a nice lead and daring the others to catch her before year end. As for her comment that she doesn’t care what others say about her slamless #1 positon -that’s fine with me as Caro shouldn’t let critic drive her nuts like Dinara and JJ. Honey, keep going to the bank and making deposits.

    It’s possible that Venus and Serena just wanted to reach week2 on their returns as they know that it wouldn’t benefit the sport for them to actually go further after being off so long and the sport needs new blood to energize the tour. Best to let the newcomers make their contributions in the late stages of this slam.

    The wimby crowd really got behind Bartoli and Pironkova which illustrates my point – they want to see others besides WS holding up the Trophy year after year. Likely the crowd will support Cibulkova over Maria, especially if the match is close towards the end.

  6. I think Caro has the right attitude. This loss was a dissapointment but what should she do? Fall apart mentally like Dinara Safina? I bet she is sad but what she does is right, if she let losses get to her like others did she could have ended up like Dinara or…yes, Ana, who is now a shadow of that great player.
    And, she actually DID get to a grand slam final two years ago.
    Positive thing is that she will still remain no.1 after Wimbledon.

  7. Correction: Caro defended her 4th round points instead of QFs.

    Hint: When you see Woz play a tuneup on grass then you’ll know she’s more serious about winning Wimby, still she did her best to go as deep as possible.

    Observation: Serena and Venus likely had a strategic plan which involved using Eastbourne and Wimby as tuneups for the summer hardcourt season and rest of the year.

    Prediction: Caro will not be out there playing when she’s 30, she’ll be long gone before then – she’ll take her wealth and titles (including any slams), get married and start a family. She won’t still be out there like Dimentieva was or the WS currently are.

  8. the negatiest thing is that caroline after doing ridiculous performancesin rg and wimby will still remain on n1!! Hope masha to win it! I’m praying..n1 player needs to be a big champion! Not denmark’s, charleston’s or belgium’s one

  9. Every year we complain about the rankings. Nothing is going to be more silly than having Mattek-Sands ranked the No. 1 US women’s player and Serena dropping to out of the Top 100. Why punish stars recovering from injuries. Look at how Lisciki had to claw her way through to the top. It’s crazy.

  10. Mattek knows it in her heart that she is nowhere no.1 in USA,she is just the gatekeeper at the moment.Serena needs matches otherwise she is okay,if she plays this year to build up her ranking she will be around no.40 come USA OPEN and she has no points to defend from now till Eastbourne so the only way is up up,if she plays well she could be top five next year by this time.

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