Omair, our contributor in charge of the world of tennis stats, who has recently started his own blog, was inspired by the early losses of Roland Garros 2012 runner-up Sara Errani and Roland Garros 2012 champion Maria Sharapova at the subsequent Wimbledon and dug into the historic stats for a possible pattern.

Roland Garros seems to cast some spell on the players doing well there. This year marks the third straight year that the Roland Garros finalists have lost before the quarterfinal stage of Wimbledon. To find a player who did the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double, you have to go back to 2002, when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams in a rematch of the Roland Garros final.

This year when Maria Sharapova won her maiden Roland Garros title, it seemed that she would be able to cast that spell away, given her good results at Wimbledon, but the spell was just too strong for her as she fell victim of German hard-hitter Sabine Liscki in the fourth round. With Sharapova out, this marked just the sixth time in the Open Era that a top seed has failed to make it to the quarters [Steffi Graf (first round in 1994 , Martina Hingis (first round in 1999 and 2001), Ana Ivanovic (third round in 2008) and Caroline Wozniacki (fourth round in 2011)]. With Sara Errani already falling to Yaroslava Shavedova in the third round, this marked the ninth year since the Open Era began that the Roland Garros finalists have failed to make it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Read more »

Sabine Lisicki loves Wimbledon, she's played her one and only Grand Slam semifinal there last year, and this time she's again making her mark on grass by upsetting top seed Maria Sharapova in the fourth round 6-4 6-3. Actually, it was Sharapova who prevented Lisicki from reaching the final last time and now the German has not only avenged the loss, but also earned her first victory over the Russian. Moreover, not only is Sharapova a world No.1, she's the 2004 Wimbledon champion and the reigning Roland Garros titlist. Lisicki outplayed her and scored her third win over a Roland Garros champion at Wimbledon.

Kim Clijsters was playing her last Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam at which she has failed to reach the final, and her conqueror was Angelique Kerber, the sole Top 10 player whom she had never faced before. The eighth-seeded Kerber, the WTA leader for match wins this year, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 6-1 victory.

Some experts favored seed No.14 Ana Ivanovic in the encounter with second seed Victoria Azarenka, but that was far from the outcome of this fourth-round clash as Ivanovic was destroyed 6-1 6-0. Since her 2008 Roland Garros triumph, Ivanovic hasn't reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal, and she played all the 16 Grand Slam events!

There was no upset in the match between Serena Williams and the golden-set Yaroslava Shvedova, although the Kazakh did give a stiff challenge before losing 6-1 2-6 7-5. Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska beat Camila Giorgi, who recorded her first two Top 20 wins during this Wimbledon, 6-2 6-3, while defending champion Petra Kvitova took out Francesca Schiavone 4-6 7-5 6-1.

So let's see who the quarterfinal pairs are (seedings are in brackets): Sabine Lisicki (15) vs. Angelique Kerber (8), Agnieszka Radwanska (3) vs. Maria Kirilenko (17), Serena Williams (6) vs. Petra Kvitova (4), Tamira Paszek vs. Victoria Azarenka (2). As you can notice, the resurgent Paszek is the only unseeded player in the quarters. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Yaroslava Shvedova yesterday at Wimbledon became the first woman in history to win a set without losing a point and the first player male or female to do so at a Grand Slam. Tennis stats are a never-ending source of amusement and the Theme Group design agency put together a fun and light infographic showing some interesting tennis/Wimbledon facts. Did you know that only seven Wimbledons since 1922 have seen no rain? All the Wimbledon events from 1931 to 1976 were rainy!

If you don't see the below infographic clearly enough, click here for the PDF version. Enjoy the stats before the Day 7 action starts!

And when tennis stats are the topic, we can't miss to mention our statistical contributor Omair, who created his blog as well, and one of his latest articles is discussing how seeds No.2, No.3 and No.4 have never lost an opener at Wimbledon in the Open Era, while such a defeat has happened to the top seed three times.

A few months ago, somewhere in March or April 2012, Ana Ivanovic broke up with boyfriend Adam Scott and during a Wimbledon interview the Serbian beauty confirmed that she is still single.

Here's how Ivanovic explained her relationship status (translated from Serbian source Puls):

I don't have a boyfriend… Hahaha… For now I'm single. Tennis is most important in my life right now, but in the future I plan to get married and have lots of children. That's my wish.

The 24-year-old also talked about her post-tennis career plans:

I love fashion and I'm planning to create a line with Adidas. Gabriela Sabatini did something similar. When my career is over, I know what I will be doing, but I will not be a TV commentator.

Ivanovic and Scott started dating in the beginning of 2009, but they did have one break-up, probably somewhere in September 2010, while news about their reunion hit the media in August/September 2011. So according to our records, this latest should be the second split.

At the ongoing Wimbledon, Ivanovic has progressed to the second week, beating Julia Goerges in the third round 3-6 6-3 6-4 to set up a last 16 meeting with world No.2 Victoria Azarenka. Ivanovic has now reached the fourth round of three of the last four Grand Slams. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Golden set – that's what Yaroslava Shvedova produced today without even realizing it. The Kazakh won 24 straight points against none other than tenth seed Sara Errani, runner-up at the latest Roland Garros, and bageled the Italian in the first set of their third-round Wimbledon encounter without losing a single point. Never before in the Open Era did a WTA player achieve such a feat.

The set lasted only 15 minutes! To make it even better, in that set Errani made only one unforced error! No winners, though. Shvedova hit 14 winners to zero unforced errors.

Despite the impressive streak of points won, only after the match, in the gym, did Shvedova learn that she won the set in such a way and she never even knew that a golden set existed.

Supposedly, there was a golden set in men's tennis in 1980, but in women's as far as in the 1940s, before the Open Era.

Let's not forget to mention that wildcard Shvedova won the match, after a closer second set, 6-0 6-4. Her fourth-round opponent will be Serena Williams, who made a landmark in her career as well, by hitting 23 aces in the 6-7(5) 6-2 9-7 third-round victory against Zheng Jie, bettering her previous record of 20 aces. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)