LONDON – On Day 6, the majority of women top seeds advanced to the round of 16, except tenth seed Angelique Kerber. Madison Keys is one of those women, which means four American women play in the next round.
Keys, seeded 21, defeated Tatjana Maria in straight sets in just a little over an hour. She joins fellow Americans Serena and Venus Williams and unseeded CoCo Vandeweghe into the round of 16. Her serves were on point. She slammed home nine aces and never gave up her serve. She managed to get in the majority of her serves on the first try and scored 86% of her first serve points.
“It felt good,” she said about the match. “You know, I thought I served really well. Just played really focused those two games that I was able to break. Then after that it was just really consistent with my serve and was able to keep the lead.”
Kerber lost to 20 seed Garbine Muguruza in three sets. The first set lasted almost an hour as neither woman wanted to be broken twice. One game lasted over 15 minutes before Muguruza emerged victorious. In the tiebreak, the ladies remained ferocious until Muguruza received a tiny break and then slammed home the winner to finally end the set.
“Well, very intense, I think is the word,” described Muguruza. “Very long match. Good rallies. Amazing points. We were fighting like crazy, both players. Yeah, intense.”
It was all Kerber in the second set, but it allowed Muguruza to gain back her strength. All of a sudden, Kerber collapsed in the third and allowed Muguruza to win the match.
Caroline Wozniacki, the fifth seed, demolished Camila Giorgi, seeded 31, in straight sets. Her game was cleaner and more precise. Giorgi committed nine double faults and 30 unforced errors. Before today, Giorgi led the series 2-1. Wozniacki managed to quiet down the doubters, but for some reason, she cannot progress past the round of 16 at Wimbledon. She plays Muguruza next week. Unlike last week, Woizniacki spoke about her next opponent.
“I actually haven’t watched her play here so far this week,” she said. “But I’ve had some tough matches against her in the past. She’s a big hitter. She plays really well. It’s going to be a difficult one. But I’m excited for the challenge and I’m happy to be in the next round.”
Swiss Timea Bacsinszky continues her breathtaking run through the last few tournaments. She broke out into the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last month, which led to a boost in rankings and a first time seed at Wimbledon. She blasted through her victory over 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki in the same fashion as her first two rounds.
Agnieska Radwanska continues to roll with her dominance of Casey Dellacqua. Monica Niculescu only needed two sets to defeat Kristyna Pliskova. Olga Govortsova moved on against Magdalena Rybarikova after a struggle in the first set. The qualifier is the first Belarus female besides Victoria Azarenka to reach the round of 16 at a Grand Slam. She is ranked 122 and plays Keys in the next round.