Shock exits for Venus, A-Rod as Serena cruises
Five-time champion Venus Williams was ousted in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon on Tuesday, losing 6-2, 6-3 to 82nd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria. Sister Serena, meanwhile, stayed on course to keep the title in family hands.
Second-seeded Venus Williams, who had reached the Wimbledon final in eight of the past 10 years, was undone by a slew of unforced errors and double faults in the biggest upset of the women’s tournament.
In another surprise, 21st-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia rallied to beat two-time US Open winner Kim Clijsters 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal. Defending champion Serena Williams avoided the wave of upsets, beating China’s Li Na 7-5, 6-3, and moving closer to her fourth Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam.
Top-seeded Serena served 11 aces to take her tournament total to 73, breaking the record of 72 she set last year. She had 21 winners and just six unforced errors.
Venus never got going against the 22-year-old Pironkova, who was the lowest-ranked player left in the women’s draw and had never previously passed the second round of a Grand Slam. “I just didn’t get enough balls in today,” said Williams, who committed 29 unforced errors compared to just six for her opponent.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun sprang the biggest shock of the tournament on Monday when he stunned last year’s runner-up and fifth seed Andy Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7 in the fourth round on Monday. Roddick looked poised for a regulation win when he took the opening set in 39 minutes.
But Lu kept his focus and won tiebreaks 7-3, 7-4 to put Roddick under pressure and though the American took it to a decider the Taiwanese won through when he fired a forehand winner past the three-times finalist after four hours and 36 minutes.
Bhupathi-Mirnyi crash out
Mahesh Bhupathi and his Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi crashed out of Wimbledon after a shock defeat at the hands of Robert Lindsted of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania in the men’s doubles third round here. The fourth-seeded Indo-Belarussian duo lost 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(6-10), 6-8 to their 16th-seeded opponents in a third round match.
Rohan Bopanna remained the only Indian in fray in the doubles competition. Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi stormed into the quarterfinals after a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
— Agencies
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