Fourth seed Alexander Zverev reaches fourth round; Putintseva stuns Iga Swiatek

LONDON: Fourth seed Alexander Zverev survived an injury scare and an epic third-set tiebreak to beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie and match his best Wimbledon run by reaching the fourth round for the third time on Saturday.

The German produced a sensational display of serving to win 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(15) - finally ending Norrie’s rugged resistance by converting his sixth match point.

Zverev, 27, dropped only two points on serve in the third set, although one of them was a double-fault that gave Norrie an early advantage in the tiebreak.

Norrie had five set points of his own to extend the contest and ask questions of Zverev’s knee which he appeared to strain when sliding and falling awkwardly early in the second set.

But Zverev, who struck the ball with clinical precision throughout the contest, never wavered and a Norrie cracked first on the 32nd point of the fiercely contested tiebreak, sending a shot over the baseline to end the duel.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard beat Emil Ruusuvuori 4-6, 6-2, 7-6, 6-4 while Arthur Fils beat Roman Safiullin 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.

Women’s top seed Iga Swiatek was stunned by Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the third round on Saturday. 29-year-old Putintseva beat Swiatek 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

In women’s section, Elina Svitolina beat 10th seed Ons Jabeur 6-1, 7-6, 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko beat Bernarda Pera 6-1, 6-3, Wang Xinyu beat Harriet Dart 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, Anna Kalinskaya beat Liudmila Samsonova 7-6, 6-2 while Barbora Krejcíková got walk over against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro when the score was 6-0, 4-3.

Jannik Sinner switched to cruise mode at Wimbledon as the world number one breezed past unseeded Serb Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 for a place in the fourth round on a damp Friday.

After his dogfight with fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini ended shortly before the 11 p.m. local curfew on Wednesday, the 22-year-old wasted little time under the roof on Centre Court.

A backhand rocket earned Sinner the early break and set the tone for the opening set, which he sealed in 21 minutes, dropping only one late game.

Kecmanovic came into the match with an uphill task, having never beaten Sinner in three previous meetings, and the 24-year-old did well to delay the inevitable in a tight second set.

He was soon staring down the barrel, however, as Australian Open champion Sinner broke for 5-4 before blasting three aces en route to tightening his vice-like grip with a two-set lead.

The winners continued to flow from Sinner’s racket as the lanky top seed raced to another huge lead in the third set, and Kecmanovic put himself out of his misery with an error.

American second seed Coco Gauff eased past British qualifier Sonay Kartal 6-5, 6-0 on a packed No.1 Court while former US Open winner and wild card Emma Raducanu maintained her chances by stunning ninth seed Maria Sakkari in straight sets to reach the fourth round.

The World No. 298 Kartal had walked out confidently onto the court on Friday, as only the second British woman in the Open Era to reach the third after coming through Qualifying. He might have been hoping to emulate Gauff, who had at this same court caused a sensation as a 15-year-old in 2019 when she stunned five-time champion Venus Williams.

But Kartal’s journey ended in just over an hour as Gauff raced past her, losing only four games in all.

As rain pattered on the closed No.1 Court roof, Gauff emerged easy victor to reach the second week and equal what remains her best performance here to date. The US Open champion will need to get past her fast-rising compatriot Emma Navarro in the next round if she has to extend her stay here.

While Gauff was getting the better of a local star, another one rose to the occasion and defeated a seeded player to reach the fourth round. Raducanu commandingly booked British representation in the second week of Wimbledon with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No.9 seed Maria Sakkari. Agencies

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