Dimitrov ousts Tiafoe; Pegula, Vondrousova advance, Safiullin knocks out Shapovalov

LONDON: Grigor Dimitrov dispatched American 10th seed Frances Tiafoe in straight sets with a convincing 6-2 6-3 6-2 victory on Sunday to move into the fourth round of Wimbledon where he will meet Danish sixth seed Holger Rune.

Tiafoe arrived at the All England Club having captured his first grasscourt title at the Stuttgart Open last month but it was the experienced Dimitrov, a former semi-finalist here, who prevailed over two days.

Unseeded Russian Roman Safiullin reached his maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal when he secured a shock 3-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 win over Denis Shapovalov.

Safiullin becomes just the 12th man to reach the quarterfinals on his Wimbledon main-draw debut and next faces either Italian eighth seed Jannik Sinner who beat Daniel Galan of Colombia 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in another fourth round match.

Moreover, 4th seed Andrey Rublev reached the last eight stage as he beat Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4 on Sunday.

Jessica Pegula enjoyed one of those scarcely believable days at Wimbledon as her racket oozed winners left, right and centre in a 6-1 6-3 fourth-round destruction of luckless Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.

Tsurenko was left slapping her thighs and talking animatedly into her racket but no matter what she tried, it seemed like her game had slipped into a terminal coma.

Pegula took full advantage of her opponent's woes as she walloped thunderous winners from the baseline to streak into a 5-0 lead in 18 blinding minutes.

Perhaps still feeling the effects of the mammoth effort she put into overcoming Ana Bogdan in the previous round, when Tsurenko won the longest women’s singles tiebreak (20-18 in the third set) at a slam in the Open Era, the Ukrainian could do little to stop the on-fire Pegula's charge.

Marketa Vondrousova recovered from an error-strewn start to seal a quarter-final berth with a 2-6 6-4 6-3 victory over Marie Bouzkova in their all-Czech clash.

Vondrousova looked uncomfortable throughout the contest, committing 44 unforced errors, but held her nerve to grind out a win despite dropping the first set.

Vondrousova will next meet Jessica Pegula for a place in the semi-finals.

Having played just one match in the past three months coming into Wimbledon due to a stomach injury, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini rediscovered his best form to beat German 19th seed Alexander Zverev in a third round contest later on Saturday.

Playing Zverev on No. 1 Court in a match that began with the roof open and concluded with it closed after a brief second-set downpour, Berrettini used his weight of shot on serve and from the baseline to overwhelm Zverev 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in two hours and 27 minutes. Agencies

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