Manic Monday: Results That Matter

#FEDERER, ANDY SAIL THROUGH

The seven time Wimbledon champion opened proceedings on the centre court with a straight forward 6-2 6-3 7-5 win over American Steve Johnson. With this, Roger sets up a quarter final clash with Marin Cilic – the man who beat him last time, at Flushing Meadows.

Federer was on song from the moment he stepped on court, breaking Johnson twice to take the first set. The American who defeated Grigor Dimitrov the round before, never showed up on Centre Court as Federer exhibited a variety of shots to race to a two sets lead, in under an hour.

Johnson served well in the third set to stretch it a bit, but it was never good enough to trouble the Swiss as he raced to a record equaling 306 Grand Slam win and his fourteenth Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Favourite to win the title now, Andy Murray made a mockery of those who thought his encounter with flamboyant Australian Nick Kyrgios would be a close affair. After grinding his way to 5-5 in the first set, Murray changed gears to breeze through to the quarters with a  7-5 6-1 6-4 win. He is up against Frenchman Tsonga in the quarter final.

#RADWANSKA BOWS OUT

“It was the toughest match for me I would say in my whole career.” These words by Dominica Cibulkova sum up the magnitude of her win over the third seed Agnieszka Radwanska after the three hours thriller.

Aga’s brilliant defence and resurgence denied Cibulkova a straight sets win when she was serving at 6-3 5-4. Radwanska eventually took the set as the rallies kept on getting longer and closer to the lines. It was then a battle of service breaks in the third set as both players struggled to hold on to their serves. Cibulkova dictated the tempo of the match throughout and Aga was doing well to weather the storm. But in battles as brutal as these with margin of errors almost negligible, something had to give in. And it was the Polish third seed who finally crumbled, but not before being part of one of the matches of the tournament so far.
Cibulkova finally prevailed 6-3 5-7 9-7.

#WILLIAMS MARCH ON, HALEP FOLLOWS

In a rain interrupted match that saw two very different Serena Williams, Kuznetsova ended up on the losing side. Serena started slow and was down a break as the Russian served for the set at 5-4. The American was struggling with her timing due to the wind at Centre Court. But thanks to the weather gods, it rained and thr elegant roof was closed as Serena demolished the Russian in an indoor exhibiton of perfect grass court tennis. Winning 9 games in a row and hitting 43 winners, Williams cruised to a 7-5 6-0 win.

The elder Williams, Venus also made it to the quarters with a 7-6 6-4 over Spanish Suarez Navarro.

Fifth seed Simona Halep defeated Madison Keys after coming from a set down, 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3. Interestingly Halep hit just 13 winners in comparison to her opponent’s 32. With what appeared to be an achilles problem, Keys was just not fit enough during the course of the match and could not match up the Romanian. It were the 48 unforced errors from the American that ended up hurting her. Next up for Halep is the Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.

#RAONIC SURVIVES, NINJA FALTERS

Milos Raonic, for the first time ever, came from being two sets down to stage a remarkable comeback win over David Goffin. The Canadian fired 22 aces in his 4-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 win. Raonic recovered from an early struggle and powered to the quarters, where he faces the man who knocked out Novak Djokovic – Sam Querry.

Querry had no trouble in breezing past Nicolas Mahut in straight sets. The American leads the Canadian 2-1 in their H2H.

The Japanese wonder, Kei Nishikori pulled out midway through his fourth round match against Marin Cilic due to a rib injury. Cilic was leading 6-1 5-1 when Ninja Kei consulted the doctor and finally retired.