Wimbledon: Keys, Osaka knocked out Anisimova reaches last 16; lucky loser Sierra’s fairytale continues

LONDON: There were to be no Fourth of July celebrations for American Madison Keys as she joined the exodus of seeds from Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat by 104th-ranked German Laura Siegemund in the third round on Friday.

The sixth seed looked a far cry from the player who won her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year, racking up unforced errors - 31 in total - and wayward serves on a sun-drenched Court Two.

The match will not live long in the memory of those in attendance, save for 37-year-old Siegemund, who, after a trade of breaks early in the first set, went 4-2 up on Keys’ serve with a cute dropshot. From there, the German saw out the first set.

Keys broke in the first game of the second set with a whipped forehand crosscourt winner and roared “Come on!” as she geed herself up to get back into contention.

It did not work as Siegemund broke straight back and yet another unforced error from Keys handed a second break to the German.

Serving to stay in the match, Keys double-faulted for the fourth time, which summed up her afternoon as the Americans in the crowd became unusually reserved. She saved three match points but could not stop Siegemund from serving out the win.

The German, now the oldest player left in the women’s singles draw, jumped with glee upon sealing victory and will play her first ever Wimbledon fourth round against Argentine lucky loser Solana Sierra.

Naomi Osaka, back at Wimbledon without the trappings of a top-ranked player, looked every bit the Grand Slam great for a set on Friday. But the old rhythm ebbed away, and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova stormed back to win 3-6 6-4 6-4.

American Amanda Anisimova became the first American through to the last 16 of this year’s Wimbledon with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Hungary’s Dalma Galfi.

Britain’s Sonay Kartal also surged into the fourth round for the first time with a remarkable turnaround performance against French qualifier Diane Parry as she won nine games in a row to come from 4-1 down to triumph 6-4, 6-2.

Solana Sierra continued to make the most of her good fortune at Wimbledon as the Argentine became the first lucky loser to move into the fourth round of the grasscourt Grand Slam since tennis turned professional in 1968.

The 21-year-old squandered a match point and crashed in the final round of qualifying to Australia's Talia Gibson, but went into the main draw at the very last moment when Belgium's Greet Minnen pulled out and she has not looked back since.

After seeing off Australia's Olivia Gadecki and stunning local favourite Katie Boulter, she came through a challenging test against Spain's Cristina Bucsa to win 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 and dropped to the ground in celebration.

It took Benjamin Shelton just 71 seconds to punch his ticket to the third round on Friday. The American was already in command, leading Rinky Hijikata 6-2, 7-5, 5-4 when their match was halted Thursday night due to fading light at 9:29 p.m. local time.

Sixteen hours later, Shelton strode back onto No. 2 Court with one goal: finish it quickly. Four crisp swings of the racquet later, it was game, set, and match as per ATP. “He [the supervisor] said it was a five-minute warning until Hawk-Eye went down. was telling him, ‘I only need 60 seconds.’ That was kind of my goal when I went out there today," Shelton explained of the decision to suspend play on Thursday. Agencies

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