World Number 18 Dominika Cibulkova battled past Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 5-7 9-7 in exactly three hours of epic tennis in the best match of the tournament so far. Cibulkova held a match point in the second set before being forced to save another match point in the third set.
Radwanska led 7-5 in their previous 12 head-to-head matches but Cibulkova beat her Polish rival in the 2014 Australian Open and in the recent Eastbourne semifinal (their only match on grass).
Cibulkova, winner at Eastbourne this year, got the only break of the first set in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. The Slovakian player failed to convert a double break point chance but served out for the set without facing a single break point.
There were seven breaks of serve in the second set. Cibulkova was the first to break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead but Radwanska broke straight back on her first chance to draw level to 2-2. Radwanska broke back three times in the second set immediately after dropping serve.
Cibulkova broke in the ninth game for 5-4 but Radwanska broke back as Cibulkova served for the match. In the 10th game Radwanska fended off one match point before breaking in the 12th game to take the second set 7-5.
The third set went on serve until the seventh game when Cibulkova broke to love to edge ahead 4-3 but Radwanska got the break back in the next game to draw level to 4-4. Radwanska held her serve in a hard-fought 11th game.
Both players battled for every point in the next games. At 5-5 Cibulkova earned several break points but Radwanska saved all of them.
At 7-6 Radwanska brought a match point but Cibulkova saved it with a forehand winner.
After getting her seventh break for 8-7 Cibulkova served for the match. She hit a forehand winner to convert her third match point. Cibulkova has reached her second Grand Slam quarter final.
This year’s Australian Open champion and number four seed Angelique Kerber beat Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-3 6-1 in little over an hour to become the first player to reach the quarter finals. Kerber has extended her win-loss record in her head-to-head matches against Doi to 5-0. In her previous clash against the Japanese player Kerber saved a match point in the first round.
Doi earned her only break point of the first set in the second game but she failed to covert it. Kerber got a double break in the third and ninth games to win the first set by 6-3. She broke twice more in the second and fourth games to race out to a 5-0 lead. Doi saved two match points at 0-5. The Japanese player earned her second break point in the sixth game but Kerber saved it to close out the match. Kerber will face either Simona Halep or Madison Keys in the quarter finals.
Kerber hit 17 winners to 7 unforced errors.
“I improved my serve a little bit, which is always important on grass. I was also more aggressive on it today, which worked very well. I think it was a really high level from both of us. I played really tough from the first point. I feel like my tennis is getting better and better with each match and this is what counts in the second week of a Grand Slam”, said Kerber.
Kerber reached the semifinals in 2012 and the quarter finals in 2014 at Wimbledon. Last year she lost in the third round. The German has reached the quarter final without dropping a set.
Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 6-3. They played their second match of their careers. Vandeweghe won their only previous match in Miami two years ago. The Russian player broke serve five times and made just seven unforced errors.
Pavlyuchenkova got the first break of the match in the fourth game of the opening set to take a 3-1 lead. Vandeweghe broke back in the seventh game at deuce for 3-4. Pavlyuchenkova got another break in the eighth game to take a 5-3 and served out for the set to 15 to win the first set 6-3. Pavlyuchenkova broke twice in the first and seventh games to build up a 5-2 lead. Vandeweghe got one break back in the eighth game for 3-5 but Pavlyuchenkova broke for the third time in the second set to close out the second set 6-3.
Pavlyuchenkova will face the winner of the biggest match of the day between Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
