By Matt Hardy
Iga Swiatek overcame a scare to progress through to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the first time last night on Centre Court.
The world No1 and favourite to win at the All England Club went a set down to Switzerland’s No14 seed Belinda Bencic before saving two match points in the second and fighting her way back to win 6-7 7-6 6-3 in three sets.
The result means Swiatek will face wildcard Elina Svitolina in the last eight after the Ukrainian beat seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on No1 Court – the duo did not shake hands after the match and Azarenka was harshly booed by the crowd.
First time for Swiatek
“It wasn’t easy, she had a match point and I don’t even know if that’s happened in my career [saving a match point before going on to win],” Swiatek said after the win.
“I’m really happy because I feel like I needed that win to believe in myself a little bit more on this surface.
“It was not easy but I wanted to be solid and I am happy I was disciplined.”
Elsewhere 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva reached the fourth round of the Championships with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Anastasia Potapova yesterday.
The Russian qualifier will face Madison Keys this morning on No2 Court with a last eight tie against either second seed Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka or fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
If Andreeva were to win the tournament she’d be the youngest Ladies Singles winner since Martina Hingis won the title aged 16 and 278 days. Lottie Dod won Wimbledon in 1887 in the amateur era aged 15.
Elsewhere, Andrey Rublev took five sets to beat Alexander Bublik, having won the opening two sets before his opponent from Kazakhstan forced a decider, while American Jessica Pegula toppled Lesia Tsurenko 6-1 6-3 to earn a last eight tie against Markéta Vondroušová.
