World No.1 Iga Swiatek is on cruise control as she heads to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon for the second time in her career.
On Friday, she topped No. 30 seed Petra Martic of Croatia 6-2, 7-5 to move on. In her three matches in London — beating Martic, Sara Sorribes Tormo, and Zhu Lin — Swiatek has lost just 13 games.
Swiatek, of Poland, has four Grand Slam titles but never has reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. She’ll have that chance Sunday when she meets No. 14 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland on the grass courts in London.
Bencic moved on to the fourth round by defeating No. 23 Magda Linette, also from Poland, 6-3, 6-1.
“I’m really up for the challenge,” Bencic said of the match with Swiatek. “I’m excited to play her. I think I’m a player that I play well against top players.”
She has played the World No. 1 seven times and has four wins — three against Naomi Osaka and another over Serena Williams.
Swiatek is 2-1 in head-to-head meetings against Bencic, but they’ve never played on grass.
Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus didn’t have as easy of a time, pushed by Varvara Gracheva of France 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Other top seeds on the women’s side — No. 4 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and No. 9 Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic — all moved on. Because of a juggled schedule due to rain, Pegula’s match was a third-round competition; Jabeur and Kvitova played in the second round.
Awaiting Jabeur in the third round is former U.S Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada, who beat Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7).
Another Ukrainian, Elina Svitolina, took another step forward in her return from maternity leave, beating former Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin 7-6 (3), 6-2.
In the most entertaining match of the day, Lesia Tsurenko, also from Ukraine, and Ana Bogdan of Romania played the longest women’s singles tiebreak in Grand Slam history. The needed 38 points to settle the third-round match, which Tsurenko won 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (18).
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the 19th seed, knocked out 11th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-2, 6-4.
Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova needed three tiebreaks to beat Madison Brengle in their second-round match 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7). It was the first time a women’s singles match needed three tiebreaks at Wimbledon in the Open Era.
Other winners include No. 26 seed Madison Keys, Czech Marketa Vondrousova and Russian Anna Blinkova.
–Field Level Media