London: Kevin Anderson, the 2018 runner-up, was dumped out of Wimbledon on Friday, leaving just four of the top 10 seeds in the tournament. Anderson, whose season has been interrupted by an elbow injury, slumped to a shock third round 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Argentina's Guido Pella, the 26th seed. The South African's defeat means that only Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori remain of the top 10 seeds who started out.
Pella goes on to face 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic for a place in the quarter-finals. In the women's event, Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova reached the fourth round for the second successive year with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win over Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan. Pliskova, who fired 14 aces and 42 winners, will next face compatriot Karolina Muchova, the world number 68, who put out Estonian 20th seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (9/7), 6-3. On the women's side, there will be a new name adorning the trophy as defending champion Angelique Kerber went out in three sets to lucky loser Lauren Davis 2-6 6-2 6-1.
She put out Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic 7-5, 6-3 and next meets unseeded Chinese player Zhang Shuai. World number 60 Zhang made the fourth round for the first time, coming back from 0-4 down in the opening set to beat former world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 who failed to see eye-to-eye with the Hawk-Eye line call review system. On Friday, she fired 26 winners against just eight for Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion.
Wozniacki's affection for the tournament would not have been helped by her unhappiness at what she claimed to be a number of poor calls by Hawk-Eye. "You trust that it tells you the right thing. Sometimes you do see the balls a little differently than Hawk-Eye," said the 28-year-old. The umpire, she claimed, offered to get the system looked at, for the next match on Court Two.
- Agence France Presse
