Simona Halep suffers shock defeat to Hsieh Su-wei in Wimbledon third round
Karolina Pliskova the sole member of the top-10 seeds left in the women's singles draw after a remarkable week of shock results
Saturday 7 July 2018 18:15, UK
Top seed Simona Halep became the latest high-profile casualty of the opening week of Wimbledon after losing to Hsieh Su-wei in three sets.
Halep saw a match point saved during a tense third set and, despite being broken seven times, it was the Taiwanese world No 48 who edged through 3-6 6-4 7-5.
The world No 1 was unable to avoid the same fate as her fellow pre-tournament favourites, including defending champion Garbine Muguruza and second seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Victory for Hsieh means Karolina Pliskova is the only member of the tournament's top-10 seeds still in the draw at the All England Club.
After Halep started strongly to win the opener it was her 32-year-old opponent who responded well to force a deciding set.
Hiseh recovered from a 5-2 deficit and a match point in the 10th game to regain parity before she consolidated a break of serve with a tense hold to book a fourth-round meeting with Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated 15th seed Elise Mertens 6-2 6-2.
Last year's French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko eased past the challenge of Vitalia Diatchenko, who had defeated Maria Sharapova in the first round, with a 6-0 6-4 victory.
The 14th seed from Latvia will now meet Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career with a 6-3 6-1 win against 26th seed Daria Gavrilova.
Alison Van Uytvanck backed up her impressive victory over Muguruza with an assured 6-2 6-3 success against 28th seed Annett Kontaveit.
Next up for the Belgian is 14th seed Daria Kasatkina, after the Russian overcame Ashleigh Barty 7-5 6-3 to reach the last 16 for the first time in her career.
Two-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber, seeded 11th, underlined her grass-court credentials with a dominant 6-2 6-4 victory against 18th seed Naomi Osaka and will next face Belinda Bencic.
Bencic sent home another seeded player in Carla Suarez Navarro with a 6-1 7-6 (7-3) victory to continue her resurgence after injury travails.
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Our next tennis action comes from the German Open in Hamburg. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Arena from Monday, July 23 from 10am.
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