Tag: Ashleigh Barty

Photo Courtesy of Steven Pisano

Top Seeded Barty Loses and Gauff’s Phenomenal Run Comes to an End

Wimbledon’s fourth round with the final 16 players left in the Ladies’ Singles took place today. Five of the top ten seeds were left in the field entering today, but only two would remain when the day was over.

The biggest upset of the day was top seeded Ashleigh Barty getting beat by unseeded Alison Riske. Barty was able to win the first set 6-3 but Riske rallied back to win the last two sets 6-2, 6-3. This will be the first time Riske has ever made it further than the fourth round of any Grand Slam tournament. Riske will play 11th seeded Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.

Barty was looking good heading into Wimbledon having won the last Grand Slam tournament this year, the French Open, and making it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open earlier this year. Her number one ranking is not at stake since the number three ranked player in the world, Karolina Pliskova, the last player who could surpass her, lost today as well. Pliskova was defeated by Johanna Konta 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 today. If Pliskova had made it to the semifinals she would have been the new number one.

Earlier this year former number one Naomi Osaka talked about the pressure of being the number one ranked player and how freeing it was to not have the number by her name anymore. When Barty was asked if the number one ranking had changed her she had a very different and more relaxed response compared to Osaka.

No, I haven’t lived my life any differently. But there’s a little bit more attention… For me nothing has really changed. I try and go about it the same way, the right way. The way that I believe works for me and my team… If we can hold onto the number ranking it’d be great. But if we don’t it’s not really going to change anything that we do between now and our next event.”

Perhaps the match most people were tuning into involved the youngest player and lowest ranked player in the tournament, Coco Gauff. She had the hard task of facing the seventh ranked player, Simona Halep. On paper it seemed like Gauff would struggle, but if tennis was played merely on paper Gauff would not even be playing in Wimbledon.

Not only was Gauff the underdog heading into the match, but she was also be sick throughout the match with what appeared to be stomach pains. Whether it was her inexperience, her stomach pains or a combination of both Halep looked like the superior player through the majority of the match. Gauff lost in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 and only lasted one hour and 15 minutes. After the match, just like she was gracious in victory she was equally gracious in defeat and did not blame the sickness giving all the credit to Halep on a great match. Halep will play unseeded Shuai Zhang in her next match.

The final upset on the day was the 21st seeded Elise Mertens being beat by unseeded Barbora Strycova by a score of 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. With Strycova’s victory the quarterfinals will have a seeded and unseeded player in every match.

The quarterfinals begin tomorrow at 8 am ET with S. Williams playing Riske and Halep playing Zhang. Then followed up at 9:15 am ET (time subject to change) by Konta playing Strycova and Elina Svitolina playing Karolina Muchova. The matches will be broadcasted on ESPN and ESPN2.

Graphic Courtesy of Natalie Dettmer

WOW Sports Now Providing Coverage for Tennis Starting With Wimbledon

WOW Sports is happy to announce that we have expanded our coverage to now include tennis. With Wimbledon starting tomorrow we thought it was the perfect time to officially add our second sport. We will still continue our coverage of the Women’s World Cup followed up with overall soccer coverage.

We will provide current world rankings, tournament insight with schedules and analysis. Feel free to go to our “Tennis” page and check out our coverage.

Tennis has a rich history and is beloved by millions of people. Wimbledon is a staple tournament in the sport known for its fresh grass courts and all white apparel requirement.

128 women will compete in the singles portion of Wimbledon starting on July 1st and the final two players will square off on July 13th.

There are 36 different nations represented at the tournament with the most being from the United States having 18 athletes. The highest ranked American at Wimbledon is Sloane Stephens at ninth with Serena Williams not far behind ranked 11th.

The number one overall ranking belongs to Australian, Ashleigh Barty. She clinched the top seed by winning the Birmingham Classic on June 24th. The 23-year-old will look to add to her recent slew of victories most notably her win at the 2019 French Open.

When Barty was named the top seed she dethroned Japanese player, Naomi Osaka, who had the infamous win over Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open and followed it up with a win at the 2019 Australian Open.

Angelique Kerber of Germany currently ranked fifth in the world will look to retain her Wimbledon title she won in 2018. Kerber defeated S. Williams last year in the final match, but if the two win their matches respectively they would face off in the semifinals this year.

The top half of the Wimbledon bracket does seem to be more daunting and full of heavy favorites compared to the bottom half. Barty, S. Williams, Kerber, Kiki Bertens (ranked fourth), Stephens and Petra Kvitova (ranked sixth) all encompass the top half. While Osaka, Arvna Sabalenka (ranked tenth), Simona Halep (ranked seventh), Karolina Pliskova (ranked third) and Elina Svitolina (ranked eighth) make up the bottom half of the bracket.

Nine of the last ten Wimbledon champions are all in the top half of the bracket and Marion Bartoli is the only exception to the last ten years winning the 2013 Wimbledon title, but she has since retired. Venus Williams (ranked 44th) is the only player on the bottom half the bracket to win Wimbledon since the turn of the century winning in 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2008.

There have only been nine different Wimbledon winners since 2000 with the majority of those titles going to S. Williams who has seven.

Will a new champion be crowned this year or will the usual winners prove Wimbledon is made for the experienced veterans? Find out by staying up to date on WOW Sports and by watching the matches on ESPN with coverage starting tomorrow at 6:00 am ET on ESPN3 and ESPN+.