Pella ousts Anderson, Zhang stuns Wozniacki as Raonic tames Opelka

The top three seeds: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal remain way above all others at the on-going Wimbledon Tennis Championship, after Guido Pella of Argentina achieved an upset over the fourth seeded South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6/4, 6/3, 7/6 (4). Canada’s Milos Raonic defeated the lanky American Reilly Opelka 7/6 (1), 6/2, 6/1 on a day following successful outing by American players.

In the ladies’ event, China’s Shuai Zhang outplayed the 14th seed, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 6/4, 6/2.Anderson was at his usual serving best and registered 14 aces for the match. However, the result would have been different had he converted more than just one of the nine break opportunities. The Argentine also had difficulty clinching break points and succeeded only three times out of 11 opportunities. When Pella won the first and second sets, Anderson put up a stiffer challenge in the third in which he was ever serving to level each time Pella held the odd games. The third set was decided by a tiebreaker in which Anderson’s serves did not register and Pella, seeded 26, won by seven points to four for the set and match.

Raonic’s third round match with Opelka was touted as a battle of serves and it lived up to its billing in the first; each player held serve to six games apiece. The tiebreak however turned out a one-sided run for Raonic, who won by seven points to one. After that, the American’s resolve waned and the 15th seeded Raonic cruised to victory by taking the second set 6/2 and the third 6/1.

Opelka’s performance was a fallout from his grueling five-set victory over Stan Wawrinka in the second round. The American made only 13 aces while committing five double faults.

Raonic delivered 12 aces and had only two double faults. In the whole match, Reilly could not clinch any of three break chances, while his opponent converted four out of 10.

The eighth seed, Elina Svitolina from Ukraine won the first set 6/3, but the Greek lady, Maria Sakkari fought back to take the second set tie breaker in which Svitolina got only one point. In the decider, Sakkari was taken to deuce on her serve and dropped the fifth game. Svitolina cancelled a break point before holding for 4-2 and turned around to take the seventh game on Sakkari’s serve. Serving for the match, Svitolina reached three match points at 40-0 but lost them. She faced a break threat and cancelled it before winning the game and 6/2 for the match.

Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 14, dropped the first 6/4 to Shuai Zhang of China mainly on inability to convert break chances. She converted only three out of 14 break points in the whole match, while Shuai succeeded six out of 10 opportunities. That was the difference and Zhang won the second set 6/2 for a major upset.