Polish eighth seed Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for just the second time with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson on Monday.
Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam winner, has never made the Wimbledon final.
But the 24-year-old is in a strong position in the second week of the tournament after the exit of so many of the top seeds.
In the last eight, Swiatek will face Russian 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova, who beat Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
“Honestly it’s pretty amazing. It’s the first time I really enjoyed London. Sorry guys!” Swiatek said of her previous Wimbledon woes.
“We are tennis players, so we feel well off the court when we feel well on the court.”
Swiatek has lost in the semi-finals of both the Australian and French Opens this year.
But world number one Aryna Sabalenka is the only one of the top six women’s seeds still standing.
Although Swiatek has reached only one All England Club quarter-final, she made the Bad Homburg final on grass recently and also won the Wimbledon junior title.
Following her run at Bad Homburg, Swiatek admitted playing on grass had never been easy for her as she said “maybe there is hope for me” on the surface.
Despite her grass-court fears, the former world number one is three wins away from adding the Wimbledon trophy to her four French Open crowns and one US Open title.
Swiatek’s cause was helped by Tauson’s struggles on Court One as the Dane complained about the slippier court and called for a medical time-out between sets.
“Clara said at the net she wasn’t feeling well. I hope she is going to be fine,” Swiatek said.
smg/nf
© Agence France-Presse
