The defending women’s champion Petra Kvitova has been bundled out of this year’s Championships as only six of the top sixteen seeds have survived the first week at Wimbledon in the Women’s draw. The 2011 and 2014 champion from the Czech Republic who lost only a combined 3 games in her two matches so far, looked set for another routine win as she strolled to a 6-3 first set against the no. 28 seed and former world no. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia. The second set looked like headed for a tie-break but Jankovic who made only 11 unforced errors in the 1 hour 59 minute match kept up the pressure on the second seed Kvitova who wilted under pressure as she lost 6-3,5-7,4-6.

In the men’s section nine out of the sixteen seeds have gone on to justify their appointed places in the round of 16 as seven time champion Roger Federer and the 2013 champion Andy Murray dropped their first set in three matches against the Australian Sam Groth and the Italian Andreas Seppi, respectively. Groth served 21 aces including a 147 mph serve and fully deserved to win a set for his first match on the center court. Helped by a double fault from Federer in the third set tie-break, the Aussie won it 7-5. Federer then broke serve twice to wrap up the fourth set and never faced a break point in the 2 hour 15 minute match winning it 6-4,6-4,6-7(5),6-2.

The Scott Murray breezed through the first two sets winning by 6-2 each and then in a dramatic turn of events lost six games in a row losing the third set 6-1 and trailed 0-1 in the fourth having dropped serve in the opening game. At that point, Seppi had won 5 games in a row after taking an injury time out. In a dramatic turn of events, Murray then took an injury time out to treat his shoulder and it worked wonders as he raced through the next six games winning 6-2,6-2,1-6,6-1. In all, the person taking the injury time outs were 11-0 in this match.

Marin Cilic and John Isner resumed their battle on Saturday with the scores tied at 10-10 in the deciding set and it took only 15 minutes and two games for the U.S. Open champion Cilic to claim the fifth set 12-10. The in-form Victor Troicki capped a good day for Serbia by ousting Rafael Nadal’s conqueror Dustin Brown in four sets, while the 36 year old Croat Ivo Karlovic won all three tie-break sets in his four set victory over the Frenchman Jo Wilfred Tsonga.

In a battle of two French players, Giles Simon edged Gael Monfils in a somewhat strange match where only the third set was closely contested and Simon clinched it 8-6 in a tie-break. Simon won 159 points to Monfils 157 in the 3 hour 11 minute battle on court no. 1. Other winners on Day 6 were the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Canada’s Vasek Pospisil who defeated the crowd favourite James Ward of England 8-6 in the fifth set.

Following matches are to be played on Day 7 in the men’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Kevin Anderson (14)
Marin Cilic (9) v. Dennis Kudla
Nick Kyrgios (26) v. Richard Gasquet (21)
Stanislas Wawrinka (4) v. David Goffin (16)
Andy Murray (3) v. Ivo Karlovic (23)
Victor Troicki (22) v. Vasek Pospisil
Tomas Berdych (6) v. Giles Simon (12)
Roger Federer (2) v. Roberto Bautista Agut (20)

On the ladies’ section of the tournament, there were straight set wins for the former world number one Caroline Wozniacki who at seeded fifth is the highest remaining seed in the bottom half, American Madison Keys, Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Monica Niculescu of Romania. The Spaniard Garbine Muruguza needed three sets to advance.

Following is the list of matches to be played on Day 7 in the women’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Serena Williams (1) v. Venus Williams (16)
Victoria Azarenka (23) v. Belinda Bencic (30)
Maria Sharapova (4) v. Zarina Diyas
Lucie Safarova (6) v. Coco Vandeweghe
Caroline Wozniacki (5) v. Garbine Muruguza (20)
Timea Bacsinszsky (15) v. Monica Niculescu
Madison Keys (21) v. Olga Govortsova
Agnieszka Radwanska (13) v. Jelena Jankovic (28)

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]