Third quarter-final
Just as Dominika Cibulkova had emphasised her displeasure about being denied a Wimbledon seeding by the elevation of seven-time champion Serena Williams, she has since made her on-court intentions equally clear. The world No.33 has reached her third quarter-final at the All England Club, and is yet to drop a set.
Cibulkova overpowered Su-Wei Hsieh 6-4, 6-1 in a match that contained 11 service breaks in its one hour, 22 minutes. So thrilled was Cibulkova with the result that when a Hsieh return sailed long on the first match point she threw herself onto the worn baseline on court 18 and celebrated almost as if she had won the title.
Given the seeded exodus from the ladies' singles draw, the Slovakian still might. At a Championship now bereft of top 10 seeds, the 2014 Australian Open finalist plays No.12 Jelena Ostapenko for a place in her third Grand Slam semi-final.
"She won a Grand Slam, so she know what it takes,'' Cibulkova said of her Latvian opponent. "You never know what to expect from her. In this tournament, she seems to be in the right mood. She's playing with no fear. She just going for it. I think it's going to be a match with a lot of rallies, aggressive rallies, a lot of winners.''
The match erupted into controversy as Hsieh was serving to stay in the first set at 4-5. At 0-30, a Cilbulkova backhand return was called long, but successfully challenged by the Slovakian. The issue was that Hsieh had played the ball back safely, so had not lost the point, which chair umpire Juan Zhang had erroneously awarded to Cibulkova.
Play was halted while Hsieh argued she had not lost the point, and insisted on the referee being called, as Zhang said she could not recall where Hsieh’s shot had landed. Cibulkova could have cleared up the confusion but chose to stay well away until summoned, then protested when told the point would be replayed.
The right decision had been made, but though Hsieh won the first two points after the resumption to reach 30-30, Cibulkova claimed the next two. With a swing volley winner, the world No.33 closed out a 50-minute set in which there had been an extraordinarily long delay.
Cibulkova maintained that the original decision should not have been altered. "It never happened to me in my career that this would happen. Just a player is complaining. Sometimes I'm also complaining because I think it was a wrong call.
"But it never happened to me that the umpire changed the decision. It was really ridiculous for me. I think it was really bad decision from the supervisor and from the umpire.
"This happened to me so many times that I had exact the same point, and the point was given to the other player. I had no sympathy because it's just about the chair umpire. It happened to me many times.
"I'm a fair player. When I feel like this is something that should not happen, I would be maybe sympathy with her. For my opinion, this was not right what they do, what they did.''
The second set was far more emphatic. Hsieh still struggled to hold her own serve, but was now unable to break her more aggressive opponent’s. The world No.48 from Chinese Taipei, who had eliminated top seed Simona Halep from match point down on Saturday, won just four points on her second serve and 14/37 on her first.
Having served so well in earlier rounds, particularly the second against British hope Johanna Konta, the diminutive Cibulkova struggled at times against the fine Hsieh return. "My serve is always the toughest part for me during the match. Always something I can really struggle with, even (though) I practice my serve as I do my forehand, backhand, even more sometimes.
"For me, it's a lot about the timing. If I get nervous, I'm missing the timing, I cannot get back into the good rhythm in the serve... I knew I can break her serve every time when I will be focused and playing well. So I was calm.''
Thus, after a disappointing year, and having won just one lead-in match on her two tournaments on grass, Cibulkova has equalled her Wimbledon results from 2011 and 2016. The 2016 WTA Finals winner has been as high as No.4 in the world, but, for all the kerfuffle about her (lack of) seeding, the missing number beside her name this time seems not to have bothered the feisty 29-year-old at all.
"Sometimes you don't know when it's coming,'' Cibulkova said. "I was really training well, working hard in last few months. I was just waiting for actually really this one tournament that all the things going to start to come together. It's just here. I think it's because I was doing the right things. I'm really happy it's happening here in Wimbledon.''
