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A18 SPORTS
Saturday 29 June 2019

Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova returns the ball to Kiki
Bertens, of the Netherlands, on day six of the Nature Valley
International tennis tournament at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne,
England, Friday June 28, 2019.
Associated Press
Kerber to play

Pliskova in

Roger Federer of Switzerland hits a ball during a training session at the All England Lawn Tennis Eastbourne final
Championships in Wimbledon, London, Thursday, June 27, 2019.
Associated Press EASTBOURNE, England (AP) court.” Bertens stumbled
Possible Federer-Nadal SF; — Reigning Wimbledon and hit her head on the
court at 1-0 in the second
champion Angelique Ker-
Venus faces 15-year-old ber will face Karolina Plis- set and went on to lose the
kova for the Eastbourne next five games.
By HOWARD FENDRICH 3, but that was reversed by Wimbledon’s title after semifinal oppo- Pliskova beat Caroline
AP Tennis Writer seeding system, which takes into account nent Ons Jabeur withdrew Wozniacki to win the East-
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Within the grass-court results over the past two years. with a right ankle injury on bourne title in 2017 after
first minute of the Wimbledon draw cere- The possible men’s quarterfinals are No. 1 Friday. losing to Dominika Cibulko-
Jabeur rolled the ankle on va the year before.
mony Friday there arrived a bit of informa- Djokovic against No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas,
tion many were wondering about: Roger and No. 4 Kevin Anderson, last year’s run- Thursday in the quarterfi- Kerber has a 7-4 record
nals and couldn’t recover against Pliskova and won
Federer and Rafael Nadal were indeed ner-up, against No. 6 Alexander Zverev on
set up for a potential semifinal meeting, one side of the field, and Federer vs. No. 8 in time for her second ca- their only previous meeting
reer semifinal.
on grass in Birmingham in
with Novak Djokovic possibly awaiting that Kei Nishikori, and Nadal vs. No. 5 Dominic
showdown’s winner in the final. Thiem on the other. Nadal-Thiem would Chasing her first title since 2015. Pliskova is 2-1 in finals
she beat Serena Williams in this season and won the
Toward the end of the proceedings came be a rematch of the 2018 and 2019 French
the most fascinating first-round matchup of Open finals, both won by Nadal. last year’s Wimbledon final, Italian Open last month.
Kerber will start her Wimble-
Kerber will play in the East-
all: 39-year-old Venus Williams, a five-time The women’s quarterfinals could include
champion at the All England Club, against Barty against No. 11 seed Serena Williams bourne final for the third don title defense against
time after losing in 2012 Tatjana Maria and is in the
15-year-old American Coco Gauff, the or No. 5 Kerber; No. 3 Karolina Pliskova
youngest player to qualify at the All Eng- against No. 8 Elena Svitolina; No. 2 Naomi and 2014. same quarter of the draw
as Williams and French
The second-seeded Plis-
land Club in the half-century Open era. Osaka against No. 7 Simona Halep; No.
In between, there were plenty of other 4 Kiki Bertens against No. 6 Petra Kvitova, kova didn’t face a single Open champion Ash Barty.
break point in beating Kiki There’s an all-American fi-
things to keep an eye out for once the the two-time champion who must decide
grass-court Grand Slam tournament be- whether to play after being sidelined with Bertens 6-1, 6-2. For Plis- nal in the men’s draw as
kova, it was her third con-
Taylor Fritz plays Sam Quer-
gins Monday, including the placement an injured left forearm.
of Venus’ younger sister, Serena, in what The quarter with Serena Williams, Barty secutive match dropping rey. Both are unseeded.
third-seeded
three games or fewer.
upset
Fritz
shapes up as by far the toughest quarter and Kerber also includes past Wimbledon
of the women’s field. She might need to champions Garbiñe Muguruza and Maria “I’m just pleased that I Kyle Edmund 7-6 (8), 6-3,
made it,” Pliskova said. “I while Querrey downed Ital-
beat defending champion Angelique Sharapova, and strong grass-court players
Kerber in the fourth round, then No. 1 Ash Julia Goerges, Belinda Bencic, Donna Ve- didn’t spend too much en- ian qualifier Thomas Fab-
Barty in the quarterfinals. kic, Kaia Kanepi and Alison Riske. Kerber ergy and too much time on biano 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3.q
Gauff grew up idolizing the Williams sisters, could meet Sharapova in the third round.
who have both been ranked No. 1 and At least the younger Williams, who as
own a combined 30 Grand Slam singles usual skipped the grass-court tuneup
titles. events, gets a chance to work herself
“They’re the reason why I wanted to pick into form. She opens against a qualifier,
up a tennis racket,” Gauff, who is ranked 162nd-ranked Giulia Gatto-Monticone
301st this week, said in an interview posted of Italy, then could face another quali-
on Wimbledon’s Twitter feed. “And I met fier in the second round.Nadal starts off
them both, and they’re both super-kind against qualifier Yuichi Sugita of Japan,
people, and I’m just super-happy and and Federer’s first opponent is Lloyd Har-
thankful that they chose to play tennis.” ris, a 22-year-old South African making his
With defending champion Djokovic in the Wimbledon debut.
top half of the men’s bracket, he’ll now Djokovic will get things going at Centre
only need to beat at most one of the No. Court on Monday against Philipp Kohlsch-
2-seeded Federer or No. 3-seeded Nadal, reiber, a former top-20 player who was
because they were drawn together in the a 2012 quarterfinalist at Wimbledon and
bottom half. beat Djokovic on a hard court at Indian
Nadal is ranked No. 2, and Federer No. Wells, California, this year. q