Ons Jabeur continued her march towards a potential first grand slam at Wimbledon and looked good in doing so but the wait for Greece’s Maria Sakkari goes on as she was sent packing in the third round.
The Tunisian world no.2 dispatched former junior number one Diane Parry 6-2 6-3 to reach the fourth round. Jabeur raced into a 5-0 lead only for Parry to raise her game and make the contest a little more challenging.
Her hopes of causing an upset were quickly dashed as Jabeur raced to the last 16 of Wimbledon where she will take on Belgian 24th seed, Elise Mertens.
Jabeur, courtesy of her play, seems to be the likeliest candidate to stop the Swiatek juggernaut.
Mertens eliminated former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber 6-4, 7-5 to reach the last 16.
Her ouster was not as surprising as that of Maria Sakkari, who was eliminated from Wimbledon contention by Germany’s Tatjana Maria. The fifth seed lost 6-3 7-5 to the 34-year-old.
Ranked 103rd, the mother of two returned from maternity leave just under a year ago.
After a routine first set, she had to fight back from 5-2 down in the second set against Sakkari to exact revenge for her hard-fought defeat in the opening round of this year’s Australian Open.
Greek Sakkari, who reached the French and U.S. Open semi-finals last year, made 30 unforced errors and could only convert one of her seven break point opportunities.
Joining them in the next round are Jeļena Ostapenko, Jule Niemeier, Heather Watson, Caroline Garcia, and Marie Bouzková.
