Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev fought their way into the Wimbledon round of 16 with taker qualities and good morals.
The 2018 in London victorious Kielerin won on Saturday after a welcome rain break 2: 6, 6: 0, 6: 1 against Alexandra Sasnowitsch from Belarus.
Then Zverev defeated the American Taylor Fritz 6: 7 (3: 7), 6: 4, 6: 3, 7: 6 (7: 4) in the same place in his third round match.
While Zverev has to deal with the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime after the game-free Sunday and wants to go to the quarter-finals for the first time in the second attempt, Kerber meets US young star Coco Gauff in a duel between the tennis generations this Monday. The 17-year-old is number 20. "It will be a really interesting match," said Kerber before the first duel between the two. “It's dangerous, especially on grass. She has the fire. "
In place number two, where Kerber struggled for more than three hours to win against the Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo on Thursday, it was 0: 4 on Saturday after just twelve minutes.
Sasnowitsch played much more forcefully than the previous opponents and attacked uncompromisingly from the first rally.
Left-hander Kerber lost her initially too weak serve against the 27-year-old from Minsk, who made it to the round of 16 three years ago - when Kerber won the title - twice.
After 20 minutes and three balls to 2: 5, the match was interrupted because of rain and Kerber was given time to think.
It only continued after 1:45 hours of waiting, Kerber shortened to 2: 5, but the set was gone a little later, also because Sasnowitsch had the much better serve.
"I missed the start a bit in the first set," said Kerber and tried to analyze the match with her team during the break.
“They tried to motivate me, it worked.” Then she implemented the plan that she actually wanted to start with earlier.
The former number one in the world now increased the pressure, benefited from more mistakes in the world rankings 100.
and hit better.
With an ace, the 33-year-old finished the game after 1:15 hours.
Then Zverev met harder resistance for the first time in the tournament and found it harder.
The 24-year-old missed two breakballs in the first game against the serving Fritz and then gave up a set in the tie-break for the first time.
He vented his anger about his own game and received a warning for hitting the ball away.
But very gradually the Hamburger rose against the number 40 in the world. Fritz, who had operated on his right knee just under a month ago, could not maintain his level in the meantime and gave Zverev the break to 5: 3 in the third set with a double error. The 23-year-old then held his service games against the now pressure-making Zverev, so that the tie-break also had to decide in the fourth set. There Zverev developed the decisive advantage thanks to a strong defense and used the first match ball with his own serve after 2:37 hours.