Champion kayoed with Wimbledon set for new queen
The last two Wimbledon champs standing in the women's draw got eliminated in the third round on Saturday, with the draw opening up even more kindly for the top seed Aryna Sabalenka, five-time grand slam winner Iga Swiatek and teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.
Krejcikova's reign ended sadly for the Czech ace as she had to have her blood pressure taken on court during a medical timeout, feeling dizzy and ill in the deciding set of her 2-6 6-3 6-4 defeat against 10th seed Emma Navarro.
The 29-year-old was still struggling afterwards, bending over with hands on knees before the tears started flowing at the back of the court as she faced the last two games of her reign.
"I was actually feeling worse and worse," said Krejcikova, the 17th seed who'll now crash out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. "It's very sad for me and very unfortunate."
Eleventh seed and 2022 champion Rybakina, unusually error-prone, had earlier suffered a rain-delayed 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 defeat to the ever improving 22-year-old Dane, Clara Tauson.
Not since Serena Williams won the crown for the seventh and final time in 2016 has a former champion triumphed in the women's event.
So this year's winner will be the ninth different victor in nine years, the longest such sequence in the Championships' venerable history.
Since Williams last triumphed, the winners have been Garbine Muguruza (2017), Angelique Kerber (2018), Simona Halep (2019), Ash Barty (2021), Rybakina (2022), Marketa Vondrousova (2023) and then Krejcikova.
Tauson's reward for the best win of her career is a last-16 meeting with Swiatek, who's looking increasingly impressive on grass with her latest 6-2 6-3 victory over Danielle Collins.
Andreeva will meet 10th seed Navarro after she eased past American world No.55 Hailey Baptiste 6-1 6-3 victory under the No.1 Court roof. The 18-year-old is now the highest seed left in the women's draw after Sabalenka.
Australian Daria Kasatkina's conqueror Liudmila Samsonova launched one serve at 128mph in her 6-2 6-3 victory, just fractionally short of the Wimbledon women's record of 129mph, set by Venus Williams in 2008.
She'll next meet Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro who beat Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska, the conqueror of Coco Gauff, 6-1 2-6 6-3.
The ladies' singles Round of 16 is set 🔒#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/SmV51TD5su
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2025
Belinda Bencic came from a break down in the third set against Elisabetta Cocciaretto to win the second-longest women's match of this year's Wimbledon, progressing 6-4 3-6 7-6 [10-7] in two hours and 58 minutes.
Former Olympic champion Bencic will play Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova - a straight-sets victor against Zeynep Sonmez - in round four.
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