Dominika Cibulkova did herself and her country proud today as she smashed world number one Caroline Wozniacki’s hopes of winning Wimbledon, after coming back from a 6-1 first set defeat to take the next two sets.
Although she got off to a shaky start, the young Slovak player picked herself up and gave Wozniacki a game to remember. She took the second set in a 7-6 tiebreaker and then kept her head to beat the world number one 7-5 with her third match ball to secure a place in the quarter-finals.
Cibulkova will now go on to play against Russian opponent Maria Sarapova, who is number five in the world rankings and who already won Wimbledon in 2004. The match will be played on the centre court on Tuesday, starting at 2pm.
Cibulkova’s victory makes her only the second Slovak woman in history to make it so far in the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, following in the footsteps of Daniela Hantuchova, who managed it back in 2002. The win also means a handsome £ 137,500 bonus and 500 points to shoot her up the WTA rankings.
Cibulkova classed the win over Wozniacki as one of the most satisfying of her career, even though she already beat her earlier this year in January. Let’s hope she becomes the first Slovak woman’s semi-finalist ever, or might she just go all the way.
Good news for sure. But if she’s NOT going to play Sharapova, who is she going to play? And whoever it is, it’ll be in the quarters, not the semis…