TENNIS/Wimbledon women's round-up:Kim Clijsters came back from a poor first set to knock her friend and great rival Justine Henin out of Wimbledon in their all-Belgian fourth-round encounter today.
Henin dominated the first set despite suffering an arm injury in a dramatic fall, but Clijsters suddenly found her form in an equally one-sided second set.
Clijsters stayed just in control of a tighter third set to claim a 2-6 6-2 6-3 success and book a spot in the quarter-finals against the woman who beat her in the semi-finals in her previous Wimbledon appearance in 2006.
Emerging Czech star Petra Kvitova pulled off the biggest upset of Wimbledon so far with a straight-sets win over Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki.
The 20-year-old unseeded Kvitova, who is ranked 62nd in the world, won 6-2 6-0 in just 46 minutes on Court Two to reach her maiden grand slam quarter-final.
She had not won a match on grass before putting out Sorana Cirstea in the first round but signalled her growing pedigree by knocking out two seeds, Jie Zheng and Victoria Azarenka, to equal her previous best grand-slam performance.
Five-times champion Venus Williams was given a testing workout in the blazing sun today before booking her place in the quarter-finals with a 6-4 7-6 win over Australia's Jarmila Groth.
One break of serve was sufficient for the American second seed to take the first set after 35 minutes on Court Two but her Slovak-born opponent fought back determinedly in the second.
Groth picked up a warning at the start of the second set for swearing after a line judge alerted the umpire, but she quickly put that behind her by breaking Williams for the first time in the opening game.
Williams’s serve began to miss its mark and Groth took full advantage, claiming the crucial point with a pinpoint forehand that the second seed could only dump into the net.
Williams battled to try to retrieve her break but Groth was initially simply too solid, hitting winners off both wings and continuing to keep her opponent at arm’s length with her serve.
But serving to level the match was always going to be a big test and in the end it was one Groth could not pass as she sent a makeable backhand long.
That brought Williams back to 5-5 but she found herself a break down again straight away as Groth took her second chance. Again the Australian could not serve it out, though, and the set went into a tie-break.
And this time 30-year-old Williams stamped her authority on proceedings, moving into a 4-0 lead. Groth was not finished, battling back to 4-4 thanks to some more unconvincing serving from Williams.
However, the American set up a match point, and it was another error from Groth that proved her undoing at the vital moment as a netted forehand gave the world number two a 6-4 7-6 (7/5) victory.
Jelena Jankovic made a sad fourth-round exit as she retired injured in the second set after being outplayed by Vera Zvonareva.
The Serbian fourth seed had taken an injury time-out after falling 6-1 3-0 behind, but the break clearly did not help and, despite starting the fourth game, she walked to the net to concede defeat.
It was not clear whether Jankovic had been troubled throughout the match by the injury, which appeared to be to her lower back.
RESULTS
Women's Singles fourth round:
(21) Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt (4) Jelena Jankovic (Ser) 6-1 3-0 ret
(9) Na Li (Chn) bt (7) Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 6-3 6-2
(2) Venus Williams (USA) bt Jarmila Groth (Svk) 6-4 7-6 (7-5)
Tsvetana Pironkova (Bul) bt (11) Marion Bartoli (Fra) 6-4 6-4
(8) Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt (17) Justine Henin (Bel) 2-6 6-2 6-3
Kaia Kanepi (Est) bt Klara Zakopalova (Cze) 6-2 6-4
(1) Serena Williams (USA) bt (16) Maria Sharapova (Rus) 7-6 (11-9) 6-4
(12) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Daniel Brands (Ger) 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 7-5 6-3