Rain halts matches to cap week of upsets

The fourth round matches were suspended because of rain; evoking memories of the past and capping a week of upsets at Wimbledon.

Many of the seeds in the gentlemen’s draw marched on to the second week while nine of the top 10 ladies were sent packing in the first week.

In the first round, American Sloane Stephens was defeated by Donna Vekic.

Fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina lost to German Tatjana Maria 7/6 (3); 4/6; 6/1 Carolina Garcia of France lost to Belinda Bencic 7/6 (2); 6/3.

The winner in the Birmingham warm-up Petra Kvitova was defeated, 64; 4/6; 6/0 in the first round by Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

In the second round, Caroline Wozniacki the second seed, lost to Ekaterina Makarova while the defending champion and third seed, Garbine Muguruza lost to Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 5/7; 6/2; 6/1.

In the third round, top-seeded, Simona Halep, world number one, lost a 5-2 lead in the final set to hand victory to Su-Wie Hsieh of China (Taipei).

Venus Williams lost a close 6/2; 6/7 (5); 7/5 match to Kiki Bertens of Netherlands and tenth seeded Madison Keys lost to Evgeniya Rodina.

In the gentlemen’s draw, sixth seeded Grigor Dimitrov lost in the first round to Stan Wawrinka, and seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem lost to Marcos Baghdatis 7/6 (4); 7/5; 2-0 retired. David Goffin the 10th seed, lost to Matthew Ebden of Australia 6/4; 6/3; 6/4 in 90 minutes.

In the second round, third seeded Marin Cilic lost a five-set battle to Guido Pella of Argentina while the fourth seed, Alexander Zverev lost a fifth set decider 6-0 to Ernest Gulbis of Latvia, in the third round.

Mother Nature prevented the fourth round matches, leading to a competition-free middle Sunday, as was the tradition in all Grand Slam tournaments years ago.