Wimbledon day seven: Elina Svitolina pulls off epic win as curfew strikes again
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Elina Svitolina’s memorable win over Victoria Azarenka capped a dramatic middle Sunday at Wimbledon.
Svitolina won a deciding tie-break on Court One, while Iga Swiatek saved two match points to survive against Belinda Bencic and Andrey Rublev emerged triumphant in a near three-and-a-half-hour battle with Alexander Bublik.
But the Wimbledon curfew came into play once again as Novak Djokovic was forced off when leading Hubert Hurkacz two sets to love.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at how day seven unfolded.
Azarenka boos tarnish classic match
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Belarusian Victoria Azarenka left Court One to a chorus of boos after losing a dramatic fourth-round contest to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
The crowd had been overwhelmingly behind Svitolina throughout and produced a deafening roar when she clinched a 2-6 6-4 7-6 (9) victory.
The former world number three had been booed at the French Open for refusing to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents but here it was Azarenka, who put her hand up to acknowledge Svitolina before leaving the court, that received loud jeers.
It was unclear whether the fans thought it was she who had snubbed her opponent and Azarenka gave a long, lingering stare before banging her fists together as she walked off.
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Iga for success after narrow escape
World number one Iga Swiatek outlined her title credentials after she saved two match points to come through a marathon match with Belinda Bencic and reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
Swiatek looked down and out at 5-6 in the second set, but she produced her best tennis with two sumptuous winners to turn the tie around.
The four-time grand slam champion continued to be pushed all the way by Olympic gold-medallist Bencic in a tense third set before she eventually prevailed 6-7 (4) 7-6 (2) 6-3 after a three-hour epic on Centre Court.
It sent Swiatek through to the last-eight at SW19 for the first time and having won the junior title here previously, she will march on with renewed belief this could be her year on her least favoured surface.
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I can’t control the crowd. I’m not sure that a lot of people were understanding what’s happening, so… It’s probably been a lot of Pimm’s throughout the day.
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