But yesterday she beat Agnieszka Radwanska, the No 3 seed from Poland and a finalist in 2012, coming back from a set down and surviving a match point to win 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 in a marathon match lasting nearly three hours to progress to the quarter finals. The 2014 Australian Open runner-up has been on exceptional form in 2016, winning 35 of 46 matches in the process of reaching four WTA Tour singles finals; two of which ended in victory (most recently at Eastbourne two weeks ago).
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With little time before she is due to say her wedding vows, Cibulkova has decided the walk down the aisle will have to wait if she defeats Russian world number 50 Elena Vesnina in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Dominika Cibulkova is supposed to get married on Saturday but now she is planning to postpone the wedding.
“We chose the date because I never saw myself as such a great grass court player”, Cibulkova said after a three-hour epic against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, “but now I’ve won Eastbourne last week reached the quarter-finals here I have changed my mind”.
Cilic progressed when Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori pulled out of their last-16 clash with a rib injury in the second set.
The 19th seed, who is on a nine-match winning run on grass, served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and then had to survive a match point in the 12th game of the third set. We can postpone it [the wedding]’.
But Raonic was not about to get distracted by the downfall of top seed Novak Djokovic, who had entered Wimbledon as the holder of all four grand slam titles, and kept his eye on the ball ahead of a meeting with Belgian 11th seed David Goffin. When she led 7-6 and 30-0 on serve the match looked all but over.
Now both players were in first gear, going to toe-to-toe and more particularly backhand-to-backhand, with one fizzing cross-court exchange drawing gasps from the crowd.
“I felt really, really exhausted when the match was going on”, said Cibulkova.
Such displays of emotion are often unconvincing, but Cibulkova’s joy after the three-hour match was obvious, and Radwanska rounded the net to offer a hug of congratulations.
The 34-year-old insisted she would not think about a potential final against her sister – their first since 2009. She was putting over 61% of her first serves into play, as she sought to control the rallies and prevent Cibulkova from inflicting serious damage with her forehand.
“Tomorrow I will realise I had a great grass court season”.
Commentators describe the game as the most spectacular in the tournament so far.
“I am very surprised”, she said. But still, it’s a odd scenario in a sport that often has Top 25 players (she’s No. 18) make Grand Slam finales. Her fourth round opponent, Kazakhstan’s world no. 96 Yaroslava Shvedova was able to beat Ukraine’s world no. 20 Elina Svitolina in their second round match.
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The victor will progress to the semi-finals where they will take on either world No.1 Serena Williams or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
