LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) – Second seed Elena Rybakina’s hopes of a second Grand Slam title this year and taking over as world number one ended at Wimbledon on Saturday as she faded to a 7-6(4) 6-1 third-round defeat by inspired Belgian Elise Mertens.
The Kazakh never recovered from losing a first-set tiebreak and 25th seed Mertens seized control thereafter to reach the last-16 at Wimbledon for the fourth time.
Rybakina, who added this year’s Australian Open title to her 2022 Wimbledon crown, needed to reach at least the quarter-finals to have a chance of overhauling Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the WTA rankings.
But she produced a flat performance on Court One against the wily 30-year-old Mertens whose greater variety proved decisive in her only her second win over Rybakina in nine meetings.
Mertens, a reigning Wimbledon doubles champion, won nine points in a row during one dominant spell in the second set and although she showed a few nerves when serving for the match she ended the contest with an ace.
She will fancy her chances of posting a best-ever Wimbledon run with Czech Marie Bouzkova up next.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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