• Wimbledon

Wozniacki through but Li crashes out

ESPN staff
June 27, 2014
Caroline Wozniacki reached the fourth round with a straight-sets victory against Ana Konjuh © Getty Images
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Former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki eased into the fourth round at Wimbledon as second seed Li Na crashed out on Friday.

The Australian Open champion suffered a shock exit as she lost 7-6(5) 7-6(5) to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.

Li, who had reached to the quarter-finals three times before at Wimbledon, looked out of sorts for most of the match on No.1 Court, even failing to take a set point in the second set.

Zahlavova Strycova called her win over Li the biggest of her career. Li won the first of her two grand slam titles at the French Open in 2011.

"When you go on court you have to believe in yourself," world No.43 Zahlavova Strycova said. "I thought I could do it and I was pushing myself a lot."

The Czech player thought she had won the match and went to the net to shake Li's hand after a forehand was called out. But Li challenged the call and the ball was ruled in, continuing the match - until Li double-faulted on match point.

"I was so happy already that the match is over, and then suddenly she took the challenge and I had to get back to my concentration," Zahlavova Strycova said.

Earlier, after mid-morning rain had delayed the start of play by about 30 minutes, Wozniacki secured a 6-3 6-0 win over Ana Konjuh of Croatia.

In the battle of the former champions, Petra Kvitova battled past five-time winner Venus Williams 5-7 7-6(2) 7-5 in two and a half hours on Centre Court.

Elsewhere, Simona Halep, who lost the French Open final to Maria Sharapova, progressed with a 6-3 4-6 6-4 win over Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in a second-round match.

It's the first time Halep has moved past the second round in her fourth Wimbledon.

Ekaterina Makarova, the 22nd seed, beat Caroline Garcia 7-5 6-3 and will next face fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who saw off Michelle Larcher De Brito 6-2 6-0.

In other results, Belinda Bencic, last year's junior girls' champion, defeated Victoria Duval 6-4 7-5 while another top 10 seed was dismissed on Friday as Lucie Safarova beat Dominka Cibulkova 6-4 6-2,

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