Alison Riske of Pittsburgh, PA delivered one of the most memorable tennis victories of her career on Monday. On court two at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Riske beat world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
A major reason why Riske beat Barty came down to unforced errors. Riske only had 15, while Barty had 25. Barty also only won 37% of the points on her second serve as she had 14 points compared to Riske’s 24 points.
Riske also capitalized on her limited break point opportunities. Throughout the match, Riske only had four break point chances, but every time got the break. Barty meanwhile had five break point chances, but only got two breaks.
The draw simply does not get any easier for Riske however. On Tuesday in the quarterfinals, Riske will have to face one of the best female tennis players of all time in seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, the 11th seed, of Saginaw, MI. This will be their first career matchup, even though Riske has been on the WTA Tour the last 11 years.
Riske becomes the sixth American female quarterfinalist in singles action at a grand slam this year. She joins Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, FL and Serena Williams, who both reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and Amanda Anisimova of Freehold Township, NJ, Madison Keys of Rock Island, IL, and Sloane Stephens of Plantation, FL, who reached the quarterfinals of the French Open.
There will be three other women’s quarterfinal matches. They are the 19th seed, Johanna Konta of Great Britain versus Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, seventh ranked Simona Halep of Romania against Shuai Zhang of China and eighth ranked Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
Muchova delivered another huge upset on Monday in the round of 16. She defeated her fellow countrywoman, the third seed and 2016 U.S. Open finalist, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 7-5, 13-11. At one point, Pliskova was ranked first in the world.
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