Marie Bouzkova upsets Caroline Garcia in third round of Wimbledon

While most tennis fans were focused on center court on Friday where world number two and 23-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat three-time grand slam champion Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-1, 7-6, there was an intriguing women’s match on Court 1 as world number 32 Marie Bouzkova of Prague, Czech Republic upset world number five Caroline Garcia of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France  7-6, 4-6, 7-5.

Key Statistics

Bouzkova dominated the first set tiebreak as she won all seven points. Bouzkova simply made the fewest mistakes and it was not even remotely close. Garcia had 53 unforced errors, while Bouzkova had 14 unforced errors.

Big win for Bouzkova

This was a big win for Bouzkova as Garcia was the fifth ranked player and 2022 United States Open semifinalist. Garcia is the second top 10 player that Bouzkova has beaten in 2023. Bouzkova also beat Coco Gauff of the United States 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the third round of Rome.

Who is up next for Bouzkova?

Bouzkova will next play fellow Czech Marketa Vondrousova in the fourth round on Sunday. Vondrousova was the Olympic silver medalist from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, and reached the 2019 French Open final. Vondrousova has won two WTA meetings against Bouzkova. Vondrousova won 6-1, 7-6 in the first round of Stuttgart in 2021 and 6-1, 6-1 in the second round of Indian Wells in 2023.

Garcia won one of three notable second round matches Thursday

Prior to losing to Bouzkova, Garcia had a notable victory as she beat Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez in the second round, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. Fernandez was a formidable opponent having reached the finals of the 2021 United States Open.

There were two other notable second round matches on Thursday. Two-time grand slam semifinalist Elina Svitolina (2019 Wimbledon and 2019 United States Open) of Ukraine defeated the 28th seed and 2018 Australian Open semifinalist Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-1, 1-6, 6-1, and Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, 2019 United States Open semifinalist and 14th seed, defeated Danielle Collins of the United States, the 2022 Australian Open finalist,  3-6, 6-4, 7-6.