Wimbledon 2024: Rybakina leads Team Yonex stars into the quarterfinals
Wimbledon 2024: Rybakina leads Team Yonex stars into the quarterfinals
London, ENGLAND – Former champion Elena Rybakina (KAZ) was among the Team Yonex stars who reached the quarterfinals on the Wimbledon grass.
At what has so far been a strong Grand Slam for the Japanese brand, it is already guaranteed that a woman swinging a Yonex racquet will play in Saturday’s women’s final on Centre Court. Rybakina, a head-to-toe Yonex ambassador and the only past champion left in the draw, was leading 6-3, 3-0 when Anna Kalinskaya retired on Centre Court, putting the Kazakh into the last eight at the All England Club once again. On the other side of the draw, the four women who advanced are all playing with a Yonex racquet.
Navarro reaches last eight for the first time
Coming into this summer’s Wimbledon, Emma Navarro (USA) was still looking for a first win on the lawns of the All England Club. The Team Yonex star has had an astonishing tournament so far, including beating a couple of Grand Slam champions along the way, winning a second-round all-Yonex showdown with Naomi Osaka (JPN) and defeating world No. 2 Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 under the Centre Court lights in the fourth round to progress into a first quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Navarro, whose family call her ‘Ice Girl’, looked cool, calm and in control when beating Gauff to go through to play Jasmine Paolini (ITA), another Team Yonex player who is having the best summer of her life.
Paolini’s first Wimbledon quarterfinal
Paolini’s brilliant play on the clay of Roland-Garros, where she reached her first Grand Slam final last month, has continued on the grass of the All England Club. Like Navarro, the Italian hadn’t won a match on these lawns before this summer’s Championships but she is a fast learner, which has propelled her into the last eight for the first time. Paolini took the opening set 6-3 in her fourth round against Madison Keys before dropping the second 6-7(5), and it was 5-5 in the deciding set when her opponent retired because of injury.
Best Wimbledon ever for Vekic
For the first time, Team Yonex’s Donna Vekic (CRO) has reached the last eight on the Wimbledon grass, her reward for beating Paula Badosa 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. The unseeded Vekic went through to face Lulu Sun, a qualifier from New Zealand
Breakthrough for American star Paul
Tommy Paul (USA) has already won nine matches on London’s grass courts this summer. The first five of those wins brought the American his first ATP title on the surface, at the Queen’s Club in the city, and the next four have taken him into the quarterfinals of the men’s singles at the All England Club for the first time. For the second match in a row, Paul won in straight sets, going through 6-2, 7-6(3), 6-2 against Roberto Bautista Agut.
Elena Rybakina (KAZ) | VCORE 100 [LINK] / POLYTOUR FIRE 125 [LINK] / ECLIPSION [LINK] / APPAREL [LINK]
Emma Navarro (USA) | VCORE 98 [LINK] / POLYTOUR REV 125 [LINK]
Jasmine Paolini (ITA) | VCORE 100 [LINK] / POLYTOUR PRO 120 [LINK]
Donna Vekic (CRO) | VCORE 100 [LINK] / POLYTOUR REV 125 [LINK]
Tommy Paul (USA) | VCORE 98 [LINK]