Elena Rybakina powers past Petra Martic into first Wimbledon quarters

Kazakh 17th seed Elena Rybakina hit twice as many winners as unseeded opponent Petra Martic of Croatia on Monday to progress to her maiden Wimbledon quarter-final with a 7-5 6-3 victory.

The 23-year-old Rybakina, who switched to playing for Kazakhstan from Russia aged 19, hit 26 winners in the opening contest on Court One while committing five fewer unforced errors than the 80th-ranked Martic to control the match.

Rybakina, who reached the fourth round of the grass court slam on her debut last year, will play either France's Alize Cornet or Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia for a place in Thursday's semi-finals.

Rybakina, whose previous best result came at the French Open last year when she reached the last eight, started strongly on Monday to race to a 3-0 lead.

Martic rallied to reel in the next four games to put her nose ahead in the match only for the Kazakh to break back immediately to level things. Rybakina then got the crucial break in the 12th game to take the first set.

The second set stayed on serve till Rybakina cracked Martic's delivery in the sixth game and it proved enough for her to seal the win in an hour and 20 minutes.