Wozniacki takes rollercoaster ride
No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki demonstrated her incredible mental resilience to come through an Aegon International thriller against Russian two-time Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Wednesday.
The Dane is through to the last eight after emerging from an up-and-down tussle 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-1 that, despite the score, was closely fought until the end.
Not many players would have been able to recover from losing an opening set from 5-1 up, blowing a set point in the process, and culminating in a tie-break in which Wozniacki inexplicably shed a bunch of uncharacteristic errors.
Yet the Dane shrugged off the disappointment as though it were nothing, fighting off a Kuznetsova who at times displayed the power and touch of her best days, but in the end was ground down into making poor tactical decisions and cheap errors.
"It's all about trying to get the momentum out there," said Wozniacki, the quintessential match player - and she succeeded in that on Wednesday.
Konta slays another seed
Eastbourne's own Johanna Konta's career best week is still alive. The world No.146 had reached her sole WTA quarter-final in September 2013, in the International-level event in Guangzhou, China. On Wednesday, she repeated the feat at a Premier-level event for the first time.
She did it in style, too - with one of the highest quality three-setters of the tournament, a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over No.14 seed Garbine Muguruza that earned her a standing ovation.
There are definitely some nerves there...but I'm just starting to enjoy them
The 21-year-old Muguruza is fresh off her second straight Roland Garros quarter-final. So far, so stereotypically Spanish - but at 6ft tall, she plays a thoroughly modern power game with a formidable serve, on Wednesday responsible for four aces, as its bedrock.
But Konta's serve has also been on song during this grass season, and it was her own weapons that were hitting their marks first. But for all her shotmaking - particularly a hooked forehand angle that confounded Muguruza time and again - Wednesday's victory was most impressive for Konta's mental strength.
The 24-year-old Brit has always had the shots - but also a reputation for ending up on the wrong end of tough matches. After Muguruza fought back to eke out a tightly contested second set, one feared it might be the case yet again. But it was Konta who came out for the decider with renewed vigour, speeding out to a 5-1 lead and leaving Muguruza flailing.
It turns out Konta had been thinking the same thing.
"I'm just happy I was able to stay tough because she really started picking up her level - I thought she was going to start running away with it!" she said afterwards. "There are definitely some nerves there, it would be strange if there weren't - but I'm just starting to enjoy them."
Watson resurgence comes to an end
Heather Watson had fought hard through two rounds, but came up an opponent in top form - and had no answers. American Sloane Stephens endured a sophomore slump last year following her semi-final breakthrough at the 2013 Australian Open - but the past few months have seen visible improvements to the technical weaknesses in her game.
Most impressively, her once-shaky backhand has become a shot of some quality: it is no longer sufficient to pound that wing to elicit an error or short ball, as Watson discovered. Indeed, it was the shot that closed out both sets for the 22-year-old, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win in one hour and 20 minutes.
Stephens will play lucky loser Daria Gavrilova in the quarter finals. The Russian - who is in the process of gaining Australian citizenship, and who is one of the year's most improved new faces - beat No.13 seed Sara Errani in a demonstrative and emotional 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 affair. The match was still notable for the Italian, though: it saw her hit a rare ace, just her third of the year.
Slumping Bouchard hit by injury woe
On Tuesday, Eugenie Bouchard gained just her second win in her last 13 matches - but it presaged not an end to her slump, but the added disappointment of injury.
The Canadian No.7 seed had last faced Belinda Bencic in the 2012 Junior Wimbledon semi-finals; then 18, she beat a 15-year-old Bencic 6-2, 6-4 en route to winning the whole event. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, and it was the tactically-minded Swiss who snuck out an opening set over her opponent's one-dimensional power. Having lost the first 12 points of the second set, Bouchard retired, citing an abdominal injury.
Grass-loving Pironkova rising again
Tsvetana Pironkova is one of those rare grass specialists whose affinity for the surface is not down to growing up around it - there are no grass courts in her native Bulgaria - but because, a few years into her career, she discovered that the idiosyncrasies of her game fit it well. Coming into Wednesday's match against Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, Pironkova was staring down the barrel of a 1-8 head-to-head record.
But that one win had come on grass, at the 2012 London Olympic Games, and Pironkova reprised it 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1, with her sliced forehand and hard, flat backhand in full effect.
I know he's a grass court specialist - but I like grass courts too
Elsewhere, 2008 Eastbourne champion and 2012 Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska has been in free-fall this season, while Karolina Pliskova is undoubtedly one of the year's most improved players.
Yet it was the Polish No.9 seed who asserted her grass-court pedigree over her younger rival. Radwanska's defensive skills and guile have now been the Czech's kryptonite on three occasions. Pliskova, last week's Edgbaston runner-up, seemed in no mood to bother finding a Plan B, playing like a woman who had decided her Wimbledon preparation was now quite sufficient.
Lu's the man in Nottingham
In his 14-year career, Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun is yet to win an ATP Tour title - although he has collected 21 trophies on the Challenger tour and a runner-up plate in Auckland last year. But his career highlight may have come with his brilliant five-set win over Andy Roddick to make the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2009. The 31-year-old evoked memories of that match - and kept his dreams of a first title alive - in a terrific 6-3, 6-2 third round upset of No.3 seed Feliciano Lopez in Nottingham.
It was little surprise that Lu's groundstrokes were the more reliable in the match's extended rallies, including an epic 22-shot exchange in the second set.
More surprising was the Chinese Taipei player's ability to dismiss the hammer-blows of the Lopez serve, striking a number of electric return winners en route to breaking the Spaniard three times.
"Today I read his serve pretty good," Lu grinned afterwards. "I know he's a grass court specialist - I like grass courts too, but I didn't take the trophy like him."
Experience triumphs over youth
Three of the ATP's most highly-touted youngsters were also in third-round action - but all fell to more experienced opponents.
No.16 seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic and his opponent, Argentina's No.4 seed Leonardo Mayer, had both used minor breakthroughs at Wimbledon last year as springboards to solid top 50 placings.
The left-handed Vesely, who followed up that third round showing with his first title in Auckland in January, was also seeking revenge for a heartbreaking five-set loss to Mayer in the first round of Roland Garros last month.
He didn't get it, though: Mayer was always the more solid on serve, and Vesely made just a few untimely errors in each tie-break to fall 6-7(2), 6-7(5).
Thiem still on grass learning curve
Last year, Dominic Thiem's debut pro grass season was a rare black mark on the Austrian's break-out season: going 0-2 on the surface, he admitted in the match analyses he conscientiously posts on Facebook following each win or loss that much work needed to be done.
The No.7 seed had gained his first ever main draw grass win here over Malek Jaziri - but that still holds true. Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov confounded the 21-year-old with his variety, speed and net forays 6-3, 6-3.
Eighteen-year-old Alexander Zverev is one of Thiem's best friends on Tour, and his own grass lesson was dealt, by an identical score, by resurgent Cypriot veteran Marcos Baghdatis.
The 30-year-old backed up Tuesday's upset of No.1 seed David Ferrer in fine style, steering his 6ft 6in opponent around the court at will. Zverev once again impressed on serve, but made all too few impacts on the Baghdatis delivery.
Simon cruises after escape
French No.2 seed Gilles Simon barely escaped his opener against Marcel Granollers - but he's cruising now, taking just one hour and 12 minutes to ease past No.14 seed, Joao Sousa of Portugal.
In the quarter-finals, he'll take on American No.12 seed Sam Querrey, who won an encounter entirely dominated by serve against No.5 seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.
Neither player could carve out a break point, but despite a somewhat farcical first set tie-break in which both seemed determined to gift the set to the other with a spate of double faults, Querrey's greater comfort on the surface saw him take a 7-6(7), 7-6(3) win.
Eastbourne quarter-final line-up
(LL) Daria Gavrilova (RUS) vs. Sloane Stephens (USA)
Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) vs. (9) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
Belinda Bencic (SUI) vs. (WC) Johanna Konta (GBR)
(10) Andrea Petkovic (GER) vs. (2) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
Nottingham quarter-final line-up
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) vs. Simone Bolelli (ITA)
(4) Leonardo Mayer (ARG) vs. Denis Istomin (UZB)
Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) vs. Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)
(12) Sam Querrey (USA) vs. (2) Gilles Simon (FRA)
