Camila Giorgi finally achieved a new feat in her career after displaying an impressive form of consistency throughout the week, defeating former top-10 player Ekaterina Makarova with a straightforward 6-3, 6-4 scoreline after just an hour and 30-minutes of play in the fourth round of the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, advancing to just the first Major quarterfinal of her career.
Giorgi, although marred by a string of errors at times, strung together an excellent showing to blast 21 winners to 23 unforced errors and oust the underperforming Russian, who was unable to stay aggressive all match against the more powerful Italian.
Giorgi claims the first set
Both Giorgi and Makarova made a strong start into the match as they opened the encounter on Court No.12 with five consecutive service holds. Giorgi, with her famous explosive game, was firing on all cylinders amidst several unforced errors scattered around while Makarova often found herself counterpunching and on the defence as she was unable to overpower the powerful and invincible Italian.
A slew of errors coming off Giorgi’s racquet saw her concede the first break point of the match in the fourth game, but Makarova will rue her missed opportunity as she sent a second-serve forehand return directly into the net. With her incredible serves, the world number 52 ultimately earned the narrow service hold.
In what was the longest game of the match, Makarova failed to convert her chances once more — wasting four game points and Giorgi’s constant aggressive play finally earned her the break after what seemed like an eternity. However, the Italian played a loose service game and threw away the advantage immediately after, allowing Makarova to break straight back to love.
Nonetheless, Giorgi regained her composure within a blink of an eye before constantly applying the pressure on the reluctantly-defensive Makarova at the baseline, and her impressive play ultimately pushed her ahead of the finishing line, taking the first set 6-3 after 47 minutes of play.
Giorgi overcomes late wobble and grabs the win
After losing the opening set, Makarova’s confidence took a huge blow and her backhand completely crumbled as Giorgi took advantage of those errors and rode on her momentum to claim the break in the opening game of the second set. Everything seemed to be going the Italian’s way after she rattled off nine of the first 10 points in the set.
However, Makarova gained her focus once more, losing just one more point on serve throughout the match. Giorgi was dragged to deuce once but the Russian was unable to dig for a break point opportunity, but things started to get complicated when the Italian attempted to serve for the match. She double-faulted on her first match point and this paved the way for Makarova to come out of nowhere to earn a break point. Nonetheless, Giorgi stunned the crowd by saving the break point with an outstanding forehand winner before eventually closing out the match with a smash winner after 90 minutes of action.