The bottom half of the Ladies' draw at 2022 Wimbledon was blown wide open as three unseeded players were victorious on a historic first-ever day of scheduled play on the middle Sunday. Marie Bouzkova, Tatjana Maria and Jule Niemeier all reached the last eight.
They were joined by third seed Ons Jabeur, the highest seed left in the draw, who sealed a quarterfinal spot at the All-England Club for the second straight year.
Jabeur, Bouzkova set up quarterfinal clash
Jabeur had to fight past 24th seed Elise Mertens, holding off the Belgian 7-6 (9), 6-4 in a spirited match on Court 1. The Tunisian has now won nine straight matches on grass following her triumph in Berlin.
"Hopefully I can continue the streak", she said. "I love playing on grass. I love the connection between nature and me. Hopefully it can continue to the final."
Mertens, who saved match points in her previous match, clawed back from a 4-2 first-set deficit to make it 4-4 and after forcing a tiebreaker, the Belgian jumped out to a 6-3 lead with aggressive baseline play.
Jabeur staged a rally of her own, saving five set points and winning a 16-shot rally to clinch the breaker 11-9 and the set in exactly an hour.
"She's a great opponent, really", Jabeur said of Mertens. "It's never easy to play her and I had to dig very deep in the tiebreak. I couldn't imagine myself playing three sets against her."
The second set was a carbon copy of the first, Jabeur earning an early break and Mertens clawing back. Down 5-4 and serving to stay in the match, the Belgian hit her only double-fault of the entire contest to give the newly-minted world number two the win.
"I'm just very positive about what I want to do", Jabeur said. "I have my goals very high for this tournament, so I'm going to keep doing that. No matter who's coming, I'm going to build the fight, I'm going to fight 'till the end because I really want the title."
Bouzkova is next up for Jabeur as the Czech continues her breakthrough Slam that has seen her defeat seventh seed and Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins as well as 28th seed Alison Riske-Amritraj en route to the last 16.
World number 66 Bouzkova had never advanced past the second round of any major in 13 prior appearances but following a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Caroline Garcia, she's won eight straight sets since losing the opener to Collins.
Four breaks of serve powered the Czech in the 83-minute contest while scoring her second win over Garcia, who was denied a first major quarterfinal berth.
After breaking serve to start the match, Bouzkova saw her lead disappear as the Frenchwoman made it 4-4, but the Czech dominated the rest of the way, winning nine of the final 11 games.
With just four unforced errors, Bouzkova kept up her clean play, hitting ten or fewer unforced errors for the third time this fortnight. She struck 13 winners as she makes three years in a row a Czech has reached the last eight here.
"It's going to be a special one again, for sure", she said. "There's no reason why not to keep this going.
"[I'm] kind of believing in myself right now. But most importantly enjoying my tennis, enjoying every day here. All these new emotions that i'm feeling this week, that's already very special for me. I'm just going to go all out again in the quarterfinals."
Maria, Niemeier book all-German quarterfinal with upset wins
Playing in just her second major, world number 97 Niemeier ended the hopes of the last British woman standing with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 victory over Heather Watson on Center Court.
Having lost in qualifying here last year, the 22-year old made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open and has far exceeded her own expectations with a run that has seen her eliminate second seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round en route to the final eight.
"I came here, I just wanted to win my first round after losing in Paris. Now, being in the quarterfinal in Wimbledon, I don't know, i'm speechless. It just feels not real", she said.
"I'm just so happy. ...It has been a great journey so far. I'm looking forward to the next match."
The German won five games in a row after trailing 2-1 to claim the first set and six of the final eight after trailing 2-0 in the second.
Now facing countrywoman Maria, Niemeier is amazed at the 34-year old's journey to the quarterfinals, the first time that two Germans will face off this late at the All-England Club since 2012.
"It's amazing, I have to say. Having two kids, traveling with two kids the whole year, it must be so tough, especially because the younger kid is not even one year. It's just incredible how they're handling all the situations.
"I'm expecting a really good match from both of us. She's a tricky player. She's using the slice on the forehand, on the backhand. She's playing dropshots.
"She's, let's just say, not a usual woman's tennis player. I'm looking forward to the match and let's see how it goes."
Maria scored a second straight huge upset. Following her victory over fifth seed Maria Sakkari in the third round, she saved two match points to knock out 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 on Court 1.
The 103rd-ranked German is in her maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal after rallying from 4-1 down in the second set and 2-0 in the third in the two-hour, eight-minute thriller.
The result is all the more remarkable considering she had never reached the second week of a major before and returned to the tour less than a year after returning from maternity leave for the second time.
Maria went in front 3-1 in the first set only to watch Ostapenko reel off 10 of the next 13 games to lead 4-1 in the second. Eventually holding two match points at 5-4, the Latvian watched as Maria saved both with a one-two punch and service winner.
Another break and a pair of aces saw the German rattle off the final three games of the set to force a decider. In the third, Ostapenko broke herself, missing a smash on break point at 4-4.
She broke Maria while the world number 103 served for the match, but another error off a short return gave the German a second chance to close out the upset and on her second match point, a service winner closed things out.
"There's always belief that I can do it", she said. "I mean. that's why I came back after the first one. It's why I came back after the second one. If not, if I don't believe I can do these things, then I would not be here. So there's always this believing and keep going and improving and trying my best at the end.
"It's also really hard work. It's not coming from nowhere, let's say. We are outside on the court every day. We are working. Like I said, we are trying to improve. But maybe in myself there's this feeling now, OK, I can do it, I can go for it. Sometimes little things can change a whole match. It's really little parts."