London, July 3 (IANS): Unseeded Czech Marie Bouzkova reached the Wimbledon 2022 quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-2 win over France's Caroline Garcia, here on Sunday.
This is Bouzkova's first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal in her career. The 2014 US Open junior champion hadn't been past the second round of a Grand Slam in 13 prior tries entering Wimbledon, but she's now won eight straight sets since losing the opener to No 7 seed Danielle Collins in Round 1.
Sunday's win also earned Bouzkova another milestone at the All England Club, her first-ever Grand Slam main draw win came at Wimbledon three years ago.
Bouzkova's win over World No 56 Garcia is her third win this week against players ranked ahead of her, in addition to Collins, the World No 66 also upset No 28 seed and former quarterfinalist Alison Riske-Amritraj in Round 3.
The 23-year-old snapped Bad Homburg champion Garcia's eight-match grass-court winning streak in 83 minutes by breaking serve four times. She's now 2-0 in her career against the former World No 4, also beating her on grass last year in Birmingham.
The Czech player started the match with a break, and though Garcia got the set back on serve at 4-4, quickly took back momentum. From 5-4 down in the set, Bouzkova won nine of the match's last 11 games.
Bouzkova's run this fortnight has been defined by her consistency and turning defense into offense as she hit just four unforced errors against Garcia -- plus 13 winners -- marking the third time this Championships she's hit less than 10 unforced errors in victory.
Unseeded Bouzkova will next face either No 3 seed Ons Jabeur or No 24 seed Elise Mertens.
"It's going to be a special one again, for sure. There's no reason why not to keep this going," Bouzkova said.
"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," she added.