LONDON, Great Britain - Belgian Alison van Uytvanck backed up her second round upset of defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza to reach the second week at Wimbledon for the first time, defeating No.28 seed Anett Kontaveit in Saturday's third round, 6-2, 6-3.
The Belgian No.3 returns to the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since a similarly surprising run to the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2015, where she won four matches ranked World No.93.
After needing to come from a set down to stun the defending champion, the Belgian needed no such comeback as she dominated the World No.27 for just over 70 minutes to continue her run through the draw at the All-England Club, and prevent the Estonian from reaching the round of 16 at all of the first three majors this season.
"You know, I played a really good match against Garbiñe, and that I won that match was already amazing," the World No.47 told press after Saturday's victory.
"So I had to just reset a little bit and prepare for the next match. That's what I did. I practiced good yesterday. I had a good warmup this morning. I was just ready to go and hit the court again and play well."
On to R4 @Wimbledon🌱! 6-2 6-3 against A. Kontaveit.🎾 What a week!😁💪 #wimbledon #filatennis #thermaecom #Ford #abautomotiveVilvoordeBrussel pic.twitter.com/5kidRqflKA
— Alison Van Uytvanck (@AlisonVanU) July 7, 2018
The Estonian proved erratic off the ground for much of the match, as she struck 22 unforced errors to just nine winners, and needed to defend 10 break points over the course of the match.
The Belgian broke five times in the encounter, including twice to begin the match as she won the first four games overall. Van Uytvanck saved the first break point she faced herself in the fourth game, and dropped just one point in her next two service games en route to wrapping up the opener.
"I think I started the match pretty good. I was returning really well, put a lot of pressure on her. She made some mistakes in the beginning, then she was starting to play better and better," van Uytvanck added.
"I started to get a little bit nervous, but I think that was a key, just to be aggressive and try to make every return inside the court and let her play the point."
The second set proved very much similar for the World No.47, as she engineered an early break in Kontaveit's second service game. However, the Estonian put up some resistance in the middle games with her first break of the match and an emphatic hold to take her first lead of the afternoon.
Nonetheless, the form the Belgian showed to upset Muguruza shone through to the end of the match, as she won the last four games to move safely through to a round of 16 meeting with No.14 seed Daria Kasatkina.
The Belgian and the Russian have a recent history on grass, as they last met just a week ago at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne. In that first round match, van Uytvanck took the opener before the World No.14 rallied to win, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
"She's a good player. We had a close match in Eastbourne. I didn't serve that well over there, so I think that made a little difference," she assessed.
"But I'm serving better and better here, so I hope I can keep it up and serve good and just be aggressive and we will see what happens."