Brilliant Bertens completes harvest of top 10 seeds

Kiki Bertens dumped out the last of the top 10 seeds in the women's draw with a straight-sets defeat of Karolina Pliskova to reach her first Wimbledon quarter-final.

The vast majority of the leading contenders failed to make it into the second week at the All England Club and seventh seed Pliskova could not take advantage of a golden opportunity, bowing out with a 6-3 7-6 (7-1) on 'Manic Monday'.

Bertens had never been beyond the third round at SW19, but followed up her win over Venus Williams by claiming the scalp of the world number eight with an outstanding performance on No.2 Court.

The 20th seed from the Netherlands was aggressive throughout, hitting 35 winners and breaking four times to book a last-eight encounter with Julia Görges or Donna Vekic.

Pliskova was unable to match the intensity shown by the 2016 French Open semi-finalist, the Czech's serve not firing on all cylinders as her best run at the grass-court grand slam came to a halt.

Bertens secured an early break when a tentative Pliskova overcooked a forehand after scooping a backhand long, but a double fault pegged Bertens back at 3-3.

The world number 20 was much more nimble than her opponent and broke straight back to lead 4-3, then sealed the set with a break to love when Pliskova netted a forehand under pressure. 

There was no let-up from Bertens, who fizzed another winner past a stranded Pliskova to lead 2-0 in the second, but the 2016 US Open runner-up was back on serve at 4-3 courtesy of an excellent return.

Pliskova winced as she struggled with what appeared to be a thigh problem and Bertens dominated a tie-break to march into the last eight, unleashing ferocious forehand winners before finishing it off with an overhead volley that clipped the line. 

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