Wimbledon 2018: Venus Williams and Madison Keys fall on another day of shocks in third round of women's singles

Eight of the top 10 seeds are now out of the women's singles, though Simona Halep and Serena Williams made it safely through

The top seeds continued to melt like ice creams in the summer sunshine as Venus Williams and Madison Keys became the latest leading women to go out of Wimbledon on another hot and humid afternoon here on Friday. The defeats of the two Americans mean that eight of the top 10 women’s seeds have now gone out of the tournament.

Williams, five times a champion here, was beaten 6-2, 6-7, 8-6 by the Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens, while Madison Keys went down 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 to Evgeniya Rodina, a Russian qualifier.

Their third-round defeats meant that the only top 10 seeds left in the competition are Simona Halep, the No 1 seed, who plays Su-Wei Hsieh on Saturday, and Karolina Pliskova, the No 7 seed, who was playing Mihaela Buzarnescu later on Friday.

Serena Williams, nevertheless, continued to avoid the pitfalls which have claimed so many of her rivals. Facing her biggest test so far, the 36-year-old American, who is seeded No 25, beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6.

Venus Williams, the No 9 seed, was the oldest player in the draw at 38 but has been back playing some of her best tennis in the last 18 months. The American was runner-up here 12 months ago to Garbine Muguruza, but her results have started to tail off recently and she was made to pay for a slow start against 26-year-old Bertens, who is through to the fourth round for the first time.

Bertens recovered well after letting the second set slip from her grasp. The world No 20 was broken when she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and was unable to recover in the ensuing tie-break after going 5-1 down.

Williams hung on grimly in the deciding set. The American held from 0-30 down when serving at 5-6 and saved two match points two games later before a netted backhand gave Bertens victory after two hours and 39 minutes.

Serena Williams was heading for victory on Centre Court at the same time as her sister was losing on Court One. The seven-time champion, who is playing in only her fourth tournament after beginning her comeback after a 14-month break while she had her first child, was made to work for her victory.

Mladenovic, who has got past the first round only twice in her seven appearances here, was ranked in the world’s top 10 last year but from August onwards went on a remarkable run of 15 successive defeats, which she finally ended by reaching the final in St Petersburg in February. Since then her form has been in and out - a fact which was underlined in the opening set.

Serena Williams beat Kristina Mladenovic in round three at Wimbledon. (Getty)

The world No 62 broke to 15 in the fifth game and served for the set at 5-4, only for Williams to break back. Mladenovic recovered from 0-40 down to deuce when she served at 5-6, only to double-fault on Williams’ fourth set point.

Williams went 2-0 up in the second set, was pegged back to 2-2 but kept up the pressure after that. Mladenovic saved a match point with a forehand winner when she served at 5-6 before taking the set to a tie-break, in which Williams was on top from the start. The American won it 7-2, securing victory with two successive aces.

“I’m really happy,” Williams said after securing a fourth-round meeting with Rodina, who is the only other mother left in the competition. “I worked really, really hard and it’s been a long and arduous road, but I always expected to come out and do the best that I can do.”

Keys, whose big-hitting game should be well suited to grass, has just one quarter-final appearance to show from her six visits to the All England Club. The 23-year-old American made 48 unforced errors in losing to 29-year-old Rodina, who as the world No 120 had to win three matches in qualifying just to get into the main draw.

Rodina, who is through to the last 16 of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, won nine games in a row from 2-5 down in the first set and led by a set and 4-0 before Keys made a spirited comeback. The deciding set was tight, but at 4-4 Rodina broke and went on to serve out for the match. It was the Russian’s first victory over a top-10 opponent at the 16th attempt.

Keys, who was the No 10 seed, blamed her defeat on “a massive mishandle of nerves”. She explained: “I felt good, was up 5-2, and then I felt my mind go away and played a couple of sloppy games. All of a sudden it's 5-5 and that's when nerves hit me. Then it was just kind of dealing with that.

“Then when you're down a set and 4-0 it's a lot easier to be like, ‘Oh, I probably should play better now’ and do that. Then in the third set when I was down I would bring my level up and then go up to serve and would get nervous. I just didn't play well enough when it mattered.”

Keys also said she had made the mistake of looking ahead in the draw to the possibility of playing Serena Williams in the next round. “I don't think I did a good job of keeping in the moment and playing the person who was in front of me,” she said.

Camila Giorgi moved into the last 16 here for the first time since 2012 when she beat the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 after saving a match point when trailing 5-4 in the second set. The Italian now faces Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, who followed up her victory over Caroline Wozniacki by beating Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.