World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka advances to Wimbledon quarterfinals in straight sets

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Sunday after defeating No. 24 Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 7-6 (4).

Sabalenka, a two-time semifinalist at the All England Club, has now reached the quarterfinals at 11 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.

The Belarusian will play Laura Siegemund, the 37-year-old German who followed up her elimination of Australian Open champ Madison Keys by beating lucky loser Solana Sierra of Argentina 6-3, 6-2.

When Siegemund's age was mentioned during an on-court interview, the crowd applauded, and she joked: "It's not that often you get such a compliment for being old."

U.S. Open runner-up Taylor Fritz moved into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the third time in four years on Sunday, advancing when his injured opponent, Jordan Thompson, quit while trailing 6-1, 3-0 after 41 minutes.

The unseeded Thompson's movement and power clearly were compromised. The Australian entered the match with back and leg issues and left the court for a medical timeout in the second set, then stopped after trying to play for three more points.

For the No. 5-seeded Fritz, it was a shorter workday after playing a pair of five-setters and one four-setter earlier in the tournament.

Now the American will meet No. 17 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia on Tuesday for a berth in the semifinals — a round neither has reached at Wimbledon.

A ball that clearly landed long in a match at Centre Court wasn't called out Sunday because the electronic system that replaced line judges at Wimbledon this year was shut off.

And, because the replay review procedure that used to be in place also has been scrapped, the chair umpire decided to have a do-over on the point at 4-all in the first set — much to the dismay of Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the player who would have won the game if the proper call had been made originally.

Pavlyuchenkova wound up getting broken there to trail Sonay Kartal, but she eventually did manage to come back to win the match 7-6 (3), 6-4 and reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the first time since 2016.

"You took the game away from me," 2021 French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova told chair umpire Nico Helwerth at the changeover after the game ended.

She was serving and had a game point when Kartal hit a backhand that landed beyond the opposite baseline — clearly out, TV replays showed. But there was no sound of one of the recorded voices being used for the first time at Wimbledon to reflect when the technology being used in place of human officials determines that a ball landed out.

Pavlyuchenkova's opponent Tuesday will be No. 13 Amanda Anisimova or No. 30 Linda Noskova.