By Martyn Herman
LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Second seed Elena Rybakina's hopes of a second Grand Slam title this year and taking over as world number one ended at Wimbledon on Saturday as she faded to a 7-6(4) 6-1 third-round defeat by inspired Belgian Elise Mertens.
The Kazakh never recovered from losing a tight first set on a tiebreak and 25th seed Mertens seized control thereafter to reach the last-16 at Wimbledon for the fourth time.
"I knew I had to keep my focus, especially at the beginning of
the second set," Mertens, who described it as one of her most memorable victories, said. "Really had the fire in me today."
Rybakina, who added this year's Australian Open title to her 2022 Wimbledon crown, needed to reach at least the quarter-finals to have a chance of overhauling Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the WTA rankings.
But she produced a flat performance on Court One against the wily 30-year-old Mertens whose greater variety proved decisive in only her second win over Rybakina in nine meetings.
After a stunning start to the year with her Melbourne Park triumph and a runner-up finish to Sabalenka at Indian Wells, Rybakina's season has cooled off dramatically.
"If I knew why, I wouldn't be in this situation right now," she said, when asked what had happened. "I have been working well, I think, in the past weeks.
"Definitely I need to analyse and change something, because it's not working.
"I just try to move on. I lost so many times. I'm sure I'm still going to keep losing. It's impossible to win everything. I'm of course upset, but it's not going to take more than one, two days (to get over it)."
Mertens, a reigning Wimbledon doubles champion, won nine points in a row during one dominant spell in the second set and although she showed a few nerves when serving for the match she ended the contest with an ace.
She will fancy her chances of posting a best-ever Wimbledon run with Czech Marie Bouzkova up next.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
