Joran Vliegen (ATP 25 in doubles) and his Chinese partner Yifan Xu (WTA 27) reached the semi-finals of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, third round of the Grand Slam, on Tuesday on the lawn of the All England Club in London. In the quarter-finals, they got the better of Croatian Ivan Dodig (ATP 4) and Taiwanese Latisha Chan (WTA 33), 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, in 1 hour and 27 minutes.
After a late break in their favor in the first set, Vliegen and Xu missed three set points, allowing Dodig and Chan to force the tie-break. The Belgian-Chinese pair nevertheless controlled this one, in order to start the second round in the lead. This was under the control of Vliegen and Xu thanks to a first break, after which they won the match on the opposing service. In the semi-finals, Vliegen and Xu will face the Dutch Matwe Middelkoop (ATP 27) and the Indonesian Aldila Sutjiadi (WTA 32).
Earlier today, Sander Gillé (ATP 23) and Joran Vliegen were eliminated in the 3rd round of the men’s doubles. The 12th seeded pair lost to Americans Nathaniel Lammons (ATP 34) and Jackson Withrow (ATP 39), 6-3, 6-4.
Elise Mertens (WTA 8) is the last representative standing in the singles team, as she secured her spot in the quarter-finals of the women’s draw with Australia’s Storm Hunter (WTA 7) following the Czech pair’s withdrawal composed of Miriam Kolodziejova (WTA 46) and Marketa Vondrousova (WTA 48). Greet Minnen (WTA 56) was eliminated in the third round on Tuesday.
