PETE ZIEBRON
Jerzy Janowicz will make his Wimbledon 4th round debut tomorrow. Pete Ziebron Images
Prior to this year, Poland has not been able to concurrently put two men into the 3rd round of Wimbledon. Jerzy Janowicz and Lukasz Kubot have done one better and both will play 4th round matches tomorrow.
Both Janowicz and Kubot have not dropped a set this year at Wimbledon. The 24th seeded Janowicz has defeated Brit Kyle Edmund in the opening round. Czech Radek Stepanek retired late in the 2nd set in the 2nd round and in the 3rd round, Janowicz swept past 15th seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain. Kubot, who will certainly improve upon his world #130 ranking as a result of his play at Wimbledon, defeated Russian Igor Andreev in the opening round. Then, Kubot's 2nd round opponent, Steve Darcis who upset Rafael Nadal in his first round match, was not able to take the court due to a shoulder injury sustained during his match against Nadal. Kubot advanced to the 3rd round and promptly steamrolled 25th seed Benoit Paire of France, losing only 8 games in the match.
Last year, Janowicz powered through Wimbledon qualifying, won his first 2 main draw matches and held a 2 sets to 1 lead against German Florian Mayer in his 3rd round encounter. However Janowicz would run out of gas and drop the 5th set 5-7. Following that loss, Janowicz would win a pair of consecutive clay court Challenger tournaments, as well as his first qualifying match at the Cincinnati Masters, giving him an impressive run of 11 straight victories and 16 wins in 17 matches.
Janowicz would achieve his best result of 2012 at the Paris Masters in October, where he would enter the tournament as a qualifier and finish it as the runner-up, dropping the Final to David Ferrer.
World #130 Lukasz Kubot is making his 2nd appearance in the 4th round at Wimbledon in the last 3 years. Pete Ziebron Images
Lukasz Kubot reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon just 2 years ago. Kubot won 6 straight matches, including 3 in qualifying and held a 2 sets to 1 lead, including 2 match points in his 4th round match against Feliciano Lopez before losing the 5th set 5-7 to the Spaniard.
Despite reaching a career high of world #41 in singles 4 years ago, the 31 year-old Kubot is better known for his play in doubles where he has won 8 titles. This year at Wimbledon, Kubot and his doubles partner and fellow countryman Marcin Matkowski, are seeded 15th and have advanced to the 3rd round.
JJ - Jerzy Janowicz Pete Ziebron Images
Following his 3rd round win against Nicolas Almagro, Janowicz was asked about the recent successful results from Polish tennis players: "Everything starts from (Agnieszka) Radwanska, honestly saying. Maybe we realized there's a chance to make some good results in tennis in Poland. We didn't have unbelievable facilities for practice. I remember when I was practicing during the winter under the balloon was even minus 10 inside. I remember the beginning was not easy. So I don't know actually. I don't have a perfect explanation. But I'm happy there's a lot of good players in Poland right now. As you said, Radwanska sisters, me, Kubot. (Michal) Przysiezny lost yesterday in second round. So I hope it's going to be only better."
Should Janowicz defeat Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Kubot beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino tomorrow, Janowicz and Kubot would face each other in the quarterfinals, with the winner advancing to the Wimbledon semifinals.