After a first week dominated by upsets, the big beasts of the tennis plain are lurking at Wimbledon.
Nine of the top 10 women’s seeds and five of the top 10 men have already gone home but Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have dropped just one set between them.
They will all be in action together for the first time this tournament on Monday, the unique day in the tennis calendar when all the fourth-round matches are played at the same time.
The Czech, a former US Open finalist, next faces 20th seed Kiki Bertens, who knocked out Venus Williams in round three.
Pliskova said: “I think it’s very lucky that, of all of the top 10, only I am in. Everything is possible. You can see everybody is playing great tennis. There’s so many close matches.”
Williams has extended her run of unbeaten matches at the All England Club to 17 after winning the title in 2015 and 2016 before taking last year off ahead of the birth of her daughter Olympia.
“Not many other people on the tour have won 23 (slam singles titles), so I’m in a unique position,” she said.
“I mean, Roger is very close. He’s catching up. He’s right there. I can see him. But that’s amazing. There’s only a handful of people that can say that they don’t have to do anything else in their career.”
Federer reached 19 by winning his eighth title 12 months ago and extended that to 20 at the Australian Open in January. The Swiss is yet to face a break point let alone drop a set and France’s Adrian Mannarino will have his work cut out to change that.
Nadal, who will meet Czech Jiri Vesely as he bids to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2011, said: “If I am in the final, I prefer to face an easier opponent. I am not stupid. But if I am in the final, it will be great news.”
Djokovic lost the opening set to Britain’s Kyle Edmund in the third round but showed in his response both on the court and to the hostile crowd that the hunger is well and truly back.
He takes on Russian Karen Khachanov while fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, eighth seed Kevin Anderson and former runner-up Milos Raonic stand out as the most likely challengers to the big guns.
