DAY 4 WOMEN'S WRAP: Krejcikova, Rybakina and Swiatek into third round
It was far from convincing, but Barbora Krejcikova kept her Wimbledon defence on track on Thursday - just - with a laboured 6-4 3-6 6-2 second round win over American Caroline Dolehide.
The Czech creaked rather than cruised into the third round, moving past the American in a match as scrappy as a Henman Hill picnic after a seagull attack.
Court Two spectators, many blissfully unaware they were watching the reigning champion, might be forgiven — Krejcikova herself barely looked the part.
A season dogged by back and thigh niggles has left her short of sharpness, and her patchy 4-3 record for the season coming in was on full display in a match strewn with errors.
Still, the 17th seed did just enough to scrape through to gentle applause and a sterner test ahead: 10th seed Emma Navarro, who won't be quite so generous.
RYBAKINSA SWATS ASIDE SAKKARI
Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina barely needed to shift out of second gear as the 11th seed motored into the third round with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Greek Maria Sakkari.
Rybakina was gifted a break in the opening game when Sakkari produced three successive double faults and the 2022 Wimbledon champion held firm from there to wrap up the opening set with minimum fuss in front of a sparse crowd on Court One.
The 26-year-old dropped her serve in the opening game of the next set but responded immediately to get things back on track and then broke to love for a 3-1 lead, before proceeding to take apart former world number three Sakkari.
A backhand error on match point compounded Sakkari's woes and Rybakina celebrated the victory in typically muted fashion, with either Denmark's 23rd-seeded Clara Tauson or Russian Anna Kalinskaya awaiting her in the next round.
ANDREEVA BEATS BRONZETTi BUT STILL WORK TO DO
Seventh seed Mirra Andreeva blasted her way into the third round with a 6-1 7-6(4) victory over Italy's Lucia Bronzetti and thanked her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, for making her work hard.
The 18-year-old Russian was the only teenager from six women's starters to have made it through to the second round and she looked sure-footed on Wimbledon's grass, the surface where she hit the headlines aged 16 with a whirlwind race to the fourth round in 2023.
She completely dominated her 26-year-old opponent in the first set on Thursday using her big serve, heavy slice and neat net play to wrap it up in 23 minutes.
But she had a fight on her hands in the second as Bronzetti, ranked a lowly 63, found her stride and range in the second. Andreeva eventually triumphed on her second match point in the tiebreak, with a fine forehand volley winner.
"I got a little bit nervous and she started to play better," Andreeva said in a courtside interview before adding she would not be getting much time off because she had doubles to play and then Martinez would want to run over some elements of her game.
"She's not going to let me go home," the Russian said.
"She pushes me to my limits so thanks for that, I guess," she added to smiles from Martinez in the coaches' box on Court One.
Spaniard Martinez was an unheralded winner of the title in 1994, beating nine-times champion Martina Navratilova in the final.
Andreeva and compatriot Diana Shnaider are seeded fifth in the doubles and scheduled to play British pair Heather Watson and Emily Appleton on an outside court later on Thursday.
Andreeva will play Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who beat Canada's Victoria Mboko on Thursday, in the third round of the singles on Saturday.
SWIATEK FIGHTS BACK TO DOWN MCNALLY
Iga Swiatek may not love the grass but relishes a battle whatever the surface and showed all that fight and bullish determination as she recovered to beat American Caty McNally 5-7 6-2 6-1.
McNally, the world number 208, looked poised to cause an upset when she clawed her way back from 4-1 down to take the first set against the five-times Grand Slam champion.
At that point Swiatek's mediocre record at the All England Club, where the Pole has never gone past the quarter-finals, seemed to be weighing heavily on her shoulders.
But rather than shy away from the scrap, the former world number one flicked a psychological switch that saw her come out for the second set transformed, upping her aggression and playing with a ferocity McNally simply could not handle.
She broke early in the second set and never looked back, losing only three more games to set up a clash with another American Danielle Collins.
"I started the match well so I knew that my game was there," said Swiatek. "I knew that at the start of the second set I had to be more accurate. I just tried to improve and I'm happy it worked."
The eighth seed may have her sights set far higher than the third round, but by reaching the last 32 she underlined her consistency on the big stage.
The 23-year-old is the third player this century to reach the third round in 22 consecutive women’s singles Grand Slams after Amelie Mauresmo and Serena Williams.
DIFFICULT SURFACE
Whether such milestones are enough to persuade Swiatek she can excel on a surface that has so far proven difficult to master is yet to be determined.
With four French Open titles to her name, another at the U.S. Open and two semi-final appearances in Australia, her unspectacular Wimbledon record stands out like a sore thumb.
A run to the Bad Homburg final in the grasscourt warm-up event showed her game is not entirely unsuited to the surface, though there was a period in the first set against McNally where she may have wondered if this tournament was simply not for her.
Having broken early and raced into a 4-1 lead, the wheels briefly came off as McNally did everything to push Swiatek out of her comfort zone.
The American pushed right up to the baseline to receive serve, trying to give Swiatek less time to react to the return and for a while it worked.
McNally spurned four break points in the seventh game before finally taking her chance at the fifth attempt before breaking again for a 6-5 lead when Swiatek swiped a backhand long.
When the Pole fired a wild forehand off target to hand McNally the opener, everything seemed to be going the American's way. But that was as good as it got.
DOUBLES PARTNERS
Swiatek knows McNally's game well - the pair were doubles partners in their youth, clinching the junior title at Roland Garros in 2018 - and set about dismantling it in double-quick time.
She broke for a 2-0 lead in the second set and again to level the contest at one set each.
Swiatek then did the same at the start of the third set, breaking to go 2-0 ahead, with a forehand swiped cross-court, while another forehand winner saw her break again to move 4-0 up.
It was then straightforward for the Pole, although she did have to save five break points before wrapping up victory with an ace.
As well as earning her spot in the next round, the match against her old playing partner offered a pleasing trip down memory lane.
"It's pretty funny because I remember these matches pretty well," she said of her junior days.
"We know each other pretty well ... She's one of the people who make you feel like you are not only rivals on tour but that you can also respect each other and like each other."
KASATKINA OVERCOMES BEGU
Australian 16th seed Daria Kasatkina defeated Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2 4-6 6-1 and will meet Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the third round.
NAVARRO EASES INTO THIRD ROUND
MORE RESULTS
Hailey Baptiste (USA) bt Victoria Mboko (CAN) 7-6 (8/6), 6-3
Zeynep Sonmez (TUR) bt Wang Xinyu (CHN) 7-5, 7-5
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS x18) bt Suzan Lamens (NED) 6-4, 6-0
Belinda Bencic (SUI) bt Elsa Jacquemot (FRA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA) bt Katie Volynets (USA) 6-0, 6-4
Danielle Collins (USA) bt Veronika Erjavec (SLO) 6-4, 6-1
Liudmila Samsonova (RUS x19) bt Yuliia Starodubtseva (UKR) 6-2, 6-1
Jessica Bouzas (ESP) bt Sofia Kenin (USA x28) 6-1, 7-6 (7/4)
Dayana Yastremska (UKR) bt Anastasia Zakharova (RUS) 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (10/8)
Daria Kasatkina (AUS x16) bt Irina-Camelia Begu (ROM) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
Clara Tauson (DEN x23) bt Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) 6-3, 7-6 (12/10)
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