Ashleigh Barty’s bid to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2015 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year stayed on track yesterday with a 6-1, 6-3 second-round victory over Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck.
The 23-year-old Australian world No. 1 is to play either British wild-card Harriet Dart or Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia for a place in the last 16.
Barty seized the initiative from the outset, breaking Van Uytvanck, who had eliminated 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza in the second round of last year’s tournament, twice in succession.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Also easing through was 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens, who took the first eight games against her Chinese opponent Wang Yafan before winning 6-0, 6-2.
Stephens, seeded ninth, is to play either British 19th seed Johanna Konta or Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the next round.
On Wednesday, American 15-year-old Cori “Coco” Gauff showed her stunning first-round defeat of Venus Williams was no flash in the pan as she outclassed Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-3 to reach the third round.
Gauff, the youngest player to reach the Wimbledon women’s singles main draw via qualifying and the youngest to win a round since 1991, gave the 30-year-old former semi-finalist a torrid time as her fairy-tale debut continued.
She took charge of the match by breaking her 139th-ranked Slovakian’s serve to love in the sixth game and was in control thereafter.
Rybarikova, a semi-finalist in 2017, might have hoped for Gauff’s level to dip, but it never looked likely as the teenager remained composed to close in on victory.
In two matches she has made 18 unforced errors and barely put a foot wrong.
Feeling the pain was Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan who was forced to retire when just two points from victory against Ukraine eighth seed Elina Svitolina.
World No. 62 Gasparyan was 7-5, 5-4 ahead when she collapsed to the ground, suffering with cramping.
Although she bravely tried to continue, the Russian, who has undergone three knee surgeries in her career, was forced to quit.
“I was a little bit shocked, it’s never nice to get this when someone is injured like that,” said Svitolina, who goes on to face Greece’s Maria Sakkari for a place in the last 16.
Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova reached the last 32 with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Monica Puig.
Pliskova, one of four players who could end Wimbledon as world No. 1, is to face Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan for a spot in the fourth round.
Former world No. 1 and double Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka swept past Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-0.
In the men’s singles, four-time champion and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic hit 13 aces and 37 winners as he eased past Denis Kudla of the US 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
“I’m pleased with my game overall. There were some moments in the match where maybe I could have done better,” the defending champion said.
Djokovic goes on to face Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the last 16 having defeated the Pole in straight sets in the first round at Roland Garros in May.
Victory in that match could see him face 18-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the youngest man in the draw.
The 19th seed saw off French qualifier Corentin Moutet 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to make the third round of a Slam for the first time.
Last year’s beaten finalist Kevin Anderson, the South African fourth seed, also progressed with a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4 victory over Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.
Three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka fell in five sets to 2.1m Reilly Opelka.
Wawrinka, 34, was beaten 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 by his US opponent, the tallest man in the sport and 13 years his junior.
In the first round of the men’s doubles on Wednesday, Hsieh Cheng-peng and Christopher Rungkat battled back from two sets down, but the Taiwanese-Indonesian duo eventually succumbed to a 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 11-9 defeat to Austrian 14th seeds Oliver Marach and Juergen Meltzer in 3 hours, 20 minutes on Court 5.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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