LONDON — Defending champion Elena Rybakina cruised into the third round while fifth-seeded Carolina Garcia needed three sets and 2 1/2 hours to advance at Wimbledon.
Rybakina, the 3 seed, dispatched Alize Cornet of France 6-2, 7-6 (2) in less than two hours to advance. Garcia, however, was forced to rally for her 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Also, No. 4 Jessica Pegula rolled into the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Cristina Bucsa of Spain in 63 minutes.
Garcia won despite converting just 1 of 8 break points, punching her ticket in a third-set super tiebreaker.
“I would not say I found my rhythm,” Garcia told reporters. “I mean, I just won 7-6 in the third. I could be crying probably under the shower right now. That how close it was.
“But obviously, I play an aggressive game, so it may look like grass court should suit more that kind of player. When you come on grass court, you have one month of a new chapter, a new season. Doesn’t really matter how you played before.”
Rybakina had no such drama, blasting 36 winners to seven for Cornet. Rybakina won 78 per cent of her first serves despite getting just 59 percent of them in.
Rybakina draws Katie Boulter of England in the third round. Boulter defeated Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.
“Of course, I understand the crowd won’t be on my side this time but hopefully it will be a good match and everybody enjoys it and yeah, I’m looking forward to that one,” Rybakina said according to Reuters.
Tenth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic retired in the second set of her match against teen sensation Mira Andreeva of Russia. Andreeva was leading 6-3, 4-0 when Krejcikova retired with a left leg injury.
Fellow Czech player Marketa Vondrousova ousted No. 12 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, 6-3, 6-3.
No. 16 Karolina Muchova lost to German Jule Niemeier in three sets, and No. 17 seed Jelena Ostapenko also fell, losing 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 to Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
No. 14 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and No. 20 Donna Vekic both rallied to defeat Americans on Day 4. Bencic beat Danielle Collins 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) while Vekic of Croatia rallied to defeat Sloane Stephens 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Other seeded players to advance included No. 13 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, No. 19 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 22 Anastasia Potapova of Russia, No. 23 Magda Linette of Poland, No. 26 Anhelina Kalinina of the Ukraine, No. 29 Irina Begu of Romania, No. 30 Petra Martic of Croatia and No. 32 Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.
Also, No. 29 Elise Mertens of Belgium was eliminated by Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine in three sets.
Sofia Kenin reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time. Or as the 2020 Australian Open champion put it: “Just trying to prove some people wrong.”
Kenin beat Wang Xinyu of China 6-4, 6-3 to back up her victory over seventh-seeded Coco Gauff that ended a streak of three straight first-round exits at Grand Slam tournaments.
The 24-year-old American came into Wimbledon ranked 128th and had to go through qualifying to reach the main draw – and she’s fine with that.
“If I know every time I´m going to get to the third round at a Slam, I´ll play qualies,” said Kenin, who was ranked No. 4 after her title at Melbourne Park.
“Yeah, definitely I feel like that for sure helped me. Grass wasn´t always my favorite surface, and I felt like I had some really good solid wins in qualies even though they were against tough opponents.
“Looks obviously easy, but it was tough and I feel like those matches definitely gave me confidence.”
Kenin’s win on Court 4 wasn’t a work of art – she hit 11 winners to 17 unforced errors – but she jumped on Wang’s second serve and broke her four times.
