London: Simona Halep showed all the marks of a champion when she emerged unscathed from a first-set fright to reach the third round of Wimbledon with a 7-5, 6-0 win over China’s Zheng Saisai on Thursday.
Garbine Muguruza’s title defence was hijacked by Alison van Uytvanck as the little-known Belgian produced a fearless brand of hard-hitting tennis to topple the champion with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory in the second round.
Halep’s hopes of completing a French Open-Wimbledon double appeared to be in trouble when she fell 5-3 behind in the first set.
But the newest member of the Grand Slam winners’ circle showed her new-found maturity to win the next 10 games on the trot and completely locked out Zheng from the contest. The Romanian world No. 1 will next face Hsieh Su-wei from Taiwan.
Earlier, the scoreboard said 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to Rafael Nadal but it was an uneasy two-and-a-half hours for the Spanish world No. 1 as he laboured past Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin into the third round. Two-time champion Nadal, 32, never quite got to grips with the unorthodox Kazakh’s low, skidding shots and faced 13 break points in an entertaining Centre Court contest.
Had Kukushkin converted a few more of them it could have got really complicated for Nadal, who is still finding his grasscourt game after claiming an 11th French Open title. Nadal took 10 minutes to hold his opening service game and was still being asked questions by the world number 77 in the third when he slipped 3-1 behind in the face of some inspired shot-making by his opponent.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion dug in though and managed to avoid being dragged further into the afternoon, claiming victory when Kukushkin’s forehand smacked into the net tape.
Novak Djokovic hit 31 winners, including 15 aces, in his 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Horacio Zeballos of Argentina. With his 60th match win at Wimbledon, the Serbian ensured he reached the third round for the 10th consecutive year. Wimbledon 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic, a favourite to go far in the tournament again this year, suffered a shock 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-5 defeat by Argentine Guido Pella.
The Croatian third seed began the day two sets up but 4-3 down on Pella’s serve in the third, following Wednesday evening’s halt for rain and found his opponent very much up for the fight.
Pella wrapped up the third set comfortably, then shaded an exciting fourth set that included two breaks of serve for each player with Pella taking command in the tiebreak to clinch it 7-3. The deciding set went with serve until Pella clinched it on his fourth match point after Cilic had already saved two in the 10th game and another when 30-40 down.
Pella, who has very limited experience on grass and had lost to Cilic in three sets at the 2015 US Open in their only previous meeting, was undoubtedly helped by Wednesday’s rain interruptions.
John Isner almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory but survived to beat Belgian qualifier Ruben Bemelman in a delayed second-round match. The American ninth seed eventually won 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-7 (6), 7-5 but he came desperately close to another Wimbledon failure.
Stan Wawrinka’s woeful run at recent Grand Slams continued when the Swiss lost 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the second round against Italian journeyman Thomas Fabbiano.
Eugenie Bouchard’s hopes of emulating her 2014 run to the final were hit for six by former professional cricket player Ashleigh Barty in the second round.
Barty stormed back from 2-5 down in the second set to seal a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Juan Martin del Potro showed he is shaping up nicely for tougher matches ahead with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 romp past Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez to reach the third round. Del Potro faces Benoit Paire in the third round after the Frenchman upset 26th-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov joined Croatian third seed Marin Cilic among the eliminated seeds when he was upset in five sets by Del Potro's compatriot Guido Pella.
Meanwhile, India’s Divij Sharan and his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak made a winning start as they prevailed over Radu Albot and Malek Jaziri. Sharan and Sitak eked out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-2 win in two hours and 41 minutes.
DAY III RESULTS
Men’s singles, Round II: Roger Federer (1, Sui) bt Lukas Lacko (Svk) 6-4, 6-4, 6-1; Adrian Mannarino (22, Fra) bt Ryan Harrison (US) 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4); Sam Querrey (11, US) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3; Dennis Novak (Aut) bt Lucas Pouille (17, Fra) 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (8-10), 3-6, 6-2; Milos Raonic (13, Can) bt John Millman (Aus) 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4)
Women’s singles, Round II: Karolina Pliskova (7, Cze) bt Victoria Azarenka (Blr) 6-3, 6-3; Mihaela Buzarnescu (29, Rou) bt Katie Swan (Gbr) 6-0, 6-3; Kiki Bertens (20, Ned) bt Anna Blinkova (Rus) 6-4, 6-0; Venus Williams (9, US) bt Alexandra Dulgheru (Rou) 4-6, 6-0, 6-1; Julia Goerges (13, Ger) bt Vera Lapko (Blr) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Serena Williams (25, US) bt Viktoriya Tomova (Bul) 6-1, 6-4; Madison Keys (10, US) bt Luksika Kumkhum (Tha) 6-4, 6-3; Lucie Safarova (Cze) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (32, Pol) 7-5, 6-4; Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt Caroline Wozniacki (2. Den) 6-4, 1-6, 7-5
Men's doubles, first round: M. Basic (Bih)/D. Lajovic (Srb) bt Purav Raja (Ind)/F. Martin (Fra) 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, 11-9
Seeded players and Indians only
Agencies
