World No.: 1, Iga Swiatek of Poland has advanced to the second round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London. Swiatek beat Jana Frett from Croatia 6-Love, 6-3 to progress.
World No.: 5, Maria Sakkari of Greece also beat Zoe Hives of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to progress to the second round. It was the first time the two have met in their careers in the main tour.
It was her first match of the season on grass.
The 21-year-old also won the French Open earlier this month and also reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year. A Swiatek best result in Wimbledon was finishing fourth last year.
The two-time Grand-slam champion, Swiatek was on fire when she won six unanswered games to clinch the first set 6-Love.
She lost her focus in the opening stages with Frett leading by three games to one at some point but she rallied back to win the second set and clinch the match in an hour and fifteen minutes.
“It’s my first match on grass this season. So, I knew it was going to be tricky in the second set in the beginning I lost my focus a little bit and she used that pretty well. Yeah I’m pretty happy I came back and I could finish in two sets and I’m just figuring out how to play here and trying to implement all the stuff that we have been practicing. It’s pretty exciting. So, it’s a new experience for me,” says Swiatek.
In another match, World No.: 5, Maria Sakkari of Greece also beat Zoe Hives of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to progress to the second round. It was also the first time the pair faced off in their careers.
Sakkari played in three grass tournaments before coming to Wimbledon. Her best results in Wimbledon were reaching the third round in 2017 and 2019.
The Greek was dominant in the first set to clinch it by six games to one.
She faced some resistance in the second set from the Australian but she showed mettle, in the end, to win it by six games to four and seal the match.
She will play the winner between Australian wild card Daria Saville and Bulgarian Viktoria Tomova in the next round.
“I think I played well in the first set. I played great. I was very solid and I had my chances to close out the match but I didn’t take them in the second set but I did a great job to close the match,” says Sakkari.
Meanwhile, Cori Gauff of the USA beat Elene-Gabriela Ruse of Romania 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in three sets. It was the first time the duo met on the main tour. The 12th seed Gauff’s best performance in Wimbledon was finishing in the fourth round in 2019 and 2021.
