An eventful and rain-interrupted day at Wimbledon saw seventh-seeded Karolina Pliskova finally reach the third round at the All England Club after losing in the second round here on each of her last five visits.
Pliskova defeated fellow ex-world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3 to set up a third round against 29th-seeded Mihaela Buzarnescu.
On a day where women were given two slots on each of Centre Court and Court No. 1 (a third women’s match was later added to Centre Court), Venus Williams recovered from a set down to defeat Alexandra Dulgheru and later expressed her delight to see the women’s game given its fair shot on the show courts.
“I was really overjoyed when I saw the schedule for today. We have a lot of equal play on the main courts in the other three Grand Slams. It was just fantastic to see Wimbledon also follow suit. It’s wonderful to hopefully have that continue, to have equal for the men and the women,” said Venus.
Giant-slayer Ekaterina Makarova posted her 13th top-10 victory at a major by ousting No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.
Roger Federer cruises, Serena Williams returns, Venus battles – Wimbledon day one highlights
Active Players: Most Top 10 Wins at Grand Slams
56 – Serena Williams
37 – Venus Williams
21 – Maria Sharapova
12 – Ekaterina MakarovaMakarova: “I just like big tournaments. I definitely have different motivation, different emotions to fight. I’m ready to die to win the match.” pic.twitter.com/MynNi1oeUo
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) July 4, 2018
Serena Williams was impressive in her smooth 6-1, 6-4 victory over Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova.
Frenchman Gael Monfils followed up his opening round win over his compatriot Richard Gasquet with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) success over Paolo Lorenzi.
Rain canceled the last matches of the day and suspended play in Stan Wawrinka match, where he was trailing Thomas Fabbiano by two sets.
