Tennis: Tricky Win For Sabalenka In Title Pursuit

World number one Aryna Sabalenka continued her pursuit of a maiden Wimbledon title with a hard-fought victory over Czech player Marie Bouzkova.

After a record number of seeds fell across the opening two days – a total of eight top-10 players across the men’s and women’s singles draws – Sabalenka avoided that same fate with a gritty 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win over the world number 48.

The Belarusian is aiming to add the Venus Rosewater Dish to her three other Grand Slam triumphs at the US and Australian Opens.

Sabalenka, 27, has reached the final of both majors so far this year, but lost to Madison Keys at the Australian Open and Coco Gauff at the French Open.

She could face Emma Raducanu in round three, should the British number one overcome 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova later on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Keys breezed into the third round with a comfortable 6-4 6-2 win over Serbia’s Olga Danilovic.

If the American sixth seed and Sabalenka continue to progress they could meet in the quarter-finals in a repeat of the Melbourne final.

After a scorching couple of days at SW19, handheld fans were replaced by umbrellas on a drizzly morning which delayed play on the outside courts by almost two hours.

But the roof was off on Centre Court in time for Sabalenka’s round two match with the sun beginning to peep through.

The three-time major winner made tough work of the opening set, struggling to find consistency and, while not playing badly, she was not clinical in crucial moments.

Having watched three of the top five seeds fall on day two, including French Open champion Gauff, Sabalenka would have welcomed a draw that was beginning to open up.

But eye rolling and shouting in frustration at times, she could not conjure a break point in the first set and instead went down a break when she double faulted at 5-5 to hand Bouzkova the lead.

That was met with a big cheer from a Wimbledon crowd desperate to back the Czech underdog, but they were equally as animated when Sabalenka let out a huge roar as she dug deep to force the tie-break.

A more straightforward second set followed as she secured the break in the fifth game, ramping up the aggression and executing each of her signature powerful groundstrokes with a loud grunt.

Sabalenka is clearly well-liked among the Wimbledon fans but a potential third-round meeting against Briton Raducanu may, for once, put them against her.

Bbc.com