Elina Svitolina, Victoria Azarenka and Johanna Konta all made it through to the second round of the Wimbledon Championships Wednesday. The world number five and the former world number one had an easy day at the All England Tennis Club while the Brit nearly saw her tournament close her out.
The Ukrainian had a big obstacle in her way as she had never gone farther than the second round of the grand slam. In her match against Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, the 22-year-old handled the comeback that the 37-year-old always has under her sleeve. She breezed through the first set allowing the Italian just three games. By the start of the second, the world number five had everything under control pulling off her first shutout at the tournament. It was a brilliant 6-3, 6-0 ending to her quest to always improve and make the best push she had in her to compete on a surface she had a history of trouble with.
One who had a ton of trouble on the day was the seventh ranked Brit in her second match in three weeks against Donna Vekic. In a rematch of the Nottingham final, the 26-year-old wanted revenge but also had to not push herself after suffering a scare last week at Eastbourne. With her spine being of little concern to her at the time, Konta pushed hard to stay in control as the two went to a tiebreak. It was a tight race to the seven points but the British number one overtook the Croatian to win it 7-4.
The second set was a neck and neck race but in the late stages of the second, the 21-year-old had her moment to show she had what it took and swept Konta out of the way to win 6-4. It led to a critical third set where they had already surpassed two hours with no end in sight. It led them to play the third set beyond what normally occurs and fight for a two-game lead. After three hours and ten minutes, the British star had the energy of her countrymen to keep her together and win the third ten games to eight to secure her first time in the third round.
Azarenka looked for her eighth time back in the round of 32 and made it count against a tough Elena Vesnina of Russia. The two had a seven-match history with none of it going good for Vesnina. The same occurred again for the 30-year-old as the Belorussian held things together to win 6-3, 6-3 giving her a first win on grass against Vesnina and a great chance at picking up more points since her return to the sport last month.
With all three very much alive, the knowledge of points and the ultimate goal sit heavily on the minds of the three superstars and their quest to go deeper in the tournament.
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