
As rain caused havoc on the third day of the Wimbledon Championships, seeds Belinda Bencic and Eugenie Bouchard strolled into the second round of the grass-court major.
19-year-old Bencic received an unexpected surprise from the organisers at Wimbledon after her match was moved from court three to the centre court due to the poor weather. It was the first time in her career that the Swiss player had played on the premier court. Facing former Wimbledon semifinalist Tvsetlanad Pironkova in the first round, Bencic overcame some late-match nerves to dismiss the world No.71 6-2, 6-3.
Playing in front of her mentor Martina Hingis, Bencic didn’t disappoint the centre court crowd as she produced an impressive 32 winners during her 76-minute win. Earlier this week, the seventh seed declared that Wimbledon was the grand slam that she ’would like to win the most.’ The victory over Pironkova might be only a first round win, however, Bencic will remember the match for a long time.
“It was a dream came true, it was my dream to play on the centre court and win,” the excited 19-year-old told BBC Sport.
“It meant so much to me and I had goosebumps.”
Following Bencic on the Wimbledon main court was 2014 runner-up Eugenie Bouchard. The Canadian started her match against Magdaléna Rybáriková on Tuesday before it came to a halt due to the rain. Leading 6-3, 2-1 overnight, Bouchard closed the match out 6-3, 6-4, in less than an hour.
Awaiting Bouchard in the second round will be home favourite and sixteenth seed Johanna Konta. Konta, who is the first British woman seeded at SW19 since 1984, dropped serve only once during her 6-1, 7-5, win over Monica Puig. The win is her first ever main draw win at Wimbledon in her third year trying.
“It was a tricky first round. She was playing well on the grass and the conditions didn’t make it easy for us. There were a lot of obstacles and I’m very happy I stayed focused and was able not to rush, not to panic.” Konta said following her win.
Earlier on day three, two-time champion Petra Kvitova reminded the draw of how big of a threat she can be on the grass with a 54-minute 6-0, 6-4, win over Sorana Cirstea. The Czech won an impressive 93% of his first service points against Cristea.
Finally, Andrea Petkovic bounced back from a set down to defeat Japan’s Nao Hibino 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Result | Score |
(3) Agnieszka Radwanska bt. Kateryna Kozlova | 6-2, 6-1 |
(7) Belinda Bencic bt. Tsvetana Pironkova | 6-2, 6-3 |
(16) Johanna Konta bt. Monica Puig | 6-1, 7-5 |
(21) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bt. Su-wei Hsieh | 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 |
Evgeniya Rodina bt. Lesia Tsurenko | 6-3, 7-5 |
Julia Boserup bt. Tatjana Maria | 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 |
Karin Knapp bt. Ana Konjuh | 6-3, 6-3 |
(32) Andrea Petkovic bt. Nao Hibino | 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 |
(10) Petra Kvitova bt. Sorana Cirstea | 6-0, 6-4 |
Source – Bleacher Report/Wimbledon.com
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