Karolina Pliskova eased past Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3 in the second round, giving herself a third match at Wimbledon for the first time and firmly cementing herself as a contender to win her maiden grand slam title.
The No. 7 seed needed just an hour and 14 minutes and faced no break points en route to her decisive win.
She challenged Azarenka’s serve throughout, earning three break points in the second game and building leads in the Belarusian’s first three service games. She did her damage in the middle game of that stretch, rocketing a forehand down the line to go in front, then capitalizing on a mishit Azarenka backhand on break point.
The Czech player had little trouble on her own serve, reaching deuce just once in the opening frame and serving out the set with ease. She built a 40-0 lead at 5-3, then on her second set point cranked a first serve to the wide side that Azarenka could barely touch.
Azarenka began playing her way into the match in the early stages of the second set. She held serve comfortably and forced Pliskova to deuce at 1-2, requiring the Czech star to fire an ace to dig out of trouble. Unfortunately for Azarenka, however, that game presented her best chance to make an impact.
She didn’t, and Pliskova eventually took advantage. She earned a break point at 3-3 after Azarenka deposited a loose forehand wide, then hit a deep service return that Azarenka could only deposit into the net.
Pliskova closed out her fellow former No. 1 player in style, breaking again in the final game. There, Azarenka double faulted — she had two to just one ace — to set up a match point, which Pliskova took to full advantage with a powerful forehand off a second serve.
The final point told much of the story. Azarenka won a woeful 39 percent of her 18 second serve points, while Pliskova secured nearly two-thirds of her own. As the two-time Australian Open winner at times struggled to put first serves in play, Pliskova had little trouble taking advantage of her opportunities.
Though Azarenka was not quite at her best, the win could mark an uptick in Pliskova’s form. She was just 2-2 on grass entering the week — including a first-round loss in Birmingham — and needed three sets to beat virtually unknown British wild card Harriet Dart on Monday. With a second round win finally behind her, she gets a manageable third round clash with Mihaela Buzarnescu and could face Venus Williams after that.
