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After scratching Roland Garros in the second round after worsening an old hip injury, we could forgive Ashleigh Barty for wanting to get to Wimbledon as smoothly as possible. In that regard at least, her 6-4, 6-3 second-round loss to Anna Blinkova on Thursday was a mission accomplished for the No.1 seed, who remains the favorite to win a first singles title here on Saturday week.
Scratch the surface, however, and it was an unconvincing success for Barty, who gifted his Russian opponent almost from first to last point and ended the game with no less than 33 unforced errors against his name. Blinkova, ranked 89th in the world, lacked the quality to charge Barty, but stronger opponents await her in Week 2 and they are unlikely to be so generous.
Barty’s serve was shaky from the start and her only convincing serve play in the first set came as she closed it to love. His first serve in the first game was 56%, while the errors included three double faults in his first service game and two more, including one on game point, in his fourth. Both games were lost and if Blinkova’s serve hadn’t been so fragile the outcome could have been very different.
Blinkova was snapped again to open the second set and from there the result was never in doubt. But there was no sign either Barty would run away with it, and she returned the break in Game 4 after a 30-0 lead. Two more double faults – one on the game point, the next on the break point – were added to a total of nine in all.
The possibility that the world No.1 still felt her hip injury was raised during the post-match press conference, but quickly ruled out. “I feel great,” Barty said. “I think it just wasn’t a good day of service, and definitely not something I’m going to blow out of proportion.
“I felt like I had lost my rhythm a bit, some technical elements were not quite correct. But you have these days, some days you feel like you’re eight feet tall and you can’t miss the box, other days like today you feel like you’re three feet tall and nothing and doing it going through the net is a bit of a battle. So I think we just got back to work, it’s certainly nothing that will concern me for a longer period of time.
Barty will face world No.64 Katerina Siniakova for a fourth round berth, and lost another seed in her half of a draw on Thursday when Elina Svitolina, No.3 seed and Wimbledon semi-finalist ago two years old, came out in straight sets against Magda Linette of Poland. Coco Gauff, however, has made short work of Elena Vesnina, winning 6-4, 6-3 in 71 minutes on center court, and the 17-year-old remains on track for a possible half. final against Barty next week.
Gauff found the target with 71% of his first serves in the first set, including his first serve at 120 mph of the tournament, and allowed only one break in the game. She didn’t look back after saving two break points at 2-3 in the first set and will now face either non-seed Kaja Juvan or qualifier Clara Burel in the third round.
“It was different [to her previous Centre Court experience in 2019]”Said Gauff. “Honestly, I was more nervous as we approached today’s game. I think the most important thing is that I don’t really remember much from my center court experience in 2019, I felt like it was all blurry.
“At the start of today I felt like a completely different player and person. I felt like there were times in the game where the pressure was on, where I could have mentally disengaged from the game in the past, but I did a good job of calming my nerves.
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“For me it was just trying to get a rhythm, I made a lot of direct mistakes, more than usual, but when I needed to intervene I did it and my service is really what helped me today. My service has helped me everywhere in France and everywhere here, so that’s what I relied on today.
Angelique Kerber, 2018 champion and runner-up two years earlier, is a potential opponent for Gauff in the fourth round but needed a tight three sets to knock out Sara Sorribes Tormo, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
In the other half of the draw, No. 8 seed Karolina Pliskova and former world No. 1 defeated Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-2 and will now meet non-seed Tereza Martincova, who beat Nadia Podoroska to reach the third. round for the first time.
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