Powerful at centrecourt!
Laura Robson, the last British woman standing at Wimbledon, made it through to the third round for the first time on Friday, beating Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino in straight sets. Robson, 19, the world number 38, traded breaks with her 117-ranked opponent in the first set but rolled her way through the second to win 6-4, 6-1 in 73 minutes before an ecstatic Centre Court crowd.
She faces New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic in the third round on Saturday. ‘It’s a big win for me, any match on Centre Court is a big one. It was a great atmosphere out there and the roof being closed just made it louder. It was very exciting,’ Robson said. ‘I was kind of feeling nervous, but luckily I’ve played on Centre a couple of times before.’
Germany’s Angelique Kerber became the latest seed to fall at Wimbledon with a three-set second-round defeat by Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi. Kerber, seeded seven, went down 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 to the world number 46, who beat Britain’s Tara Moore in the first round.
David Ferrer came out on top in an all-Spanish second round match at Wimbledon, getting the better of a baseline battle to beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 3-6 7-6(4) 7-5 on Friday. The world. No 4 set up a third-round match against Ukraine’s Alexandar Dolgopolov. German veteran Tommy Haas ended Jimmy Wang’s hopes of a first Grand Slam third round appearance as the Taiwanese qualifier was crushed 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 at Wimbledon on Friday.
Wang, the world number 151, had never been past the second round at a Grand Slam and was bidding to become just the second man from Taiwan to reach the last 32 of a major after Lu Yen-Hsun. But Haas, seeded 13th and the oldest player left in the men’s draw, overwhelmed Wang in just over 90 minutes to set up a last 32 clash against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
Sergiy Stakhovsky’s Wimbledon fairytale came to an abrupt end as Roger Federer’s conqueror slumped to a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat against Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the third round on Friday. Unlike Federer, world number 37 Melzer was able to subdue Stakhovsky’s serve and volley tactics and will play Spanish 15th seed Nicolas Almagro or Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz for a place in fourth round.
Grigor Dimitrov staged a temporary sit-down protest to register his anger at court conditions on Friday before he lost a five-set Wimbledon thriller. The Bulgarian 29th seed, watched by superstar girlfriend Maria Sharapova, who was knocked out on Wednesday, went out 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 to Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja in a second round match suspended due to rain on Thursday.
In the same round, Nicolas Almagro, the highest remaining seed aside from Andy Murray in the Brit’s half of the draw, was beaten by Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. Almagro, the 15th seed, went down 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-4 to 24th seed Janowicz.
