Wimbledon 2023: Iga Swiatek serves up a bagel and steps up title hunt as Sakkari slips up

Top seed Iga Swiatek continued her pursuit of a maiden Wimbledon title with victory on Centre Court against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Swiatek, 22, took a comprehensive 6-2 6-0 victory to move into the third round.

The Pole has never managed to go beyond the fourth round on the SW19 grass but has looked in superb form this week.

“I feel confident which doesn’t happen often at Wimbledon,” Swiatek said after the win.

“This is the first year where I feel I learned a lot and can adjust my game to the grass. I’m getting there!

“In the future, this can be my tournament, but you have to work hard because there’s not much time to practise on grass.”

Swiatek added: “Every year it will be a bit easier. This year I feel really confident so that’s great.”

A favourite for the title with some, Swiatek had faced one of the highest-ranked players she could in the opening round – 34th-ranked Zhu Lin. She dropped just four games in that contest, and victory here against a player ranked 50 places lower than Zhu was even more comfortable.

Since lifting her fourth major title at Roland Garros last month, Swiatek has been working on her grass-court game and reached the semi-finals of a warm-up event in Germany last week.

The three-time French Open champion exchanged early breaks of serve with Sorribes Tormo, but after breaking the Spaniard for 3-1 she looked in control and secured the opener with her second set point.

A double-break in the second set, sealed with a thumping backhand winner, effectively spelled the end for Sorribes Tormo and Swiatek went on to punish her opponent further with a stunning forehand to tie up a second-set bagel.

Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari followed American Coco Gauff in losing early, becoming the second top-10 casualty of the championships, with world number 36 Marta Kostyuk making a remarkable comeback to win 0-6 7-5 6-2.

Sakkari looked in total control in the opening set, but following disruptions to play after multiple rain delays her Ukrainian opponent returned to court invigorated.

Former world number two Anett Kontaveit secured a 6-4 6-4 victory over Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini, meaning the Estonian prolongs her career for at least another match after announcing she would retire after Wimbledon.

Also going through was 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens, who beat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-2 6-3, along with 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who beat China’s Wang Xiyu 6-4 3-6 7-5.

Petra Kvitova’s match against Jasmine Paolini was a late addition to the Centre Court schedule and the two-time Wimbledon champion wrapped up a three-set first-round victory under the roof just after 22:00 BST.

Brazilian 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia came from behind to beat Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 3-6 6-0 6-4 while Wimbledon semi-finalist Jelena Ostapenko, who won the Birmingham Classic in June, swept past Belgian Greet Minnen 6-1 6-2.

Karolina Pliskova, the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, suffered a shock 6-2 6-3 first-round exit to Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic, ranked 206 places below her.

German Tatjana Maria, who reached the semi-finals last year, also fell at the first hurdle with a 6-1 2-6 6-3 loss to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.