Swiatek sweeps into third round but Sakkari falls

Iga Swiatek is no fan of grass-court tennis, but the No.1 seed admitted she is beginning to come to terms with it after cruising into the third round at Wimbledon.

The four-time grand slam champ has picked up her previous majors on French clay and the US hard courts, having failed to go beyond the fourth round in London.

But after crushing Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2 6-0 on Wednesday, the world No.1 said, “I can adjust my game now to grass courts. I’m getting there.

“I always feel like every year will give me more experience. I have played well here in juniors. In the future it could be my tournament.

“Every year, it will be easier to play here. I feel really confident which is great.”

The Pole made a slow start and dropped serve early, having broken her opponent, but moved through the gears in what was her first match on Centre Court.

Once the 22-year-old found her range with her powerful forehand she was unstoppable and has now dropped just six games in her opening two matches.

With rain having turned the schedule into a jigsaw puzzle Swiatek was into the third round while others were still trying to negotiate the first.

One who failed to do so was the No.8 seed, Maria Sakkari.

The Greek, who now has Australia’s former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis in her coaching team, lost to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk despite winning the first set 6-0.

Her momentum was maybe stalled by a trio of rain interventions as she lost the next two sets 7-5 6-2.

“Every time I was going into a rain break I was going into different emotions,” said Kostyuk, who was also emotional several times during the match.

“I was crying during the breaks. I tried to figure out what was happening. I tried to come back into the match. It was not easy.

“I just tried to fight and want to say thank you to my team,” the 21-year-old said.

Another seed KO’d was world No. 27 American Bernarda Pera, beaten by 99-ranked Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova.

However, this year’s French Open semi-finalist Beatriz Haddad Maia and 2017 major winners Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko progressed, as did seeds Donna Vekic, Anastasia Potapova and Ekatarina Alexandrova.

Former French Open champ, the No.10 seed Barbora Krejcikova, put away Heather Watson while back in the second round No.11 seed Daria Kasatkina demolished another Brit Jodie Burrage 6-0 6-2 on Centre Court.

with agencies