Wimbledon: Swiatek cruises into third round, Kostyuk knocks out Sakkari

London, July 5 World No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland clinched a spot in the third round of Wimbledon for the third straight season with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo, here on Wednesday.

Making her first appearance on Centre Court this year, top-seeded Swiatek won her first career meeting with 84th-ranked Sorribes Tormo after just 70 minutes of play. It is Swiatek's 40th match-win of the 2023 season.

"I feel really confident. I was able to kind of do everything tactically as I wanted to, as my coach wanted me to do, in the first and second round. Yeah, I feel confident. I'm going to try to kind of keep it going," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference.

The 22-year old Swiatek was the more aggressive of the two, as she used her fiery groundstrokes to successfully rally past Sorribes Tormo's world-class footspeed and defense. Swiatek fired 26 winners in the match, compared to the Spaniard's three.

In the third round, Swiatek will face either Diane Parry of France or No.30 seed Petra Martic of Croatia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk overcame rain and the loss of the first set 6-0 to defeat No.8 seed Maria Sakkari in the first round.

Sakkari, playing her first-round match a day late, produced a scintillating first set -- only to lose to Kostyuk 0-6, 7-5, 6-2.

The unseeded Kostyuk beat Sakkari for the first time in three tries -- and a Top 10 player for the first time in her career. Previously, Kostyuk had been 0-for-14, including five such matches in 2023 alone. Perhaps that was why when it ended, the unseeded 21-year-old from Ukraine fell to her knees, sobbing tears of joy.

Notably, Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam in which Sakkari has failed to reach the second week.

--IANS

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