03-07-2025
Kasatkina and de Minau advance to Wimbledon third round, Sinner defeats Vukic
Australia's 16th seed Daria Kasatkina has progressed to the third round of Wimbledon, while Alex de Minaur also progressed after an early slip-up.
In a tournament that has already lost top contenders including Coco Gauff (second seed), Jessica Pegula (third seed) and Jasmine Paolini (fourth seed), the draw is wide open for a player like Kasatkina to make a deep run.
Playing in her second grand slam since changing her allegiance to Australia, Russian-born Kasatkina needed three sets to down Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Kasatkina, who made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2018, had more double faults (6-2) and less winners (16-29) than her Romanian counterpart.
But the Australian player was prolific on break point, converting eight of her 11 opportunities in the match.
Kasatkina will face 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the third round.
In the men's draw, Alex de Minaur overcame losing the first set to defeat Frenchman Arthur Cazaux 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0.
Aleksandar Vukic's debut on Centre Court ended in straight sets, going down to world number one Jannik Sinner 6-1, 6-1, 6-3.
Sinner, bidding to win the Wimbledon title for the first time, never loosened his grip on a one-sided contest, although he did need six match points to finish off Vukic in a prolonged final game.
There was never any chance of a repeat of last month's French Open final when he squandered three match points in a spellbinding clash with Carlos Alcaraz though, and he duly slammed down his 12th ace as the light began to fade.
"I struggled a bit to close it out. I'm very happy, Centre Court is such a special occasion," Sinner said.
"Yes, I enjoyed [the last game] because I won the game! If not, I don't know. The match can change very, very quickly. If he breaks me there it can go long distance."
ABC/Reuters
