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Images from Day 4 of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in London on Thursday.
Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Elina Svitolina continued her fine run in Grand Slams following her maternity break as the Ukrainian wildcard downed 28th seed Elise Mertens 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 on Thursday to move into the third round.
Svitolina, who returned to the tour in April following the birth of her daughter, made the French Open quarter-finals last month and was too good for five-times champion Venus Williams in her Wimbledon opener.
The 28-year-old raced through the first set against Belgian Mertens on the back of two breaks of serve, showing glimpses of the form that took her to the last four in 2019, but she faced an uphill task in the next set after going 0-5 down.
Mertens levelled the match on serve, finishing with a powerful overhead smash, but former world number three Svitolina pounced in the decider to break in the second game thanks to a blistering backhand down the line.
With the momentum having swung her way again, Svitolina held her nerve to close out victory and set up a meeting with American Sofia Kenin after the former major champion beat China's Wang Xinyu 6-4, 6-3.
Wimbledon clears backlog!
Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka displayed vintage form at Wimbledon on Thursday to book a third-round clash with holder Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev won a rain-delayed opener as the grasscourt Grand Slam cleared its backlog.
The 38-year-old Wawrinka, winner of three Grand Slam titles and twice a Wimbledon quarter-finalist, knocked out 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-2.
Persistent rain on the first three days of the year's third major meant organisers were left with little chance of finishing matches on schedule and former world number two Zverev took to the court for his first-round clash only on Thursday.
His 6-4 7-6(4) 7-6(5) win over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer - helped by 20 booming aces - meant the All England Club was finally done with all its singles opening round fixtures shortly after 3 pm local time.
Former runner-up Matteo Berrettini was also among those who moved into the second round as the Italian recovered from a slow start to his match that began on Tuesday to defeat compatriot Lorenzo Sonego 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(7) 6-3.
It was a memorable day for Andrey Rublev who overcame fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev 6-7(4) 6-3 6-4 7-5 to bag his 50th Grand Slam match victory and move into the third round.
Russian 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva - who burst onto the scene in Madrid this year - advanced to the third round on her Wimbledon main draw debut after 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova quit their clash due to injury while trailing 6-3 4-0.
Estonian Anett Kontaveit, who reached a career-high number two last year, lost to Marie Bouzkova 6-1 6-2 in her final match before she retires from the sport.
Garcia squeezes through at Wimbledon
It took a first-to-10-point shootout but French fifth seed Caroline Garcia finally overcame Leylah Fernandez in three sets to reach the Wimbledon third round in early evening sunshine on Thursday.
Having dropped the opening set 6-3, in which Fernandez slammed 10 clean winners, the Frenchwoman – her right racket arm and shoulder strapped heavily – levelled with a 6-4 second set before doing just enough to edge the championship tiebreak 10-6 in a decider during which neither was able to break serve.
"I could be crying probably under the shower right now. That means how close it was," Garcia told reporters.
"It was a big battle obviously... We had a couple of tough matches already this year. Today was kind of the same, even closer. (I'm) Super happy with the win. Yeah, Leylah is a tough opponent, for sure."
Canadian Fernandez, displaying glimpses of the form which took her to that surreal 2021 U.S. Open final which she lost to Britain’s Emma Raducanu, played with poise and power from the back of the court, and caused Garcia problems throughout.
But in the end it was, by the narrowest of margins, Garcia who skipped across the court pumping her fist and beaming a huge smile in victory.
She will next face Czech Marie Bouzkova who sent Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit into retirement from professional tennis with a 6-1 6-2 victory and, if not 100% comfortable on grass, she is at least happy to be coming to terms with life on the tricky grass surface.
