World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and world No. 13 Karolina Pliskova move; Stephens beats Kvitova

LONDON: World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and world No. 13 Karolina Pliskova were stretched in their first round matches before advancing at the Wimbledon Championships here on Tuesday.

While Ashleigh defeated Carla Suárez Navarro 6-1, 6-7(1), 6-1, eighth seed Karolina beat French Open semi-finalist Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 7-5, 6-4.

Ashleigh, who will lead a strong Australian tennis contingent at the Tokyo Olympics, romped to win the first set but then lost the second in the tie-break as her Spanish opponent won the tie-breaker 7-1.

The Aussie, however, crushed Carla in the final set.

The difference in power game between the two players was stark. While Ashleigh hammered 13 aces, Carla failed to produce a single ace.

Ashleigh won all five of the break-points she got and won 88 per cent on the first serve. She hit 37 winners against 12 by Carla.

Karolina, who on Monday slipped out of the top 10 in women's rankings for the first time in five years, took an hour and 17 minutes to get past Tamara.

Karolina slammed 10 aces to three by Tamara and won 82 per cent of points on first serve. She converted all the three break-points she got as against one out of four from Tamara.

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion who is languishing at No. 73 in world rankings, caused an upset as she defeated No. 10 seed and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round

The American took just 77 minutes to hammer her opponent from the Czech Republic, who won here in 2011 and 2014.

Sloane was beaten in the very first game of the match, but then never lost serve again and broke the left-hander thrice during the course of the match.

Sloane won 78 per cent on her first serve while Petra could win only 66 per cent.

Former world number one Angelique Kerber made a wobbly start against debutant Nina Stojanovic before finding her groove to seal a 6-4 6-3 victory.

In men's section, Feliciano Lopez's 78th Grand Slam ended when he lost to No. 22 Daniel Evans of Britain, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 7-5. No. 26 Fabio Fognini beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4. Alison Riske of the United States lost to Tereza Martincova 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. The 28th-seeded Riske committed 42 unforced errors. American Sebastian Korda defeated Eastbourne champion Alex De Minaur 6-3 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(5). Agencies

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