Britain pins hopes on Konta
LONDON — Britain’s biggest hope for a women’s champion at Wimbledon worked her way into the third round on Wednesday.
Johanna Konta trailed early, but managed to come back and hang on for a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8 victory over Donna Vekic on Centre Court.
“It’s a nice feeling not to have to keep going out there,” Konta said. “We were out there a long time and both of us battled incredibly hard.
“Whoever was going to draw the short straw was going to be hurting.”
Konta, seeded sixth, is in the third round at the All England Club for the first time in six appearances. She reached the final at a grass-court warm-up tournament in Birmingham last month, but lost to Vekic.
“I think I overall trusted my game a bit more this time,” said Konta, who is trying to become the first British woman to win the Wimbledon title since Virginia Wade in 1977. “I’m definitely here with the intention of wanting to be a part of the event for the full two weeks.”
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko came back in her match against Montreal’s Francoise Abanda to reach Wimbledon’s third round for the first time. The 142ndranked Canadian qualifier took the first set and pushed the second set to a tiebreak before falling 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Ostapenko had never won a tour title of any sort before surprisingly earning her first at a Grand Slam tournament last month in Paris while ranked 47th and unseeded.
She is seeded 13th at the All England Club, where she was the junior champion in 2014.
Against Abanda in a matchup between two 20-year-olds, Ostapenko played her usual brand of high-risk, high-reward tennis, overcoming 39 unforced errors by compiling a 31-17 edge in winners.
On Court 16, Daniil Medvedev expressed his anger after losing his match by throwing some coins at the foot of the chair umpire’s chair.
Medvedev, an unseeded Russian who beat Stan Wawrinka in the first round, lost to Ruben Bemelmans 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round. After the match ended, both players shook hands with chair umpire Mariana Alves. Medvedev then grabbed his wallet and pulled out some coins and tossed them toward the chair.
“In the heat of the moment I did a bad thing and I apologize for this,” said Medvedev, who denied he was implying the chair umpire was paid off. “I was just frustrated. It had no meaning.”
When the Wimbledon gates opened Wednesday morning, the race was on to get the best spot on Mount Murray.
The hill next to No. 1 Court at Wimbledon, formerly known as Henman Hill and also referred to as Murray Mound, was a coveted spot for Day 3 at the All England Club because Konta and Andy Murray were scheduled to play their second-round matches on Centre Court.
Thousands of fans on the grounds and without tickets to the main stadium often gather on the hill to watch the action on a giant TV screen.
The area was named Henman Hill in honour of Tim Henman, another British player but one who never was able to win the title. The nickname shifted to Murray when he came on the scene and eventually ended the country’s 77-year wait for a homegrown men’s winner when he won the title in 2013.
Following Konta’s victory, Murray beat Dustin Brown of Germany 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Rafael Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion, followed Murray on Centre Court against Donald Young.
Other women’s winners on Wednesday include five-time champion Venus Williams, former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and eighthseeded Dominika Cibulkova. For the men, seventh-seeded Marin Cilic, ninth-seeded Kei Nishikori, 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 16th-seeded Gilles Muller and 24thseeded Sam Querrey advanced.