Nervy Kvitova into third round
London, June 30: Petra Kvitova has plenty of experience on the grass courts of Wimbledon. After all, she’s a two-time champion at the All England Club. But that doesn’t mean everything is easy for her once she steps onto the green courts in southwest London.
She has spoken about being nervous when she comes to Wimbledon, and she showed some of those nerves on Thursday when she beat Ana Bogdan 6-1, 7-6 (5).
It was a straight-set victory, but the second set wasn’t straightforward.
Kvitova was leading 5-1 when Bogdan started to reel off game after game. Then Kvitova had a match point while serving at 5-4, but failed to convert that chance and then the game itself, eventually leading to the tiebreaker.
She still pulled it out in the end, like she has done so many times in the past at Wimbledon. She won her first title in 2011, and added the second in 2014. But she was attacked in her home in 2016 and suffered knife injuries to her playing left hand. She later had surgery and needed more than five months to recover.
Last week, she won the fifth grass-court title of her career at a tournament in Eastbourne, England.
That should have given her plenty of confidence heading into this tournament, and this match.
Kvitova will next face
Paula Badosa. The fourthseeded Spaniard defeated Irina Bara 6-3, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who reached the Wimbledon final last year, was eliminated on Centre Court.
The Czech player lost to British wild-card entry Katie Boulter 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
In the men’s draw, Nick Kyrgios advanced to the third round for the sixth time in eight Wimbledon appearances. The unseeded Australian, who reached the quarterfinals at the All England Club in his debut in 2014, beat 26th-seeded Filip
Krajinovic 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Kyrgios will next face Stefanos Tsitsipas. The fourth-seeded Greek beat Jordan Thompson 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 on No. 1 Court.
Tsitsipas will be playing in the third round here for the first time since 2018. He lost in the first round last year and 2019. His best Wimbledon result was reaching the fourth round in 2018.
No. 11 Taylor Fitz of the United States also advanced, along with No. 21 Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands and Richard Gasquet of France.