Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova were the first favorites to qualify for the third round of Wimbledon after solving their commitments very differently against Gasparyan and Puig, respectively.
Svitolina (8th) was lucky, because he was having a bad time against an opponent, the Russian, who had won him very recently in Birmingham and who dominated by 7-5 and 5-6 when he had to leave due to injury. Anyway, the Ukrainian, who put the last Monday to a three-game losing streak, will face for a place in the second round to the Greek Maria Sakkari, who beat the Czech re-peat Marie Bouzkova (6-4 and 6-1) .
Pliskova (3ª), on the other hand, passed over the Puerto Rican Mónica Puig, especially in the first set (6-0 and 6-4 in 60 minutes). With nine aces, he only lost once in the second set when he already had the victory rather than on track. Now they will be seen with the dangerous Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh, who beat the Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 7-6 (3) and 6-3. Pliskova is, along with Barty, Kvitova and Mertens, one of the four tennis players who fight for number one and had beaten Puig in their only previous showdown on grass, heading to Nottingham three years ago.
Anett Kontaveit (20th) won one of the British hopes that did not quite take off, Heather Watson by 7-5 and 6-1, and I come the defeat against her at Roland Garros 2014 to be able to face in the next phase the Czech Karolina Muchova, who could with the American Madison Brengle (6-3 and 6-4).
Simona Halep suffered to overcome her Romanian compatriot Mihaela Buzarnescu, whom she faced in an ITF tournament when she was 16 years old. It was the first time they crossed paths in a WTA and Grand Slam match, and the ex-number one of the world won in three sets: 6-3, 4-6 and 6-2. She will face in the third round another who was leader of the world ranking, the Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, who seems again in good shape and who won the Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2 and 6-0.