Top Seeds Sail in Wimbledon Qualies
ROEHAMPTON, Great Britain – The first round of Wimbledon qualifying began on Tuesday afternoon, and six of the Top 8 seeds have already won their opening matches. Top seed Tatjana Maria led the way with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Myrtille Georges, setting up a second round encounter with former Australian Open junior champion An-Sophie Mestach, who needed three sets to get past young American, Sachia Vickery.
Maria earned her best career Grand Slam finish at last year’s Wimbledon championships, reaching the third round before falling to eventual quarterfinalist Madison Keys.
No.2 seed Viktorija Golubic was made to work harder in her first round against former Top 100 player Anastasia Pivovarova, who was playing in her first Grand Slam event since 2012. Edging out the opening set in a tie-break, the Swiss Fed Cup heroine had to fight through the next two before ultimately engineering a second round meeting with countrywoman Amra Sadikovic, who eased past Oceane Dodin, 6-4, 7-5. Sadikovic briefly retired from tennis before enjoying a rollicking comeback, one that has already seen her reach the quarterfinals of Bogota and return to the Top 150.
Lucie Hradecka was looking to cause the upset of the day against No.3 seed Zhang Kai-Lin; though the former Top 50 veteran served for each set, she ultimately fell, 7-5, 7-5. Zhang booked a second round encounter with Tereza Smitkova, who reached the fourth round of the All England Club in 2014.
No.4, No.5 and No.7 seeds Aleksandra Krunic, Maria Sakkari, and Tamira Paszek dropped a combined five games in their first rounds. Sakkari blew past young Russian Polina Leykina, 6-0, 6-0, in 45 minutes, while two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist Paszek defeated Amandine Hesse, 6-2, 6-1.
Second round action begins on Wednesday.