World No. 1 Iga Swiatek overcame a scare from Dutch lucky loser Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove to advance to the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday.
Swiatek captured her 37th consecutive match victory with a 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 triumph over Pattinama Kerkhove. The 21-year-old native of Poland needed just over two hours to dispatch the World’s No. 138th-ranked player and boost her winning streak, which is the longest on the WTA Tour since Martina Hingis won 37 in 1997.
Swiatek recorded 31 winners to advance to the third round to face France’s Alize Cornet, who posted a 6–3, 6–3 victory over Claire Liu earlier on Thursday.
Harmony Tan of France and British wild-card entry Katie Boulter continued to advance at Wimbledon following a pair of upset victories. Tan and Boulter, however, will square off against each other in the third round.
Tan, who is ranked No. 115 in the world, followed up her three-set victory over seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams on Tuesday with a 6–3, 6–4 triumph over 32nd-seeded Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain.
Boulter overcame dropping the first set to notch a 3–6, 7–6 (4), 6–4 win over sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
“It’s easy to say I believe I can win this match. But to have actually gone out and done it a week before, it does make the difference,” Boulter said. “I think that’s also why when I played an OK first set (and) she picked up her game a lot, I felt like I went through that last week. I just needed to stay with her and stay on serve especially in the second set. I did that again in Eastbourne. I managed to get a chance.
“I feel like I got that chance again today.”
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, also of the Czech Republic, posted a 6–1, 7–6 (5) victory over Ana Bogdan of Romania.
The 25th-ranked Kvitova advances to face No. 4 Paula Badosa. The Spaniard breezed to a 6–3, 6–2 win over Irina Bara of Belgium.
Other seeded winners included No. 8 Jessica Pegula, 13th-seeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, No. 17 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and No. 20 Amanda Anisimova. Pegula and Anisimova each overcame dropping the first set to emerge victorious, while Krejcikova and Rybakina secured straight-set victories over their respective opponents.
