Andreescu aims to advance past Wimbledon 3rd round for 1st time after straight-sets win | CBC Sports

Canada’s Bianca Andreescu advanced to the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over 26th seed Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Andreescu won on her first match point, scoring her 28th winner on a backhand.

The 24-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., scored the only break of the match early to go up 2-0 in the first set. She held serve throughout, successfully defending all five break points she faced.

Andreescu will next face seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini, the French Open runner-up, on Friday as she looks to advance past the third round at the All England Club for the first time.

The 2019 U.S. Open winner made her return at the French Open after missing nearly 10 months with a back injury, then opened the grass season with a runner-up performance at the Libema Open in the Netherlands.

WATCH: Andreescu takes 2nd-round match at Wimbledon:

On the men’s side, Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime failed to convert four match points before eventually losing his first-round match 4-6, 5-7, 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-4 to Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Auger-Aliassime, seeded 17th at the All England Club, entered Wednesday leading his match after it was suspended early on the fourth set Tuesday due to darkness. But Kokkinakis had the momentum, and he capitalized.

Just before the suspension, Kokkinakis came out on top of a wild third-set tiebreaker. Auger-Aliassime came back from 5-0 down and had four match points, including two on serve, but couldn’t put the Australian away.

WATCH | Auger-Aliassime loses opening match to Australia’s Kokkinakis:

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime drops delayed 1st round match at Wimbledon

Auger-Aliassime continued his match with Thanasi Kokkinakis from Tuesday, which was suspended due to darkness. Despite leading coming into today, Auger-Aliassime couldn’t hold on, losing 4-6, 5-7, 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-4.

Kokkinakis took control of the fifth set when he scored a break to go up 4-3, coming back from a 40-15 deficit in the game. He held serve the rest of the way to complete the upset.

Auger-Aliassime, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2021, went out in the first round for a third straight time at the grass-court Grand Slam,

Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled for a second-round match with Germany’s Daniel Altmaier later Wednesday but it has been moved to Thursday at 6 a.m. ET.

Dabrowski, Fernandez move on in doubles

In women’s doubles action, the second-seeded team of Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Russians Anastasia Potapova and Mirra Andreeva.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face either Brazilians Beatriz Haddad Maia and Ingrid Martins or Russians Irina Khromacheva and Kamilla Rakhimova.

Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Japan’s Ena Shibahara also advanced with a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over China’s Jiang Xinyu and Guo Hanyu.

Fernandez and Shibahara will next face 16th seeds Ingrid Neel of Estonia and Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri.

Fernandez is set to return to action Thursday when she faces former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in a women’s second-round match.

Gauff takes down Romanian qualifier

Coco Gauff likes No. 1 Court at Wimbledon.

It’s where she beat Venus Williams back in 2019 when Gauff made her Wimbledon debut at age 15.

On Wednesday, Gauff beat Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the third round at the All England Club.

“This is the court where I first started here at Wimbledon. Court 1 is always a special place for me to play on,” the 20-year-old Gauff said in her on-court interview.

The victory also allows Gauff, the No. 2 seed, to move another step away from last year’s first-round exit.

“Overall, I just learned about life a lot,” the U.S. Open champion said when asked about putting that three-set loss to Sofia Kenin behind her.

“I just realized that, yes, what I do I’m very passionate about, but it’s not ever that serious and sometimes the world can make you feel like there’s so much pressure, there’s so much expectation,” she said. “At the end of the [day], it’s a game. It’s sport.”

The 19-year-old Todoni is from Romania and was making her Grand Slam debut.

“I do think I could have played cleaner at some moments,” Gauff said.

Five years ago, Gauff beat Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round and eventually reached the last 16, all on her Grand Slam debut.

Alcaraz prevails in comeback fashion

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz trailed 6-5 in the first set before coming back to beat Alexsander Vukic 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2, setting up a third-round meeting with No. 29 Frances Tiafoe after the American eliminated Borna Coric 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-3.

When told by the on-court interviewer that Tiafoe said he’s “coming after you,” the 21-year-old Spaniard replied with a smile: “I’m going for him.”

“We played a really good match in the U.S. Open,” the No. 3 seed said of their 2022 semifinal that Alcaraz won at Flushing Meadows.

Other results:

•  No. 11 Danielle Collins completed her first-round match, a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Clara Tauson. It had been suspended Tuesday night at 4-4 in the second set.
• No. 20 Beatriz Haddad Maia advanced to the third round by beating Magdalena Frech 7-5, 6-3.
• On the men’s side, No. 16 Ugo Humbert eliminated Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6 (9), 6-1, 6-3.