Day 3: American women knock out two seeds as Wimbledon heats up

Wimbledon 2015: CoCo Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands pull off upsets; Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Maria Sharapova ease in third round and more results.

Author:
Courtney Nguyen
Publish date:
Jul 1, 2015

LONDON – Catch up on the news and results from Day 3 on Wednesday at Wimbledon.

No. 5 Kei Nishikori withdraws: After sustaining a left calf injury two weeks ago in Halle, Nishikori's body couldn't heal fast enough. The No. 5 withdrew before his second round match.

Marin Cilic avoids the upset: It took three hours and 34 minutes of hard work under the hot sun, but the No. 9 seed escaped with a 6–3, 4–6, 7–6, 4–6, 7–5 win over No. 89 Ricardas Berankis. The Lithuanian, who used to be in the conversation along with Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic as one of the bright future talents of the ATP, has seen his career derailed by injuries. This was a throwback performance from him but it ended in a heartbreaker, as he double-faulted on match point by just a blade grass. Tough luck.

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CoCo Vandeweghe knocks out No. 11 Karolina Pliskova: Our upset of the day pick came to fruition early in the day as Vandeweghe played a fantastic match to beat Pliskova 7–6, 6–4 to make the third round at Wimbledon for the first time in her career. This is a great surface for Vandeweghe—she won her first WTA title in s'Hertogenbosch last year—and she backed up her big serving game with some fine volleying to get the win. She'll play another big server in Sam Stosur next.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands takes down No. 6 Ana Ivanovic: Already with two Slam titles in doubles under her belt this year, qualifier Mattek-Sands put up the results on Wednesday in singles against Ivanovic, winning 6–3, 6–4 to reach the third round of Wimbledon for the first time since 2008. Mattek-Sands already played three qualifying matches and beat Alison Van Uytvanck in the first round before knocking out Ivanovic. She'll play No. 30 Belinda Bencic in the third round.

American wildcard Denis Kudla makes the third round: Ranked No. 105, Kudla earned his wildcard into the main draw by winning his fifth ATP Challenger title two weeks ago in Ilkley, England. He's now into the third round of a Slam for the first time in his career after defeating Alexander Zverev 6–3, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4. How far could Kudla go here? He's 11-1 on grass this season and he was likely to play Kei Nishikori in the next round. But with Nishikori's withdrawal, his opponent on Friday will be No. 60 Santiago Giraldo. That's a big opportunity a spot in the second week.

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Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams cruise into the third round: The key to surviving tough conditions? Get on and off the court as quickly as possible. Djokovic needed just 92 minutes to beat Jarkko Nieminen 6–4, 6–2, 6–3, while Sharapova needed 65 minutes to beat Richel Hogenkamp 6–3, 6–1. Serena took down Timea Babos 6–4, 6–1. Djokovic's win sets up an enticing third round match against Bernard Tomic. Sharapova will play Irina-Camelia Begu and Serena will play Heather Watson, who beat Daniela Hantuchova earlier in the day.

Madison Keys cleans up her light-suspended match: Keys came out firing to book her spot in the second round, coming back out at 2-2 in the third to beat Stefanie Voegele 6–7, 6–3, 6–4 in a match that was called for darkness on Tuesday. Keys hit 21 aces in the match and fired 61 winners to 30 unforced errors. That's quite the stat-line.

Record heat at Wimbledon causes issues for ball boy, players

Tommy Haas nearly takes Milos Raonic to five sets: In just his third match back from an extended injury break, 37-year-old Haas gave Raonic a scare, taking the Canadian to a fourth set tiebreaker. But Raonic's serve ultimately made the difference, as he closed it out 6–0, 6–2, 6–7, 7–6. So was this Haas' last Wimbledon? Not according to Tommy. He says his goal is to be back next year.

Record-breaking temps and serves make Wimbledon history: While the temperatures climbed to a record-high 96 degrees at the All England Club on Wednesday, Raonic fired down a 145mph serve against Haas, the third fastest serve in Wimbledon history.

Americans shrug off the hot weather: Was it hot in London today? Yes. Was it anything that these tennis players haven't seen before? Absolutely not. "I do train in Florida, and it's way worse in Florida than it was here today," said Isner. "I don't want to call it overrated, because it was very hot out there. But it wasn't crazy bad."

Keys agreed: "It's definitely hot but nothing crazy. We have played in worse. I think it's just surprising because it's happening in England where it usually doesn't [get this hot]. We have played through much worse in Florida and Australia, and even Cincinnati and U.S. Open can get hot."

Photo of the day

GIF of the day

Video of the day

Classy stuff from Djokovic, who led the crowd in a farewell salute to Nieminen, who was playing his final Wimbledon:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKL2VN8VHE]

Quote of the day

Grigor Dimitrov in response to a question about his seemingly sub-par season: "Everyone can talk whatever the hell they want. You know, I don't like to listen or read or anything like that, because that's in the game. Everyone can lose; everyone can win. The worst part is when you start being judged that way by winning or losing, and I think last year, yeah, sure, I had an unbelievable year and all that, but, it's pretty hard to just back up every time you've got to go out there and play.

Everyone is working. You're not the only one that is working hard. You've just got to take things the way they are and accept them and strive. For me, I don't feel I'm down or anything like that. I just feel that I have put serious work in me and there is a lot of miles behind me at the moment. Okay, the season hasn't been the way I really imagined it, but, God, I'm not losing first round every week, you know what I mean?"