South Africa’s Kevin Anderson advanced to the third round at Wimbledon with a four-set victory over Andreas Seppi on Thursday.
Anderson needed two days to advance as rain halted his match on Wednesday. He won the first set 6-3 courtesy of a lone break in the fourth game of the opener. The pair traded breaks to start the second set, but Seppi prevailed in a tie-break to level the match 1-1.
In the third set, Anderson broke in the eighth game to go 5-3 up. Serving for the set, Anderson went 40-0 up before his opponent fought back to 40-30. It was then that Anderson pulled out a strong second serve down the middle which Seppi mistimed back into the net to conclude the set.
The third was locked at 1-1 when rain interrupted play.
When play resumed on Thursday, both held serve to start the day, but Anderson got a crucial break in the fifth and never surrendered that advantage to progress to the third round with a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Rafael Nadal also advanced to the third round after a straight-set victory over Mikhail Kukushkin. Nadal, though, had to work hard for once. During the opening game of the first set, he had to fend off three break-points, but he finally got through that game after 10 minutes. Nadal broke serve in the next game but he surrendered that break in the fifth. The next break came in the 10th game as Nadal sealed the first set 6-4.
The only break of the second came in the fourth game as Nadal took a two-set lead. Kukushkin took a 3-1 lead in the third, but he could not take advantage of that as Nadal broke in the fifth and ninth games to seal a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
On the women’s side, No 1 seed Simona Halep advanced after a straight-sets victory over Saisai Zheng. Halep won the first game with relative ease before the pair traded breaks in the two that followed. Zheng took a 4-3 lead after breaking Halep in the seventh, but while serving for the set the Romanian played some sublime tennis to break back. She also won the next two to take the first set 7-5.
That seemed to have broken the confidence of Zheng as she did not manage to win a single game in the second set. Halep advanced to the third round with a 7-5, 6-0 victory.
Angelique Kerber also advanced to the third round after coming from a set down to defeat Claire Liu 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Other selected men’s results:
Guido Pella defeated Marin Cilic 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-5
Novak Djokovic defeated Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
Kei Nishikori defeated Bernard Tomic 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-5
Thomas Fabbiano defeated Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (6)
Other selected women’s results:
Dominika Cibulkova defeated Johanna Konta 6-3, 6-4
Ashleigh Barty defeated Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 7-5
Daria Gavrilova defeated Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1
Jelena Ostapenko defeated Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-3
Photo: Wimbledon.com
