Wimbledon 2023: Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula cruise through as Lesia Tsurenko makes history with epic tie-break

Ons Jabeur stormed into the third round of Wimbledon with a 6-1 6-1 thrashing of Zhouxuan Bai that took just 45 minutes.

The Tunisian is looking to go one step better than her runner-up finish at the All England Club last year, and faces Bianca Andreescu next.

Jabeur, seeded sixth at SW19, was untroubled in her victory on Court No.1, earning five breaks and staying solid on serve with six aces and 87% of first serve points won.

“It was a good game. She [Bai] played the qualifier here, I believe she had a great tournament and I wish her all the best. I try to play like a top-10 player,” Jabeur said.

Her next opponent Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, came back from 5-2 down in the third set to beat No. 26 seed Anhelina Kalinina 6-2 4-6 7-6(7).

Fourth seed Jessica Pegula also made it through with little trouble, beating Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-4 6-0 in their third-round meeting.

Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam remaining where the American was yet to reach the second week, but she will be there this year.

Her opponent will be Lesia Tsurenko, whose third-round victory over Ana Bogdan featured the oddity of the longest tie-break in women’s Grand Slam history.

A three hour and 39 minute battle was decided by a 38-point tie-break, won by the Ukrainian after she had saved five match points and her opponent saved six.

New ground was also broken when 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova beat Madison Brengle 6-7(4), 7-6 (5), 7-6(7) in the first Wimbledon women’s singles match of the Open Era to be decided by three tie-breaks.

No. 9 seed and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova progressed to round three with a 6-2 6-2 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

But Paula Badosa was forced to retire with a spinal injury while she was 6-2 1-0 down against Marta Kostyuk.

The Ukrainian, who stunned eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the first round, faces Eastbourne champion Madison Keys next, who won 7-5 6-3 against Viktorija Golubic to extend her unbeaten run on grass this season to seven matches.

Former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka claimed victory in a heavyweight clash with 11th seed Daria Kasatkina, winning 6-2 6-4 to reach the second week at Wimbledon for the first time in six years.

“I felt like today was my best performance this tournament,” Azarenka said.

“I played very solid from the beginning to the end. It was a lot of really interesting rallies, quite a lot of variety today that I was able to use in my match.

“I was real proud of my movement. I thought it really picked up from the beginning of the tournament. I was happy to finish in two sets.”

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