Wimbledon 2019: 15-year-old Coco Gauff beats Magdalena Rybarikova to reach round three
A review of Wednesday's women's singles action at Wimbledon as 15-year-old Cori 'Coco' Gauff continued her dream run to reach round three.
Cori 'Coco' Gauff continued her incredible Wimbledon debut as she followed up her triumph over Venus Williams with victory against Magdalena Rybárikova to reach the third round.
The 15-year-old American announced herself to a global audience by beating her idol - and five-time Wimbledon champion - Williams in straight sets on her Grand Slam debut on Monday.
On this occasion she was up against an experienced campaigner in 30-year-old Rybarikova, who reached the semi-finals here in 2017, but showed nerves of steel to triumph 6-3 6-3 under the lights of the Court One roof in an hour and nine minutes.
Gauff, who is the youngest female to compete in the main draw of a Grand Slam and the youngest player overall to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open Era, will play world number 60 Polona Hercog of Slovenia in round three after she shocked 17th seed Madison Keys.
🤔 What were you up to at 15 years old?
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) July 3, 2019
🤑 Coco Gauff has pocketed £111,000 for reaching round three of #Wimbledon! pic.twitter.com/c6aDPHSm2g
Rybarikova has slipped to 139 in the world but she certainly has pedigree, a seasoned grass-court player who made the last four just two years ago.
Gauff is no respecter of reputations, though. Nor is she lacking in confidence, having already declared she is here to win the tournament, and after three assured service games she switched up a gear and broke Rybarikova to love.
A hold to love clinched the first set, and she broke again for 2-1 in the second with Rybarikova unable to find an answer to the relentless, machine-like groundstrokes.
Gauff had a brief chat with Roger Federer before the match, and the eight-time winner will have no doubt approved as two superb serves got her out of a mild sticky patch for 4-2.
Rybarikova desperately wanted to force Gauff to serve out the match but she was having none of it, and as the weary Slovakian dumped a return into the net the teenager celebrated another hugely impressive victory.
🙌🎾 Coco Gauff has done it again!
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) July 3, 2019
✅ Youngest player to qualify for #Wimbledon
✅ Beats five-time champ Venus Williams
✅ Beats 2017 semi-finalist Rybarikova
🤩 The 15-year-old star is into round three of her first ever Grand Slam! pic.twitter.com/5vRiJfQTGN
"I wasn't expecting any of this," she said. "A lot of celebrities were messaging, posting me. I'm kind of starstruck. It's been hard to reset. I don't know.
"The last three days have definitely just kind of been surprising. It just shows if you really work hard, you can get where you want to go.
"Last week around this time, I didn't know I was coming here. It just shows you have to be ready for everything.
"Surprisingly social media kind of relaxes me before the match. That's what I kind of do.
"Right now I'm going to keep everything the same because it's been working."
Elsewhere, Third seed Karolina Pliskova found Centre Court to her liking as she demolished Monica Puig 6-0 6-4.
Pliskova was taken to a second-set tie-break in her opening-day win over world number 101 Zhu Lin on Court Two, but she felt more at home on Centre.
"I think it was much better than the first round, for sure," she said.
"I had a little bit of trouble in the end, but I think that's normal. She also had some chances to play good tennis. So she played.
"I felt the best here in Wimbledon today. The court was super nice, a little bit faster than the outside courts. So it was good.
"Centre for sure the fastest for me. I just like that much better than Court Two. Normally Court Two is not my favourite here."
Next Pliskova will face Hsieh Su-Wei, the 28th seed, who beat Kirsten Flipkens 7-6 (3) 6-3.
Russian Margarita Gasparyan left the court in tears after being forced to retire while leading against eighth seed Elina Svitolina.
The world number 62 was on the verge of a potential shock having won the first set and serving at 5-5 in the second.
But Gasparyan, who has a history of knee problems, seemed to injure her knee after serving and required lengthy treatment on the baseline.
The 24-year-old attempted to soldier on but soon gave up, tearfully walking to the net to shake hands with Ukrainian Svitolina.
Seventh seed Simona Halep was taken the distance in the all-Romanian showdown on Court Two.
The 2018 French Open champion eventually beat Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-3 4-6 6-2 in an hour and 51 minutes.
Halep will face a fellow former world number one, Victoria Azarenka, who won 12 games in a row in sweeping aside Ajla Tomljanovic.
Caroline Wozniacki, who has never made it past the fourth round, beat unseeded Russian Veronika Kudermetova.
Wozniacki, seeded 14, needed a tie-break in the first set and went on to win 7-6 (5) 6-3.
Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian 20th seed, saw off Britain's Heather Watson 7-5 6-1 and Yulia Putintseva, who knocked out second seed Naomi Osaka in round one, came crashing back down to earth with a straight-sets defeat to world number 81 Viktorija Golubic.
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