Sloane Stephens got the ball rolling for the American Wimbledon hopefuls on Wednesday when she sealed a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Rebecca Peterson to advance to the second round.
The 2017 US Open champion had to wait a day to get her SW19 campaign off and running but her appearance in the next round didn’t come under any threat.
Stephens, from Florida, came through in straight sets on Court 14 to set up a second-round match with No. 20 seed Donna Vekic on Thursday.
World No. 9 Taylor Fritz, whose girlfriend Morgan Riddle, 25, is also working at Wimbledon, finally finished off his marathon first round-match from Monday.
He secured a 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over unseeded German Yannick Hanfmann to set up a clash with Mikael Ymer next.
Sloane Stephens advanced to the second round of Wimbledon after sealing a 6-2, 6-3 victory
The American had to wait until Wednesday to get her Wimbledon campaign off and running
World No. 9 Taylor Fritz finally finished off his marathon first round-match from Monday
The grass-court, two-week Grand Slam tournament is already playing catch-up after rain delays.
Stephens was among 10 players who originally were on Monday’s schedule but had not played a point at the year’s third Grand Slam tournament until Wednesday.
Tenth seed Frances Tiafoe then overcame Yibing Wu 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4 after the Chinese tennis star reportedly collapsed during his Wimbledon opener.
Tenth seed Frances Tiafoe then overcame Yibing Wu 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday
Chinese tennis star Yibing Wu reportedly collapsed during his Wimbledon opener against Tiafoe after complaining of breathing difficulty
Wu, ranked No. 62 in the ATP world rankings, was beaten in the opening set by Tiafoe on a tiebreak and had just lost the first two games of the second set before complaining of breathing difficulty.
After being checked over by medics on court, the 23-year-old was taken to the dressing room for an initial three-minute time-out, which was eventually extended to 15 minutes.
And according to ESPN, via The Sun, the extended break came after Wu fainted while back in the dressing room.
Fortunately he appeared to make a full recovery during that time, meaning he was able to return to court and continue the match shortly after.
A host of other Americans also advanced to round two including the 25th seed Madison Keys, who beat home qualifier Sonay Kartal in straight sets (6-0 6-3), and Tommy Paul – the No 16 seed – who breezed past Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan (7-5 6-3 6-1).
Madison Keys beat British qualifier Sonay Kartal in straight sets (6-0 6-3) on Wednesday
Ben Shelton, the 20-year-old from Atlanta, needed five sets to overcome Taro Daniel of Japan
None of Marcos Giron, Madison Brengle or Danielle Collins dropped a set either en route to round two. Giron, the world No 65, beat Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien 7-6 6-4 6-4, while Brengle was a 6-3 6-1 winner over Sara Errani of Italy and Collins overcame Austria’s Julia Grabher 6-4 6-4.
It was less straightforward for 32nd seed Ben Shelton, the 20-year-old from Atlanta who needed five sets to overcome Taro Daniel of Japan. Shelton eventually triumphed 6-4 6-3 3-6 4-6 6-3 in a little over three hours.
Chris Eubanks, another Atlanta native, joined his compatriots in the second round after a 4-6 7-5 7-5 6-3 win over Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro.
There were defeats, however, for Sebastian Korda, the 22nd seed, who was beaten in four sets by Jiri Vesely (7-6 4-6 6-2 6-3) and a trio of American women on Wednesday.
Bernarda Pera, seeded No 27, lost in three sets (7-6 3-6 3-6) to Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, while 33-year-old Alison Riske-Amritraj was beaten 6-3 6-3 by New York-born Spaniard Paula Badosa and Emma Navarro lost 6-4 6-3 to No 21 seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia.
