No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka dominated Teodora Kostovic and led a parade of the top-ranked women’s singles players into the second round at Wimbledon on Monday in London.
Sabalenka strolled on Centre Court for a 6-2, 6-3 triumph in her first Grand Slam action since she followed a loss at the French Open by declaring she was ready to “quit tennis.”
“I have to say for the first match I felt pretty good. I’ll rate myself, let’s say 8 out of 10,” Sabalenka said after the 65-minute opener Monday.
Sabalenka said she trained with American Jessica Pegula in the lead-up to Wimbledon, even joking about her flat performance in the third set of her loss to Pegula at the Berlin Open.
“She really humiliated me,” Sabalenka joked.
Before a rematch can be reality, Pegula, the No. 4 seed, will need more performances like her own win Monday over Czech Darja Vidmanova, 7-5, 6-3. Pegula advances to play Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain in the second round; Sabalenka’s second-round opponent is American McCartney Kessler.
No. 5 seed and French Open champion Mirra Andreeva of Russia defeated Magda Linette of Poland 7-5, 6-4, and Coco Gauff, the No. 7 seed, defeated Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 6-2, 6-1. Gauff won for the 27th time this year and notched her first victory at Wimbledon since 2024. Gauff required only 54 minutes to wrap up the opening-round win.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka appeared to be moving without limitations, erasing concerns about a foot injury that forced her to retire during last week’s Bad Homburg Open final.
The 14th-seeded Osaka advanced by taking down France’s Elsa Jacquemot 6-1, 7-5. She took the court pre-match in a custom kimono-style gown created by Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi.
Czech No. 10 seed Karolina Muchova beat Anastasia Zakharova of Russia 6-3, 6-2; Swiss No. 11 seed Belinda Bencic swept Great Britain’s Mika Stojsavljevic 6-2, 6-1 in 65 minutes; and No. 16 Iva Jovic ousted Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 7-6 (1), 6-0.
A pair of Russians, No. 18 Ekaterina Alexandrova and No. 19 Anna Kalinskaya, advanced with straight-set victories over Hungary’s Panna Udvardy and Poland’s Magdalena Frech, respectively, rounding out a day which saw all top-19 seeds in action advance with relative ease.
But it was not a flawless opening day for seeded competitors, as four players seeded in the 20s failed to make it out of the opening round.
No. 20 Maja Chwalinska of Poland — who became the first qualifier to reach the French Open finals last month — blew an early lead and fell 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 to Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand. No. 22 Leylah Fernandez of Canada made her third first-round exit in as many slams this year, swept 6-1, 7-6 (3) by Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, who also knocked her out of the Australian Open in January.
No. 27 seed Anastasia Potapova of Austria was beaten 6-2, 6-3 in 75 minutes by Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Of the eight Americans in action Monday, only two lost. One of those, however, was No. 28 seed Ann Li, who came up short in a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 loss to Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.
–Field Level Media
