Wimbledon: Teenager Gauff continues fairytale run

Cori Gauff’s dream Wimbledon run continued as the 15-year-old American swept past former semifinalist Magdalena Rybarikova into the third round on Wednesday.

Playing under the lights of the new Court One roof, Gauff, who defeated Venus Williams in round one, put in another nerveless display to win 6-3 6-3.

The young American stayed utterly focused as she won in an hour and nine minutes to set up a clash with world No.60 Polona Hercog of Slovenia after she beat 17th seed Madison Keys.

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Gauff said: “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, didn’t know I was coming here. It just shows you have to be ready for everything.

“I believe everything happens for a reason. People were telling me to keep working hard and your time will come.”

Sailing through to the second round in style…@Simona_Halep's pursuit to win the #Wimbledon title begins with victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich on No.1 Court pic.twitter.com/6IgsgU1sUr

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 1, 2019

Earlier, world No.3 Karolina Pliskova claimed a commanding victory over Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, while seventh seed Simona Halep survived a scare to beat fellow Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-3 4-6 6-2.

Czech star Pliskova was too good for 2016 Olympic champion  Puig, winning 6-0 6-4 to reach the third round at the All England Club for the second time.

“I feel like I improved from the first round,” said the former world No.1  “I was a little bit nervous. Hopefully it can be better again in the third one.”

Pliskova next faces Hsieh Su-wei after the Taiwanese player dismissed Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 7-6(3) 6-3.

Meanwhile, Halep endured a far tougher second-round test against compatriot Buzarnescu before eventually winning 6-3 4-6 6-2 in one hour and 51 minutes.

She now faces another fellow former world No.1 after Victoria Azarenka of Belarus overcame Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2 6-0.

Also in the women’s draw, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit beat Britain’s Heather Watson 7-5 6-1 for a round three meeting with Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, who conquered Madison Brengle of the United States 6-3 6-4.

Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki beat Russian Veronika Kudermetova 7-6(5) 6-3 win to book a third-round meeting with China’s Zhang Shuai.

Ukrainian eighth seed Elina Svitolina had a fortunate escape in round two against Russian Margarita Gasparyan.

Svitolina was a set and a break down, but Gasparyan picked up an untimely injury and was forced to retire at 5-7 6-5 with Svitolina ahead in set two.

The 24-year-old WTA Finals champion next meets Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who triumphed 6-4 6-1 against the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova to progress.