Federer, Williams sisters in Round 3, Wozniacki out

Defending champion Roger Federer was in show-stopping form on Wednesday as hoards of ‘Fed Fans’ flocked to Centre Court to watch the number one seed. Williams sisters Serena and Venus, 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic and Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki were also in action, while Katie Swan was a lone raider when it came to the British challenge.

The top seeds in the women’s draw continued to tumble as Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki became the biggest name to exit the championships so far. The Dane fought back from 5-1 down in the final set and saved four match points, before eventually succumbing 6-4 1-6 7-5 to Russian world number 35 Ekaterina Makarova.

Wozniacki’s exit means only world number one Simona Halep, defending champion Garbine Muguruza and seventh seed Karolina Pliskova remain from the top eight in the women’s draw.

The Federer faithful were out in force as the eight-time champion extended his Wimbledon winning streak to 26 successive sets with victory over Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko. They were treated to the Swiss’ full repertoire, with Federer saying after his victory that playing the percentage shots too much “becomes boring”.

Federer did not face a single break point, hitting 48 winners, dropping only nine points on his serve all match and winning 35 points in a row on serve in the final set. He also hammered down 16 aces on his way to winning 93% of his first-service points.

Serena Williams continued her Wimbledon return as she demolished Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova in little over an hour, and then said she is “going in the right direction”.

That direction is into the third round without dropping a set, although the 25th seed is yet to be truly tested, despite a trickier first-round encounter against Arantxa Rus. “It was better than the first-round match, so I’m happy to be going in the right direction,” said Serena, who missed last year’s tournament while on a maternity break. Sister Venus, a five-time champion, lost the first set but fought back to beat Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru 4-6 6-0 6-1.

After two and a half days of blistering sunshine at Wimbledon, there was rain on day three. That meant the Centre Court roof was (briefly) used for the first time at these Championships while some matches scheduled for the outside courts were delayed until Thursday. The rain came after a swarm of insects had caused disruption earlier in the day.

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for a daily update on what’s happening at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships.