Wimbledon: Elena Rybakina, Shelby Rogers advance to second round

Rogers will have a very difficult test in the second round as she is all set to face 15th seed Maria Sakkari.

Shelby Rogers in a file photo. (Image: Twitter/Shelby Rogers)
By Nilavro Ghosh | Jun 29, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

French tennis player Kristina Mladenovic might have hoped to go a long way at Wimbledon this year and maybe she even would have. However, as luck would have it, she had to face 18th seed Elena Rybakina in the first round. Rybakina made short work of her opponent as she beat Mladenovic in straight sets to advance to the second round of The Championships. The scoreline at the end of the match read 6-4, 6-0 in favor of the Kazakh tennis star. While Rybakina won her match on Court 14, Shelby Rogers advanced to the second round on Court 16. She won an extremely hard-fought battle against Samantha Stosur. The scoreline at the end of that match read 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 in the American’s favour.

Rybakina scored seven aces against Mladenovic. In response, the French player could only score one. Mladenovic also committed five double faults while Rybakina only made one. The Kazakh star had an incredible win percentage on the first serve with a whopping 88%. Mladenovic could only manage 68%. On the second serve, Rybakina held a win percentage of 69% while the French star managed 48%.

Incredibly, Rybakina did not let her opponent score a single break point. She herself scored four out of 10 break points. She also won eight service games whereas Mladenovic could only manage four. She will face American player Claire Liu in the second round on Wednesday.

ROGERS HOLDS HER NERVE

It was not as much of a cakewalk for Shelby Rogers as it was for Rybakina. The American player could not beat her opponent in straight sets. Rather, it was a very tightly contested match that had to go to three sets. Both players managed to score two aces each in the match. The duo even committed the exact same number of double faults with six each.

Rogers’ win percentage on the first serve was 70% whereas Stosur’s was 61%. On the second serve, the American had a win percentage of 54% whereas the Australian had 43%. Rogers managed to win seven of the 16 break points. Stosur, on the other hand, won four out of seven break points. Rogers also went on to win 10 service games while Stosur could only manage to win seven. The American will have a very difficult test in the second round as she will face 15th seed Maria Sakkari.