Canada’s Bianca Andreescu advanced to the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over 26th-seed Linda Novoska of Czechia on Wednesday.
Andreescu won on her first match point, scoring her 28th winner on a backhand.
The 24-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., scored the only break of the match early to go up 2-0 in the first set. She held serve throughout, successfully defending all five break points she faced.
Andreescu will next face the winner of a match between seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini, the French Open runner-up, and Belgium’s Greet Minnen, as she looks to advance past the third round at the All England Club for the first time.
The 2019 U.S. Open winner made her return at the French Open after missing nearly 10 months with a back injury, then opened the grass season with a runner-up performance at the Libema Open in the Netherlands.
Later Wednesday at the grass-court Grand Slam, Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime was set to finish a first-round match against Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis. The match was suspended due to darkness Tuesday, with Auger-Aliassime leading 6-4, 7-5, 6-9 (11), 1-1.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled for a second-round match with Germany’s Daniel Altmaier.
