Wimbledon fourth seed and 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini came from a set down to beat Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday, sealing a place in the second round.
Australian Open champion Madison Keys and four-time Major winner Naomi Osaka also advanced to the round of 64.
Paolini, the 5-foot-4-inch pocket rocket, who had not won a main draw match on grass before her surge to the Wimbledon final last year, looked a bit rusty in the early evening sunshine on Court 2, surrendering an early break to her 35-year-old opponent.
Sevastova, making her first Wimbledon appearance since 2021 after maternity leave and injury, set up another break point with a deft backhand slice and went 5-2 up when Paolini hit into the net. The Italian made 13 unforced errors in the first set as her 402nd-ranked opponent took the lead.
The pair traded breaks twice in the second set but after an hour of play it was Paolini who had the momentum while Sevastova began to tire, the power ebbing away from her groundstrokes. Paolini broke again and served out the set to level.
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Sevastova took a medical timeout before the third set, but on the resumption of play Paolini pounced and pummelled the Latvian into submission, rattling off three games in a row as the sun set on her opponent’s stay at the All England Club.
The 29-year-old Italian, having found her rhythm and her voice, comfortably powered her way to victory and a second-round meeting with Russia’s 80th-ranked Kamilla Rakhimova.
Keys did not let an ailing opponent or the furnace-like conditions on the same court distract her from notching up a 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-5 victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Keys’ hopes of extending her perfect 10-0 first-round record at the All England Club appeared to be in jeopardy when her Romanian rival bagged the first set with some sizzling shots from the baseline.
However, despite wrapping ice towels around her neck during the changeovers, the intense heat appeared to get to Ruse in the second set. She called on the trainer, who escorted the Romanian off court for treatment after checking her blood pressure.
With the break lasting close to 10 minutes, Australian Open champion Keys opted to stay in the zone by hitting serves as she waited for her opponent to return to the court.
Trailing 5-3, the scorching 32-degrees Celsius heat caused Ruse further problems as she collapsed to the ground in agony clutching her right thigh, stricken by a bout of cramp.
Once she was free of pain, the world number 58 got back on her feet to level the set at 5-5 and stood two games away from toppling the sixth seed.
Keys then produced the kind of form that carried her to a maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne earlier this year as she won four games on the trot to take the second set and surge into a 2-0 lead in the third.
Keys was broken when she served for the match at 5-4, doubling over the net after she raced forward to hit the ball on break point down.
It proved to be Ruse’s last hurrah though as Keys was screaming out a deafening ‘Come on’ just two games later after sealing victory. She will next face Serbia’s Olga Danilovic.
Osaka, who was knocked out in the opening round at French Open, put up a solid performance to take down Australian qualifier 6-4, 7-6(4). The Japanese player will be up against either fifth-seeded Chinese Qinwen Zheng or Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova in the second round.
