The surprising results continued on Day 6 of the women’s singles at Wimbledon. Mirra Andreeva, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, and Iga Swiatek all played their third-round matches. This article recaps another enthralling day of action, overviewing who looked good, which players performed poorly, and selecting the best match played.
Wimbledon Day 6 Women’s Recap
Who Looked Good
Mirra Andreeva has still not dropped a set at SW19 after cruising past Hailey Baptiste 6-1 6-3. The teenager created consistent opportunities on her opponent’s serve, breaking five times. She also showed resilience when serving to save eight of nine break points. Baptiste could have made the score closer had she been more clinical.
Iga Swiatek produced the best performance on Day 6. The matchup with Danielle Collins, who beat her at the Italian Open in May, looked dangerous on paper. The four-time French Open champion made a statement by overcoming the American 6-2 6-3 without losing her serve and expertly handling Collins’ power in both sets.
Many fans had spoken about a possible fourth-round matchup between Swiatek and Elena Rybakina excitedly. That prospect is over after Clara Tauson upset the former winner 7-6 6-3 on Court 2. The Dane served brilliantly, ensuring she did not get broken all match, and unsettled Rybakina from start to finish with her powerful hitting from the baseline. She only took one of 10 break points, but that proved enough.
Barbora Krejcikova’s title defense ended against Emma Navarro. The pair split the opening two sets before the Czech started feeling very unwell in set three. Her physical condition means she deserves much credit for pushing last year’s quarterfinalist so hard. Krejcikova broke Navarro twice in the deciding set, but losing her serve three times led to a 6-2 3-6 4-6 loss.
Zeynep Sonmez fell 3-6 6-7 to Ekaterina Alexandrova. She became the first Turkish woman to reach the Wimbledon third round after beating Xinyu Wang, but Alexandrova’s flat-hitting was a challenge too great to overcome. Sonmez can still be rightly proud of what she achieved.
Who Looked Bad
Daria Kasatkina never got going against Liudmila Samsonova. Facing someone who serves as well and hits as flat as Samsonova is a challenging matchup for any player. However, the No. 16 was capable of better than her performance in a 2-6 3-6 defeat. She made several unforced errors that handed Samsonova repeated chances. Kasatkina making those mistakes is especially surprising since being solid is the foundation of her game.
Dayana Yastremska missed a great opportunity to reach the fourth round against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. The Ukrainian, who reached the Nottingham Open final a few weeks ago and beat Coco Gauff in the opening round of Wimbledon, is very dangerous when her game flows. Sadly for Yastremska’s fans, she was too erratic against Bouzas Maneiro. That led to a 1-6 6-2 3-6 defeat and her exit from the tournament.
Match of the day
Belinda Bencic and Elisabetta Cocciaretto’s match was easily the standout from Day 6. Cocciaretto beat Jessica Pegula in the opening round, meaning Bencic knew that an excellent performance would probably be needed to triumph. The Olympic Gold Medalist immediately rose to the challenge by taking the opening set 6-4. Strong serving from the Swiss meant that one break in the fifth game was good enough.
Both players held after saving a break point early in the second set before Cocciaretto made her first breakthrough in the sixth game. The Italian served it out from there to set up a decider on Court 18. Bencic looked in trouble after being broken in the first game of set three, but broke back at 3-4. Four more holds confirmed that a 10-point tiebreak would be needed to decide the contest.
Bencic had the lead from the first point and never relinquished it. Cocciaretto fought admirably in her attempt to recover from 1-5 down, and both players hit some exceptional groundstrokes in the tiebreak. But Bencic would not be denied. One more good serve at 9-7 confirmed a 6-4 3-6 7-6 victory, and a fourth-round match against Alexandrova.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – USA TODAY Sports
