Brengle, Rogers Score Upsets; Kudla to face Djokovic
Madison Brengle and Shelby Rogers were responsible for two big second-round upsets at Wimbledon, taking out No.4 seed Sofia Kenin and No.15 seed Maria Sakkari, respectively, to reach the third round.
In just 45 minutes, Brengle scored her fourth career Top 10 victory over Kenin, 6-2, 6-4, as the highest-ranked American in the draw his 41 unforced errors overall. Brengle broke serve six times and won more than half of points played in Kenin's service games. Conversely, Rogers' 7-5, 6-4 upset of French Open semifinalist Sakkari took two days, as their match was suspended after the first set on Wednesday due to darkness.
With 13 American women through to the second round in all, five booked a place in the third round. Joining Brengle and Rogers are No. 20 seed Coco Gauff, No. 23 seed Madison Keys and unseeded Sloane Stephens, thanks to straight-sets wins over former Wimbledon semifinalist Elena Vesnina, and compatriots Lauren Davis and Kristie Ahn, respectively.
A day after picking up her 90th career Wimbledon win in her 90th career Grand Slam played, however, the legendary Venus Williams saw her run ended by No. 21 seed Ons Jabuer of Tunisia, 7-5, 6-0. Nonetheless, Williams' stay at the All-England Club will continue as she and Aussie Nick Kyrgios received a wild card into the mixed doubles draw as a fan-favorite team.
On the men's side, qualifier Denis Kudla set a third-round meeting with world No.1 Novak Djokovic thanks to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over Italian Andreas Seppi, his fifth straight win of the fortnight. He joins Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda and Taylor Fritz in the third round.
Tiafoe followed up his first-round upset of No.3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Canada's Vasek Pospisil, while Korda overcame French qualifier Antoine Hoang in the same section of the draw, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. The pair could play in the round of 16 should they beat No. 25 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia and No.22 seed and British No. 1 Dan Evans, respectively.
Fritz, seeded No. 31, set a third-round meeting with No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev by beating compatriot Steve Johnson in an all-American epic, 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4. Having lost in the first two rounds in each of his first four Wimbledon appearances, Fritz's run this week has been a story in more ways than one. The event is his first since he was wheeled off court in a wheelchair following his second-round French Open defeat last month, and underwent surgery for a torn meniscus on June 9.
Fritz and Zverev have played three times, including a 6-4, 5-7, 6-7(0), 6-1, 6-2 win for the German at Wimbledon three years ago.
For complete singles and doubles draws, daily schedules and more, visit the official Wimbledon website.
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