{"id":665391,"date":"2026-06-30T03:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665391\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T03:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:18:09","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-sees-off-wobble-against-qualifier-to-ease-into-second-round-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665391\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka sees off wobble against qualifier to ease into second round | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Aryna Sabalenka was broken as she served for victory in the first round, she allowed herself a wry smile. The world No 1\u2019s mind, no doubt, will have raced straight back to Paris this month, where she led the Russian Diana Shnaider 6-3, 4-1 in their quarter-final only to lose 10 games in a row as she went out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Any negative thoughts were quickly put out of the Belarusian\u2019s head, though, as she broke the Serbian qualifier Teodora Kostovic in the next game to win 6-2, 6-3, a solid start as she tries to win Wimbledon<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first match I feel pretty good,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI\u2019d say I rate myself eight out of 10. She brought a really good fight, stepped it up in the second set and pushed me. Happy I was able to close this match in straight sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

A semi-finalist here on each of her past three visits, Sabalenka came with a few doubts after her loss in Paris, a defeat that prompted her to consult her old sports psychologist for the first time in a few years. The best player in the world for much of the past two seasons, her form has dipped ever so slightly of late but a fast start settled her as she raced ahead 4-0. \u201cWe all have nerves. We just try to put them away. I think with experience I have just become better at dealing with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kostovic, who had never played a tournament on grass before entering qualifying, got herself on the board in the fifth game and showed she has plenty of ability. On her grand slam debut, the 19-year-old punched the air when she broke Sabalenka and then hit an ace to save her first match point before the top seed finished things off.<\/p>\n

Tennis can be such a fickle sport. Three weeks ago, Maja Chwalinska was coming off the\u00a0best fortnight of her life, her old-school mix of speed, spin and trajectory outfoxing opponents as she reached the French Open final<\/a>. On Monday, the Pole was cruising through her opening-round match against Mananchaya Sawangkaew and was one point from victory when she slipped on the grass.<\/p>\n

Initially, it looked like she had avoided injury but she then reached down to attend to her right ankle. She continued to play but was clearly hindered in her movement and fell to a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely very disappointed,\u201d Chwalinska said. \u201cI was one point from winning a match. It\u2019s a grand slam, so of course every match is very, very important. But yeah, I\u2019ll get through it. It\u2019s tennis, it\u2019s sport, so I will lose many more like this, and I will hopefully win some like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula lines up a forehand against Darja Vidmanova. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula, the American No\u00a04 seed and many people\u2019s pick for a run at the title, avoided the fate she endured 12 months ago as she navigated her way through the first round with a 7-5, 6-3 win against the Czech player Darja Vidmanova. \u201cI definitely wanted to redeem myself a bit from last year\u2019s exit and then also the early exit at the French,\u201d she said. \u201cI did well in Australia, I\u2019ve done well in the US\u00a0Open the last few years [so I] wasn\u2019t happy about that. Little extra nerves or pressure today, as well, just with that in mind but then also motivation at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former world No 1 Naomi Osaka and the American rising star Iva Jovic were among the others to\u00a0advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Aryna Sabalenka was broken as she served for victory in the first round, she allowed herself a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-665391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}