{"id":670434,"date":"2026-07-02T20:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670434\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T20:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:28:09","slug":"anisimova-channels-her-inner-serena-to-fire-20-aces-past-kenin-and-reach-third-round-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670434\/","title":{"rendered":"Anisimova channels her inner Serena to fire 20 aces past Kenin and reach third round | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask almost anyone on the women\u2019s tour who has the best backhand and most will say Amanda Anisimova. Ask them who the best server is and the American is not usually top of the list. On Thursday, though, she did her best impression of Serena Williams as she hit 20 aces to scrape past Sofia Kenin and claim a place in the third round.<\/p>\n

With every win, Anisimova erases some of the memory of last year\u2019s final, when she was beaten 6-0, 6-0 by Iga Swiatek<\/a>. But for a while early in the third set, when she trailed the former Australian Open champion 3-1, it looked like she wouldn\u2019t make it. But when she needed it most, her serve came good. Nine of her 20 aces came in that deciding set and her serve got her out of a big hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be through to the next round,\u201d she said. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d say this but thank you to my serve. I\u2019m not a good server at all but after today, I can say that I am. I was down and told myself to keep fighting. I really tried to bring myself back to the present moment. I try to remind myself \u2013 have fun, you\u2019re playing at Wimbledon<\/a>. These are the matches I train for, the tough ones, the fun ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anisimova will now play Madison Keys, another hard-hitting American and like Kenin, a former Australian Open champion, having won her first slam title in Melbourne last year.<\/p>\n

Following up a surprise win is one of the hardest things to do in tennis, the adrenalin-laden high of victory hard to replicate in the following round when the attention is heightened. Daria Snigur handled it well as she backed up her win over her fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina by beating Leolia Jeanjean of France 6-4, 6-3, Maya Joint couldn\u2019t back up her win over Serena Williams, going down 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to Alexandra Eala, the No 29 seed.<\/p>\n

Snigur\u2019s win was even more impressive after she awoke to news of more bombing by Russia in her home city of Kyiv. \u201cIt was tough to play,\u201d she said. \u201cThis victory, I think, is special for me and for my country. Russia destroyed a lot of houses, people, deaths. It was tough, but I tried to find something inside of me. I should play because I should help my country, my home town. I\u2019m happy to win today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to speak about but \u2026 I want to give positive emotions for my family. I tried to find something inside of me to practise, to play. I tried to find more motivation [from it] because we had a difficult night. I want to win more, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daria Snigur woke up to news of bombing in her home city of Kyiv. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Joint was inundated with requests for interviews back home in Australia and at Wimbledon and perhaps the extra demands on her time played a part as she faded in the third set. Eala continues to impress and she will carry with her a horde of Filipino fans into an intriguing clash with Swiatek in the third round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be tough for me [but] I\u2019m going to try to make it tough for her, as well,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s won a slam on grass. She\u2019s won a slam on clay. She\u2019s won a slam on hard, so I\u2019m expecting a great challenge. I think I\u2019m ready for it. I\u2019m ready to face it head on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Ukrainian, Marta Kostyuk, battled past Anna Blinkova 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 but the 15th seed, Diana Shnaider, was upset 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 by Liudmila Samsonova. The second seed and former champion, Elena Rybakina, cruised into round three with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Caty McNally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask almost anyone on the women\u2019s tour who has the best backhand and most will say Amanda Anisimova.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-670434","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\/670434","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=670434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}