In recent years Wimbledon has not exactly been dreamland for Simona Halep and Victoria Azarenka, and the nightmare will continue for one of them after they set up a third-round showdown.
Seventh-seeded Halep appeared to be heading for an easy win against Mihaela Buzarnescu before her fellow Romanian stormed back to take the second set and force her to go the distance before she prevailed 6-3 4-6 6-2.
Twelve months ago Halep went out in the round of 32 despite being the top seed and she will be hoping for better fortune on Friday when she faces fellow former world No.1 Azarenka.
“It’s going to be a big challenge for me, tough one, because she’s … very aggressive,” said Halep, who has won two of her four meetings with Azarenka, including at Wimbledon in 2017.
“I have to be strong on my legs to be ready for her strokes because she hits very strong.”
Unseeded Belarussian Azarenka made sure there was no repeat of her 2018 second-round exit as she stormed back from dropping the first two games to dish out a 6-2 6-0 mauling to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.
Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Wozniacki were the other one-time top-ranked WTA players on court at the All England Club on Wednesday and they both advanced to the third round.
Czech third seed Pliskova crushed Monica Puig 6-0 6-4 as she aims for a maiden grand slam title.
“I feel like I’m improving every day on grass,” Pliskova, who arrived at Wimbledon full of confidence after scooping her third title on grass at Eastbourne last week, said.
Wozniacki, the Danish 14th seed, eased past Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine was two points from losing to Margarita Gasparyan but eventually won when her opponent retired with an injury at 5-7 6-5.
American 15-year-old sensation Coco Gauff was unbothered by a late start and a change of courts as she backed up her shock first-up win over Venus Williams with a routine 6-3 6-3 victory over former semi-finalist Magdalena Rybarikova.
Maria Sakkari, Anett Kontaveit and Petra Martic were other seeds to reach the third round but the trio of Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Anastasija Sevastova were all eliminated.
