Jelena, Anastasija stretched before securing 3rd round Wimbledon berths

London,Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia got the better of No.31 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 in one hour and 46 minutes to move into the third round at Wimbledon.

Jelena will next face Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, who took out Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 in a two-hour, seven-minute contest.

Another Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, ranked 56th in the world, recovered from a shaky start to deny Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, a week after stopping the teenager 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-4 in the first round of Eastbourne.

Anastasija will next face French Open champion and No.14 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic as she bids to complete her career set of second-week appearances at every Grand Slam.

The result puts Anastasija into the third round here for the first time in her career — a stage she has now reached at every major.

World No. 34 Jelena slammed 48 winners on Thursday evening dominating Daria in a 22-minute opening set. The Russian committed 11 unforced errors, including four double faults, and rarely got her game going. Jelena, by contrast, saved her biggest shots for the crucial points: a superb volley to go up 4-1, and a fine return winner for 5-1.

But Daria gained a foothold in the contest in the second set and the decider was an extremely close contest with Jelena finally prevailing 8-6.

Jelena’s seven-match winning streak puts her into the third round of Wimbledon in six appearances, and is one shy of the career-best eight in a row she set twice in 2017. She next faces Ajla Tomljanovic, who took out Alize Cornet 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 in a two-hour, seven-minute seesaw contest.