Key events
Moving around the courts, Sakkari leads Rakhimova 6-3 0-5; Khachanov leads Hanfmann 6-3 6-4 2-2; and Duckworth leads Cobolli 6-7 6-3 4-3, so I’m going to turn off Fearnley, who’s two sets and a break down to Munar to watch that one.
Next on No 1 Court: Jakub Mensik (15) v Grigor Dimitrov.
Zverev says for two and half sets he played an almost perfect match, then lost a bit of focus and concentration. He’s happy not to have played another set though he loves playing at Wimbledon and isn’t old yet but he’s getting to that point and needs to conserve energy, also noting that wining comfortably is good for your confidence. He loves this tournament but is still waiting for a big result; playing like this, it’s possible this year.
Asked if he has more confidence having won in Paris, he says in tennis you need to have a bad memory, whether good or bad, and though it was a big relief and now he knows he can do it, you have to take each match seriously and play at 100%.
On Centre, Fils has won the third set against Berretttini to trail 4-6 5-7 6-3 and will, imagine, back his fitness to get the job done from here, while Munar has broken Fearnley for 6-4 7-6 2-0.
Next on No 2 Court: Francis Tiafoe (17) v Jan Choinski.
Make no mistake, Anisimova can win this. She’s got the game to beat anyone and finding her best stuff when she needed it most will give her so much confidence. Her v Maddy will be a banger; I’d not like to be a ball in that one.
Anisimova says she went through a lot there – “some moments were really awful” – but she’s happy to be through. “I never thought I’d be saying this but thank you to my serve today. I’m not an amazing server, but now I ca finally say I can serve pretty good.”
Kenin is a tough opponent and a fighter, so she hoes the crowd enjoyed it and thanks them for the love and support. At 3-1 she told herself to keep fighting, this might be her last moment so just have fun – she tries to bring herself to the present moment especially when stressed and remind herself to have fun as she’s playing at Wimbledon. These are the tyyes of matches she trains so hard for, these are the fun ones, the thrillers.
She was starting to get some French Open flashbacks of losing the breaker but the thing with tennis is you only have to experience something once to learn from it and she kept telling herself to do better.
Alexander Zverev (2) beats Valentin Royer 6-1 6-3 7-6(3)
Another powerful display from the French Open champion. He might’ve got it won sooner, but 2 hr 4 min is no slouching. Next for him: Marcos Giron.
Amanda Anisimova (6) beats Sofia Kenin 6-2 4-6 7-6(3)
Anisimova outlasts Kenin, the full extent of her power on display in the match breaker. Next for her: Madison Keys, and don’t mind if we do.
Zverev makes it 5-1 and is two points from victory; the same is so of Anisimova at 8-3, then another unreturned serve takes her to within a point of round three. Kenin has given her loads, as we thought she might, but this has been a dominant breaker.
On No 1, Royer has forced a third-set breaker against Zverev, who leads it 3-1, while Fils is warming to it against Berrettini, up 4-2 though trailing 0-2. Meantime, an Anismova ace, her second of the breaker, gives her 7-2, and this is very impressive indeed.
Thanks Katy and hi again all. The match breaker on No 2 is under way, Anisimova taking an immediate mini-break and, regardless of how this shakes out, I hope it inspires Kenin to rediscover herself. She’s had a dreadful year, losing eight on the spin at one point, but she’s a grand slam champ and so much better that … but she’s down 4-1 and needs something badly. Oh, but Anisimova gets so low to punish an inside-out forehand winner to the corner and at 5-1, she’s five points away.
Right, Daniel is back with you for the next couple of hours. See you later …
It’s one-way traffic in the tie-break between Fearnley and Munar, and the Brit concedes it seven points to three, his fate sealed with an errant forehand. Fearnley did, however, come from two sets down in the first round, so all hope is not yet lost. But he trails 6-4, 7-6.
Kostyuk beats Blinkova 6-7, 6-3, 6-3
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Kostyuk completes victory with two aces and an unreturned serve. Emphatic stuff from the 12th seed, who does a pirouette to celebrate victory, which doesn’t quite match the backflip she did after beating Mirra Andreeva in the Madrid final in May – but the Ukrainian says she’ll only do that again if she wins a grand slam. Up next for Kostyuk is the 2024 quarter-finalist Emma Navarro.
… and Blinkova holds, forcing Kostyuk to serve out the match. Fearnley and Munar are into a second-set tie-break, which Fearnley must win if he’s to avoid going two sets to love down, and there’s been an unexpected blip by Zverev, who drops serve, and suddenly the third set is back on serve with the second seed leading 6-1, 6-3, 4-5.
Despite a more competitive third set, Zverev is getting closer to victory, leading Royer 6-1, 6-3, 4-3 with the break, Anisimova is in trouble at 3-1 down in the decider against Kenin, while Kostyuk, at 6-7, 6-3, 5-2, has a match point on Blinkova’s serve after two and a half hours. Kostyuk tries to give a meek second serve the treatment it deserves …. but bashes into the net. Deuce. Advantage Kostyuk. Deuce …
The second set is still going on court 12 where a Fearnley ace, only his second of the match, sees him scramble his way to 5-5, having faced a set point.
Berrettini hasn’t had much luck with injuries in recent years but he has some good fortune at break point down, 30-40, as Fils flies forward but nets his attempted pass down the line. Berrettini turns deuce into his advantage, a first set point, and the Italian gets some more luck when his shot clips the tape and goes over, and Fils fires long! Berrettini ended Stan Wawrinka’s Wimbledon career in the first round, and he’s a set away from ending the hopes of the young French challenger, who’s disgusted with himself for that missed chance at break point. Berrettini leads 6-4, 7-5.
Fearnley, cap backwards like Berrettini, has three break points at 4-4, 0-40. Take one of these and he’ll be serving to level the match at one set all. But all three vanish into thin air, and a fourth too, and Munar doesn’t give the Brit a fifth chance. So Fearnley trails 6-4, 5-4 … just as Berrettini breaks for 6-5! How the Italian did it, I don’t know, I was focused on Fearnley. But I can tell you that it leaves Berrettini serving for a two sets to love lead at 6-4, 6-5.
Fils, though, does have the benefit of some scoreboard pressure, given that Berrettini is serving to stay in the second set. Fils is applying a bit more pressure at 0-15 but Berrettini quickly recovers to 40-15, and despite missing a forehand on the first game point he settles things with a backhand volley. It’s 5-5.
There’s nothing giving at the moment on serve in Berrettini v Fils and Fearnley v Munar. It’s Berrettini* 6-4, 4-5 Fils and Fearnley 4-6, 4-4 Munar*.
Anisimova has been pulled back by Kenin in their all-American affair, with Kenin securing the second set 6-4. And Kostyuk has got back into her match against Blinkova, playing the big points better in set two, breaking twice and saving six break points, to take it 6-3 and take them into a decider.
Meanwhile the man Zverev defeated in the French Open final, Flavio Cobolli, the flashy Italian who’s so fun to watch, has claimed the first set on a tie-break, seven points to four, against Australia’s James Duckworth. Cobolli revealed in Paris that he’s rather superstitious, and was using Nadal’s favourite shower cubicle after every match. I wonder if he’s using Federer’s here. Whatever he’s doing, it seems to be working, and he’s on his way to a place in the third round for the second successive year.
From 6-1, 3-0, The Zverev Supremacy has extended to 6-1, 5-2, though Royer does then gamely hold from 30-all. So Zverev is serving for the second set at 5-3 … and eases his way to 15-0, 30-0, 40-0, game and set, finishing with a forehand flourish. Zverev appears untouchable at 6-1, 6-3.
Fils is coached by a certain Goran Ivanisevic, by the way, with this year being the 25th anniversary of Goran’s victory in the final over Pat Rafter. Yes, Roger v Rafa in 2008 is surely the best, and Bjorn Borg vs John McEnroe in 1980 is very much up there, but Ivanisevic and Rafter’s Monday final is definitely in the conversation too. There was barely a dry eye in the house by the end.
Fearnley breaks Munar in the opening game of the second set … Munar breaks straight back. Ach. As you were, then.
I haven’t said much about Matteo Berrettini v Arthur Fils yet, the 2021 finalist against the young French phenomenon with the nuclear forehand, and while they may be at totally different stages of their careers, they can definitely empathise with each other when it comes to their injury problems. The 30-year-old Berrettini has had an awful time of it since finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic five years ago, while the 22-year-old Fils is playing his first slam in more than a year because of back and hip problems. At the moment age is winning out over youth, with Berrettini breaking in game seven and seeing out the rest of the set for a 6-4 lead.
Zverev, from 1-0 down in the opening set, has rattled off nine games on the spin and now leads 6-1, 3-0. Brutal stuff. And to make matters worse for Royer, he’s just slipped awkwardly on the grass. Zverev said the other day that he now feels free, having finally got that grand slam monkey off his back at Roland Garros, to have a deep run at Wimbledon after never previously going further than the last 16. And looking at his draw, there’s little danger until Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals.
Swan’s defeat earlier means there are no British women left in the singles, but Arthur Fery came from a set down to beat Ben Shelton’s vanquisher, Otto Virtanen, and Fearnley will have to do the same if he’s to advance, because he’s trudging back to his chair having lost the first set 6-4 against Munar.
A third break for Zverev, sealed with a fine forehand, and he wraps up the opener, 6-1, in little more than half an hour.
Kenin has plenty of pedigree, having won the 2020 Australian Open and reached the final of the French Open that year too, but it’s Anisimova who’s had the far more impressive results over the past 12 months, despite that 6-0, 6-0 humbling by Swiatek in last year’s final here. And Kenin did rather hand the first set over to Anisimova, with two double faults in the final game.
Alexander Zverev, currently playing with the freedom of a man who recently won his first grand slam at the French Open rather than the pressure of a man who’s now expected to back that up, has zipped through another two games and leads France’s Valentin Royer, who took out Britain’s Harry Wendelken in the first round, 5-1. But Amanda Anisimova has beaten Zverev to the first-set finish line, taking it 6-2 against her fellow American Sofia Kenin.
On court 12, Fearnley flashes a forehand into the net at 30-40 on his serve and that’s the first break. Munar leads 4-2. Both of these players had the seasons of their careers in the grand slams last year, Fearnley reaching the third round of the Australian Open and French Open, Munar getting to the third round at Wimbledon and the fourth round at the US Open, but they’ve struggled to back that up in 2026. So this second-round match represents a superb opportunity for them both. Munar backs up the break and Fearnley finds himself 5-2 down.
So on Centre it’s Berrettini v Fils, No 1 it’s Zverev v Royer and No 2 it’s Anisimova v Kenin. All are now under way, with Zverev and Anisimova both leading 3-1 in the opening sets, and Berrettini and Fils level at 1-1.
Fancy some trout sushi washed down with some coffee kombucha for breakfast? Why not:
Kostyuk and Blinkova are duking it out in a first-set tie-break, and Blinkova brings up set point at 6-5, to add to the three she had in game 10. This time she gets the job done with a big serve that Kostyuk can’t get back. So Kostyuk, the 12th seed, is in trouble.
“We had an insane match last year,” the 21-year-old Eala says. “It hit me hard, I cried a lot. I couldn’t watch the highlights for a few months. So I’m really happy now.” She then reveals it’s her coach’s birthday, so the strong Filipino contingent on No 3 Court start singing happy birthday. The only thing that may stop the party atmosphere is the news that she’s got to face Swiatek next. It’ll be Eala’s first ever appearance in the third round of a slam.
Eala defeats Joint 3-6, 6-2, 6-0
Alexandra Eala is screaming into the blue Wimbledon skies after completing a come-from-behind win over the player who scuppered Serena Williams’s singles return, Maya Joint. And with it the Filipino superstar gains a measure of revenge for last year’s epic Eastbourne final, when Joint saved four match points before defeating Eala.
Jacob Fearnley, after the superb victory for his fellow Brit Arthur Fery an hour ago, has got two break points in the opening game against Spain’s Jaume Munar, the 29-year-old Spaniard who’s never been beyond the third round at Wimbledon but does at least have the distinction of being the highest-ranked Mallorcan in men’s tennis since Rafa Nadal’s retirement. Fearnley can’t capitalise and Munar grabs four points on the spin to hold for 1-0 on court 12.
Thanks Daniel! So that flurry of wins means we’re waiting for Berrettini v Fils, Zverev v Royer, Anisimova v Kenin and Fearnley v Munar to get going. Meanwhile Kostyuk, a favourite of both Daniel’s and mine, who also gained many new fans at the French Open on her way to the semi-finals, has fended off three set points to break Blinkova who, erm, blinked serving for the set. It’s now 5-5.
Right then, that’s the end of my stint; that’s the good news. And the other good news is Katy Murrells is here to take over, so I’ll leave you with her to enjoy what promises to be a banging afternoon.
