Jelena, Anastasija stretched before securing 3rd round Wimbledon berths

London, July 2 (IANS) 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.
--IANS akm/dpb