Day 2 action from Wimbledon 2016 was limited on Tuesday due to rain, but that didn’t stop Serena Williams‘ match. However, thanks to the retractable roof over Centre Court, all of the main show courts matches were completed. In the women’s draw, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Coco Vandeweghe all advanced on Centre Court and all in straight sets.
Next up for Serena is a match against Christina McHale, a player who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in the first round on Tuesday. In the past, Williams has not had much trouble with her American counterpart. They’ve met twice, and Williams won both matches with just one dropped set. McHale isn’t really “up-and-coming” anymore as she is 24 years old as of last month. Yet she has no career titles, no 2nd-round victories in majors since the 2013 US Open, and her career is very much a quiet one. She does not look like a player that can beat the World No. 1 on her best surface.
Next up for Kuznetsova, who beat Caroline Wozniacki in the first round, is a British player in Tara Moore. Moore is ranked 227th in the world, and her first-round win on Tuesday was the first Grand Slam win of her career. Kuznetsova should be able to get into the third round in a section of the draw where rain delays have really slowed things down. However, the Russian has rarely been a factor at Wimbledon, making the fourth round in her section wide open.
American Coco Vandeweghe will next face Timea Babos of Hungary in what could be a tricky match. Babos has yet to make the third round of any major (debut: Roland Garros 2012), but she does have some quality wins this season. She might challenge Vandeweghe, yet the American can be counted on to come up with the shots under pressure I think. She has been in fine form of late as she claimed a title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch earlier in June. She also played well in Birmingham, and it’s not surprising to see her winning main draw Wimbledon matches in straight sets.
With a quarterfinal appearance from last season’s grass-court Slam, Vandeweghe will surely be going all out for at least that kind of run again. She definitely has both the talent and the draw for success at this year’s event.
Other big names on the women’s tour saw their matches postponed on Tuesday. Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens, and Belinda Bencic were all denied court time due to the delays. Many other matches were stopped mid-match, including one involving Andrea Petkovic that seemed to be on the edge of ending at 5-1 in the third for the German. Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta will both have a set lead when their matches resume, with the two players possibly meeting in the next round.
The Order of Play for Day 3 is clogged up as Wimbledon organizers look to catch up. However, one lovely feature with Wimbledon, as opposed to the French Open, is that the show goes on regardless of the weather thanks to the Centre Court roof. As such, tennis fans can count on watching Radwanska in her opening match tomorrow with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to follow in the respective second-round matches.