Wimbledon 2025: Andreeva, Navarro progress to third round with straight-sets wins

Seventh seed Mirra Andreeva blasted her way into the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday with a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti and thanked her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, for making her work hard.

The 18-year-old Russian was the only teenager from six women’s starters to have made it through to the second round and she looked sure-footed on Wimbledon’s grass, the surface where she hit the headlines aged 16 with a whirlwind race to the fourth round in 2023.

She completely dominated her 26-year-old opponent in the first set on Thursday using her big serve, heavy slice and neat net play to wrap it up in 23 minutes.

But she had a fight on her hands in the second as Bronzetti, ranked a lowly 63, found her stride and range in the second. Andreeva eventually triumphed on her second match point in the tiebreak, with a fine forehand volley winner.

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“I got a little bit nervous and she started to play better,” Andreeva said in a courtside interview before adding she would not be getting much time off because she had doubles to play and then Martinez would want to run over some elements of her game.

“She’s not going to let me go home,” the Russian said.

“She pushes me to my limits so thanks for that, I guess,” she added to smiles from Martinez in the coaches’ box on Court One.

Spaniard Martinez was an unheralded winner of the title in 1994, beating nine-times champion Martina Navratilova in the final.

Andreeva will play Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who beat Canada’s Victoria Mboko on Thursday, in the third round of the singles on Saturday.

Navarro says best-of-five sets in women’s game would be fun

USA’s Emma Navarro registered a comfortable win over Veronika Kudermetova of Russia.
| Photo Credit:
AP

With temperatures reaching more than 30 degrees Celsius at Wimbledon this week, players could be forgiven for wanting to reduce their time on court, but not American Emma Navarro who wants to see the women’s tour play best-of-five set matches.

The 10th seed was seemingly hungry for more minutes on the sun-soaked grass, having taken little more than an hour to seal her place in the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Veronika Kudermetova.

The best-of-five format is only used for men’s singles matches at the four Grand Slams, but with some pundits suggesting a rule change to allow the women to play for longer as well, Navarro says bring it on.

“I would probably feel pretty good playing five sets. I think I feel good about my fitness level and endurance level,” the 24-year-old told a press conference.

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“I would be curious to see how the (women’s) tour would hold up playing five sets. Yeah, I think it would be kind of fun.”

Such a move, even if for the latter stages of Majors, would allow fans of the women’s game to enjoy a potential hours-long epic such as the French Open men’s final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz last month lasting five hours and 29 minutes.

“I would be curious to see how the women would hold up playing for five hours, like those guys. Sinner and Alcaraz, it was an insane display of endurance and fitness level. I would be curious to see how the ladies would handle it,” Navarro said.

“But I think it would be kind of fun to see.”

However, not everyone shares her view, particularly compatriot Jessica Pegula, who was concerned that long matches would be a snooze-fest for some viewers.

“I don’t think we all need to start playing three-out-of-five. For me it’s too long. I personally lose interest watching the matches. I think they’re incredible matches and incredible physically and mentally,” Pegula had said on Tuesday after her first-round loss to Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

“I’m, like, ‘Do we really need that?’ I don’t know. I mean, some people love it. I personally will not watch a full five-hour match. People can’t even hold their attention long enough they say these days with phones. How are they holding their attention for five hours? I don’t know. Just not my thing.”