Second Seed Sabalenka Avoids Upset To Beat Varvara Gracheva As Petra Kvitova Progress

• Aryna Sabalenka avoids upset to beat Varvara Gracheva; Petra Kvitova advances.

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka fought back to beat France’s Varvara Gracheva and reach the Wimbledon third round.

The Belarusian, among the tournament favourites, struggled in the early stages against the world number 41 on a stiflingly hot Court One.

She hit five double faults in the first set but regrouped to avoid an upset, winning 2-6 7-5 6-2.

World number one Iga Swiatek and last year’s runner-up Ons Jabeur both play later on Friday.

Australian Open champion Sabalenka looked out of sorts in the opening exchanges against Gracheva, making 16 unforced errors and giving away her serve three times.

She seemed somewhat affected by the sun beating down on the SW19 turf, using bags of ice to cool down at each change of ends.

Unsurprisingly, Sabalenka left the court to regroup after hitting eight unforced errors in a row and failing to take three break points as she gifted the opening set to Gracheva.

She kept the second set on serve before letting out a guttural scream of frustration when she set up a chance to counter Gracheva’s serve but blazed it well wide.

She didn’t have to wait long for the breakthrough, though, and began peppering Gracheva – who switched her allegiance from Russia to France in June – with thunderous forehands to level the match at 1-1.

A double-break in the third set saw the world number two return to somewhere near her usual level of performance as she won the match and set up a third-round tie against world number 40 Anna Blinkova with a final roaring ace.

What else has happened on day five?

Elsewhere, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova cruised into the third round of this year’s tournament with a comprehensive 6-2 6-2 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The Czech ninth seed, who won the grass-court title in Berlin in the lead up to the Championships, took just 74 minutes to wrap up victory on a stiflingly hot morning.

Despite trading early breaks, Belarusian Sasnovich struggled in an error-strewn performance before Kvitova, 33, raced away with the second set.

Meanwhile, former world number two Paula Badosa was forced to retire from her second-round match against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk with a back problem that had kept her out of the French Open.

Following an awkward exchange with a reporter in her press conference, the Spaniard confirmed afterwards she would not compete in the mixed doubles alongside partner Stefanos Tsitsipas.

American 25th seed Madison Keys also advanced with a 7-5 6-3 win over Swiss player Viktorija Golubic.