Wimbledon Thursday: Keys survives, Federer amazes
Madison Keys took the court for the third day in a row, winning for a second straight day as she defeated Elizaveta Kulichikova in straight sets. Keys' first-round match was played over the course of two days after being delayed by darkness. After closing out the first-round match on Wednesday, she faced Kulichikova in the second round on Thursday. The 20-year-old American didn't seem deterred by the constant schedule, looking solid in her 6-4, 7-6 win.
Keys hit 12 aces and only double faulted three times. The most impressive stat had to be her 33 winners. This marks the third year in a row that Keys has advanced to the third round in London, doing so every time she has played in the tournament's main draw.
She has never advanced to the fourth round of a major. She next faces Tatjana Maria. At 27, Maria is playing in the third round of a major for the first time in her career after defeating Ying-Ying Duan in three sets.
American Christina McHale saw her tournament end with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 loss to No. 18 Sabine Lisicki. No. 2 Petra Kvitova continued her title defense with a 6-2, 6-0 thumping of Kurumi Nara. No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 10 Angelique Kerber, No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 15 Timea Bacsinszky all also advanced in straight-set wins.
No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova was the highest seed to be ousted on Thursday morning, falling 6-2, 7-5 to Magdalena Rybarikova.
On the men's side, Andy Murray had a quick match, knocking out Robin Haase 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 in just 87 minutes. The Brit won 82 percent of first-serve points while hitting five aces. He was strong at the net, winning 15 points on 17 approaches.
"I am very happy with the way I played," Murray said after the match. "I felt there were things I could do better in the first round but today I did things much better. I felt like I dictated the baseline rallies."
Seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer also had a quick match, dismantling American Sam Querrey in straight sets to advance to the third round of Wimbledon for the 12th time in his career. The match started competitively, but Federer soon took over for the routine 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win.
“I'm very happy with how I've played the first two matches,” Federer said, before adding, “There's a little bit of relief that I'm actually playing this well at Wimbledon.”
(Leading 4-2 in the second set, Federer showed just how comfortable he felt on Centre Court today: he lobbed a ball between his legs. It's a shot he's pulled off before, but really, it never gets old.
"It was the perfect shot, it just felt like I had the time," Federer said after the match. "But if you don't win the point then you look a little bit silly." No need for him to worry about looking silly, at least, not this time.
In other men's action, No. 12 Giles Simon advanced in four sets, 6-1, 6-1, 6-7, 6-1, while Nikoloz Basilashvili knocked off No. 15 Feliciano Lopez in five, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.
