Wimbledon: Vekic comes back to defeat Stephens, meets Vondrousova in third round

Croat Donna Vekic, the No 20 seed, edged out American Sloane Stephens 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the third round of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Thursday.

Down 5-2 in the second set, Vekic managed to flip the script to pull off a surprising victory.

“It was a crazy, crazy match,” she said. “Still, it’s been an hour and a half since the match, and I still don’t know how I managed to turn things around today. She was playing unbelievably well, and I was in full panic out there. I didn’t really know what to do, how to turn things around.

“But somehow I managed to fight and win.”

Vekic, ranked No 21, will play Marketa Vondrousova next.

We're not crying, you're crying 🥹

An emotional @DonnaVekic reflects on her remarkable second round comeback 👏#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/MFYY0ROYrF

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 6, 2023

Vekic said that the contest was particularly excruciating for her because she was unable to find any solutions against Stephens through most of the first two sets. Somehow she just held on until Stephens started to falter, then took charge.

“I felt like I was getting killed. She was playing so well. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

“Also, at the same time, I had a lot of expectations from myself. Before the match I beat her on that same court a couple of years ago, and it was a relatively easy match back then. But I know that she can play as good as she played today. I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t expect it that much today.”

In the previous round of The Championships, the Croat defeated Chinese Shuai Zhang (6-2, 6-3).

Stephens, ranked No 39, won against Swede Rebecca Peterson (6-2, 6-3) in the previous round of The Championships.

London (Grand Slam), other second-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 16.077.000, most recent results first):

• Ons Jabeur vs. Zhuoxuan Bai
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Anna Blinkova
• Madison Brengle vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Jule Niemeier vs. Dalma Galfi
• Viktorija Golubic vs. Madison Keys
• Marta Kostyuk vs. Paula Badosa
• Aliaksandra Sasnovich vs. Petra Kvitova
• Natalija Stevanovic vs. Tamara Korpatsch
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Anhelina Kalinina
• Jessica Pegula vs. Cristina Bucsa: thursday
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Kaja Juvan: thursday
• Alize Cornet vs. Elena Rybakina
• Belinda Bencic (14) beat Danielle Collins: 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Caroline Garcia (5) beat Leylah Fernandez: 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6)
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Rebeka Masarova: 6-3, 6-1
• Katie Boulter (WC) beat Viktoriya Tomova: 6-0, 3-6, 6-3
• Marie Bouzkova (32) beat Anett Kontaveit: 6-1, 6-2
• Magda Linette (23) beat Barbora Strycova: 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3
• Sorana Cirstea beat Jelena Ostapenko (17): 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (13) beat Jaqueline Cristian: 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Mirra Andreeva (Q) beat Barbora Krejcikova (10): 6-3, 4-0 ret.
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Veronika Kudermetova (12): 6-3, 6-3
• Victoria Azarenka (19) beat Nadia Podoroska: 6-3, 6-0
• Ana Bogdan beat Alycia Parks: 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
• Lesia Tsurenko beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-4, 6-1
• Sofia Kenin (Q) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-4, 6-3
• Elina Svitolina (WC) beat Elise Mertens (28): 6-1, 1-6, 6-1
• Petra Martic (30) beat Diane Parry: 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Sara Sorribes Tormo: 6-2, 6-0
• Daria Kasatkina (11) beat Jodie Burrage (WC): 6-0, 6-2