Teenage seventh-seed Mirra Andreeva reached the third round at Wimbledon with a mature straight-sets win against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti
Russia’s Andreeva found the answers to the world number 63 as she secured a 6-1 7-6 (7-4) victory on Court One.
The 18-year-old is one of five top-10 seeds remaining in the women’s draw after the opening three days brought shock exits for four of the top five including Coco Gauff and last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini.
Meanwhile, American 10th seed Emma Navarro cruised past world number 46 Veronika Kudermetova of Russia with a 6-1 6-2 win on court three.
Having watched fellow seeded players tumble out, Navarro said, “it is kind of anyone’s tournament” and will hope she can include herself in that conversation.
But Navarro could face a tough challenge against defending champion Barbora Krejcikova, who plays American Caroline Dolehide later on Thursday, in round three.
Andreeva has long been tipped as one of the hottest emerging talents on the WTA Tour and she has underlined that this year with titles in Dubai and at Indian Wells.
That made her the youngest champion in WTA history at the 1,000 level – the highest tier or tennis below the Grand Slam events.
Grass is not her favoured surface with her best result at SW19 a run to the fourth round two years ago.
But her front-footed style and clever net play in the first set allowed her to swiftly secure a double break then wrap up the opener just 24 minutes after setting foot on court.
A tough second set followed with Bronzetti tidying up her errors and breaking in the fifth game.
Andreeva showed maturity to bide her time and break back as Bronzetti tried to serve out the set before she scrambled back from 15-40 to save set points and level at 5-5.
But, after missing break points, Andreeva took the match to a tie-break where her range of shots in some lengthy rallies put her in control and she sealed victory with a clever volley at the net on her second match point.