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Harmony Tan, ranked No. 115 in the world, and Katie Boulter, who is 118th, continue to make a name for themselves at Wimbledon, reaching the third round of the women’s draw on Thursday with upset victories.
France’s Tan, who ousted seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams in a first-round match that lasted more than 3 hours on Tuesday, rolled to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 32nd-seeded Sara Sorribes Tormo on Thursday.
Boulter, a British wild-card entry, rallied to eliminate sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who reached the Wimbledon final last year, with a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory on Centre Court.
The 25-year-old Boulter, who reached the third round at a Grand Slam event for the first time, also beat Pliskova last week at a warmup tournament in Eastbourne for her first win against a top-10 player. She broke Pliskova for a 5-4 lead in the final set and then converted her first match point with a volley winner.
Pliskova’s powerful serve looked far from its best throughout the match as she mixed 13 aces with eight double-faults and was broken four times. She lost last year’s final to Ashleigh Barty.
The road for either Tan or Boulder, however, will come to an end for one of them as they are scheduled to face each other in the fourth round.
In other women’s matches, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova showed some nerves in her 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over Ana Bogdan.
Kvitova was leading 5-1 in the second set when Bogdan started to reel off game after game. Then Kvitova had a match point while serving at 5-4, but failed to convert that chance and then the game itself, eventually leading to the tiebreaker.
“Especially a few games on my serve, it was really long games, and mentally very tough,” said the 25th-seeded Kvitova, who won titles at the All England Club in 2011 and 2014. “I think maybe even this took some energy from my serve and I just couldn’t make it.
“Somehow I made it,” Kvitova said on court. “I don’t know how, but I did it.”
Kvitova will next face Paula Badosa. The fourth-seeded Spaniard defeated Irina Bara 6-3, 6-2.
No. 4 Paula Badosa, No. 8 Jessica Pegula and No. 17 Elena Rybakina were among other seeded players to advance to the third round.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.