By Ashley Marshall, USTA.com
Heavy rain may have washed out most of the action on Day 3 of Wimbledon, but as the weather improved, so did the forecast for Team USA’s grass-court success. On a banner day for the U.S., 10 of the 14 Americans in singles action Thursday moved on to the next round, led by one of the most successful grass-court champions of her era.
Making her 19th Wimbledon appearance, Venus Williams advanced to the third round with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Maria Sakkari of Greece.
Seeded eighth, Venus (pictured above) needed two hours and 24 minutes to advance to the round of 32 for the 16th time at the All-England Club. She hit 38 winners to 20-year-old Sakkar’s 34, won 34 of 49 points at the net and secured six breaks of serve in 13 opportunities.
The 36-year-old, a five-time singles champion in London, will next play No. 29 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia, setting up a possible meeting with 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the round of 16.
No. 9 seed Madison Keys also booked her place in the third round with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens. Her reward is a round-of-32 matchup with Alize Cornet after the Frenchwoman upset No. 20 seed Sara Errani.
Twenty-one-year-old Keys, who remains perfect on the grass this spring after winning the Wimbledon tune-up event in Birmingham last week, said she is impressed with the strength of American tennis right now.
“Obviously there's a lot of women who are in the Top 50, Top 100,” Keys told Wimbledon.com. “There's a lot of guys who are slowly climbing up the rankings and doing well in slams. Stevie [Johnson] just won his first title last week. I think the guys and the girls are feeling more comfortable on the tour and slowly just getting better and better.
“There's always kind of a lull in generations. I think it happens. Obviously there's a lot of young Americans coming up, especially on the men's side more recently, like Taylor Fritz. I think it's just a matter of time before Taylor comes out and starts having big wins, doing better and better, being able to be one of the top U.S. men."
Elsewhere, No. 18 seed Sloane Stephens defeated Shuai Peng of China, 7-6(5), 6-2, and No. 27 seed CoCo Vandeweghe toppled Tima Babos, 6-2, 6-3.
Qualifier Julia Boserup also advanced to the third round after No. 7 seed Belinda Bencic was forced to retire with an injury early in the second set. Boserup, ranked No. 225 in the world, is in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career and she will now meet the winner of No. 32 seed Andrea Petkovic and Elena Vesnina.
On the men’s side, No. 18 seed John Isner defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, 7-6(2), 7-6(5), 6-3, and Donald Young toppled Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in a pair of first-round matches that had been delayed because the rain. Isner will meet Aussie qualifier Matthew Barton next, while Young will square off against No. 32 seed Lucas Pouille of France.
In second-round men's action, 28th-seeded Sam Querrey rolled past Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, in just 95 minutes on Court 7 to punch his ticket to the third round. Jack Sock also progressed to the round of 32 with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory over Robin Haase of the Netherlands, as did Steve Johnson, a straight-sets winner over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, 6-1, 7-6(6), 6-3.
Samantha Crawford fell to No. 28 seed Lucie Safarova, Varvara Lepchenko lost to fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber and Anna Tatishvili was forced to retire in her first-round match with Mandy Minella of Luxembourg. Qualifier Dennis Novikov fell to No. 31 seed Joao Sousa of Portugal in four sets in his second-round encounter, his deepest Wimbledon run.
Not content with just singles success, the U.S. also stole many of the headlines in doubles. The Williams sisters and Bryan brothers advanced in the first round of doubles competition, joining fellow all-American pairing of Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears. Vania King (with partner Alla Kudryavtseva), Shelby Rogers (with Alexandra Panova), Madison Brengle (with Tatjana Maria) and Scott Lipsky (with Santiago Gonzalez) rounded out the rest of the American winners on Day 4, bringing Thursday's up to an even 20.