Emma Raducanu marched into the fourth round at Wimbledon on Friday after dominating world No. 9 Maria Sakkari in a straight-sets victory on Centre Court.
The 21-year-old, who missed last year's championships after undergoing surgery on both wrists and an ankle, has been in impressive form at the championships and looks to be playing her best tennis since she won the US Open in 2021.
Thursday's 6-2, 6-3 victory followed her third-round win over Elise Mertens where she produced a near-faultless display to breeze past the world No. 33.
Raducanu picked up where she had left off against Sakkari as she broke serve in the first game of the match. She missed the chance to secure a double break despite having a 40-0 lead in the fourth game, but quickly regrouped to overwhelm her Greek opponent with a mixture of powerful ball-striking and audacious lobs.
As soon as Raducanu had got ahead in the match it seemed a long way back for Sakkari. The Brit very rarely lets a lead slip -- she has won 94 of the 102 matches in which she has won the opening set.
Buoyed by the support of the home crowd under the roof on Centre Court, Raducanu comfortably navigated the second set with her service game looking particularly impressive.
Raducanu's win over Sakkari is just her second over a top-10 ranked opponent in her career. Her first was against Jessica Pegula at Queen's on June 26 as part of her preparation for the championships. The win over Sakkari was also her first match, and win, against a seeded opponent at Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Sonay Kartal's unexpected run at the championships ended in a third-round straight-sets defeat to world No. 2 Coco Gauff.
Kartal, Britain's No. 9-ranked women's player, claimed her maiden Wimbledon victory on Monday when she beat Sorana Cîrstea in the first round before going on to win against Clara Burel. Cîrstea is 266 places above Kartal in the rankings, while Burel is 253 places higher than the Brit.
However, while she was unable to pull off a third upset in succession, Kartal gave Gauff a brief scare, despite taking until the third game to win her first point.
Kartal recovered to break Gauff in the eighth game, levelling the set at 4-4, but regularly struggled to move off the baseline as she sat deep on the court to give herself as much time as possible to deal with the hard-hitting American. Gauff broke straight back before serving out the first set.
The Brit's game seemed to desert her from that point on, making repeated unforced errors on her way to losing the last eight games in a row. Gauff will face compatriot Emma Navarro in the fourth round.
Raducanu is set to play alongside Andy Murray in the mixed doubles after the All England Club announced on Wednesday that it had awarded the pair a wild-card entry, pairing two of the biggest names in British tennis.
