LONDON (AP) — Caroline Wozniacki has made another early exit from Wimbledon.
The Australian Open champion lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia in a second-round match after being bothered by a swarm of flying insects in the second set.
Wozniacki has never been past the round of 16 at Wimbledon, and this is the fourth time in seven years she has lost in the first or second round.
The second-seeded Dane saved four match points at 5-3 in the final set before breaking back to level the match. But she was broken again in the last game.
Organizers used bug spray after Wozniacki complained to the chair umpire about the insects.
She is the fifth of the top eight women seeds to lose before the third round.
Chaos as usual on the women’s side. pic.twitter.com/7c0XFkIUSr
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) July 4, 2018
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5:45 p.m.
Serena Williams continued her Wimbledon return by moving into the third round with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktoriya Tomova.
The seven-time champion lost just five of 32 points on her first serve as she took a little over an hour to triumph against her 135th-ranked opponent.
Williams was unable to defend her 2016 Wimbledon title last year because she was pregnant.
Despite her ranking having fallen to 181, Williams is seeded 25th this year.
The 36-year-old American next faces German Tatjana Maria or Kristina Mladenovic of France.
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5:05 p.m.
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki is battling a difficult opponent and a swarm of flying bugs at Wimbledon.
The Australian Open champion complained to the chair umpire about the bugs that invaded No. 1 Court after she lost the first set 6-4 against Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. After shaking her head repeatedly on court to get the flying insects out of her hair, the Dane asked for bug spray to be used.
That seemed to do the trick – at least when it came to improving her own game. Wozniacki won the second set 6-1 to level the match.
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4:25 p.m.
Gael Monfils overcame Paolo Lorenzi 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) to set up a third-round meeting with 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey.
After hitting just four winners in the opening set, the 44th-ranked Monfils improved to a total of 49 for the match and reached the third round at the All England Club for the seventh time in his career.
The Frenchman has never been beyond that stage and to do so will have to defeat 11th-seeded Querrey.
Querrey earlier eased past Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the third round for a third successive year.
Last year Querrey defeated Andy Murray to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal, where he was defeated by Marin Cilic.
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4:15 p.m.
Roger Federer won 35 straight points on his own serve en route to beating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of Wimbledon.
Federer didn’t drop a point on his serve in the entire second set and kept that streak going until he was 30-0 up at 4-1 in the third, when Lacko sent a backhand winner down the line.
In total, the eight-time champion lost just nine of 61 points on his serve and broke Lacko five times, including with a forehand winner to close out the match.
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3:45 p.m.
Kyle Edmund is facing some unexpected conflict as he prepares for his second-round match at Wimbledon.
And it’s got everything to do with the World Cup.
Edmund is English. His coach, Fredrik Rosengren, is Swedish. Guess which two nations play each other in the World Cup quarterfinals in Russia on Saturday?
On Wednesday, a day after England and Sweden set up their match with victories, the 21st-seeded Edmund posted a photo to his Twitter account, showing him and Rosengren at practice – posing in a fighting position and each wearing his nation’s soccer jersey.
”When your coach is a Swede and you tell him it’s coming home. let’s go England!” Edmund posted, referring to the slogan his country’s fans have been using to suggest their team will win the World Cup.
If he beats Bradley Klahn of the U.S. on Thursday, Edmund will be hoping his third-round match on Saturday is scheduled at a time that doesn’t conflict with a certain soccer match.
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3:15 p.m.
Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams once again dropped the opening set, and once again dominated the rest of the way to win.
The No. 9 seed, at 38 the oldest woman in the draw, came back to beat 141st-ranked qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 to reach the third round at the All England Club.
Williams got broken in the first game and did not recover in the opening set, in which she made 12 unforced errors, twice as many as Dulgheru. Nine of those were errant forehands.
But the American, the runner-up at Wimbledon a year ago, then won seven games in a row.
In the first round, Williams started by ceding a tiebreaker against 58th-ranked Johanna Larsson before taking 12 of the last 15 games.
