Wimbledon Day 3 Recap: Sinner and Swiatek continue to impress

Wednesday saw a very stop-start Wimbledon Championships carry on as they continued to play catch up. A spoiler, they in fact did not catch up. Patchy weather and darkness once again ruled the day and left various matches stalled out. However, luckily for Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, they won so quickly that nature could not intervene.

Sinner continued to look like a strong tournament favorite as he cruised by the former World No. 8 Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-1, 6-2. The young Italian hammered 15 aces to only 1 double fault. A strong combination on grass.

Swiatek quickly erased Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 6-0. It was the 15th time this season (What?!) that the World No. 1 won a set 6-0. Sinner and Swiatek are two of the very few players to have now booked 3rd round places.

Recapping a full day at Wimbledon on Wednesday

In other action around the grounds that was able to get in, 9th-seeded American Taylor Fritz was finally able to finish his 5th set from Monday as he fought past Yannick Hanfmann officially 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Top-three seeds on the men’s side, Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, both eased past their opponents as they booked their spots in the 3rd round and 2nd round respectively.  21-seed Grigor Dimitrov looked very good as he blew away Sho Shimabukuro 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. The Bulgarian can be a real threat on this surface if he keeps playing this way.

There was another Top 10 upset in the Women’s draw as No. 8 seed Maria Sakkari fell apart as she blew a 6-0, 1-0 lead to fall to the Ukrainian upstart, Marta Kostyuk 0-6, 7-5, 6-2. It was a brutal turn of events for the powerful Greek as she exits Wimbledon in the 1st round this year.

Fellow-seeded players Donna Vekic and Daria Kasatkina faired much better as they lost a combined 7 games to their opponents.

The absolute match of the day had to be the 1st round clash between World No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem. This was a continuation from previous days as well. In the end, the Greek superstar needed a 5th set tiebreak to battle past Thiem 3-6,  7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8). His reward? A date with British icon and 2-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray in the 2nd round. Rough.

The 22-seed Sebastian Korda fell to Jiri Vesely 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Korda was viewed as a strong dark horse candidate but he will be going home in the opening round. Big-hitting Canadian Milos Raonic continued his comeback trail with a 4-set win over Dennis Novak.

Otherwise, it was mostly a very strong day for American tennis as the likes of Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Marcos Giron, Danielle Collins, Ben Shelton, Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, and Chris Eubanks all picked up victories at the All England Club.

Joining Korda in the group of felled potential dark horses, 18-seed Karolina Pliskova was stunningly obliterated by Natalija Kostic 6-2, 6-3.

While it has been inconsistent in terms of getting play in, the matches that have taken the court have been thrilling and compelling. There have been upsets, favorites showing good form, and exciting battles of wills.

Look for more of the same come Thursday as it is another full slate of action. Hopefully, the sun shines and we can get everything completed and back on track.