Raonic, Auger-Aliassime reach 3rd round with impressive wins
Raonic battled calf injury before advancing
Canadians Milos Raonic and Felix Auger-Aliassime both are off to the third round at Wimbledon.
Raonic, the No. 15 seed from Thornhill, Ont., beat Robin Haase of the Netherlands 7-6 (1), 7-5, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday, marking the Canadian's second straight-sets win in a row.
Auger-Aliassime, the No. 19 seed from Montreal, beat French qualifier Corentin Moutet 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the ensuing match on Court 3.
Raonic, a runner-up at Wimbledon in 2016, will next face American Reilly Opelka. The world No. 63 upset No. 22 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 in the second round.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime downs French qualifier:
Auger-Aliassime, 18, will face world No. 66 Ugo Humbert of France in the third round.
"I think I felt a bit nervous at the start of the match," Auger-Aliassime said. "Yeah, I think the circumstances being that I'm looked at as a favorite for this match, and it's also something different — I have played him before, but it's big stages, big moments, so obviously the nerves come in and you can't go against it.
"So, you know, I try to manage as best as I could. I think I was able to play well every time I had break point to save and take my opportunity when I needed to."
Auger-Aliassime said he is keeping his focus on what is immediately in front of him as opposed to looking ahead and figuring out possible scenarios.
"I think once the match gets going, you're already in enough trouble in the court, you don't really think of what could happen," Auger-Aliassime said.
Raonic, who has battled injuries throughout his career, took a medical timeout to deal with a left calf issue while trailing 5-4 in the third set. While he appeared to be in some pain afterward, he did manage to finish the victory.
"We will see how I wake up tomorrow, but I don't think it should be (a problem)," Raonic said.
Raonic fought back from a break down to win the first set in a tiebreak and then controlled the rest of the match with his powerful serve.
The Canadian had 32 aces, while Haase had nine. Raonic also had 64 winners, 37 more than Haase.
"There are certain things I wish I did better throughout certain parts of the match where I felt I could have been a bit more efficient when the opportunities to be aggressive presented themselves," Raonic said.
WATCH | Raonic into third round:
"But, you know, a match, especially three-out-of-five goes up and down a lot, and thankfully I was able to get the best of all three of those in important moments."
It marks the third straight year Raonic has reached at least the third round at Wimbledon.
Moutet had his chances against Auger-Aliassime, but converted on only two of 14 break-point opportunities.
Auger-Aliassime broke the world No. 84 five times to lock down his second career Grand Slam win in three hours two minutes.
Djokovic, Anderson advance
Last year's men's finalists moved into the third round at Wimbledon within minutes of each other.
Moments after Kevin Anderson converted his second match point against Janko Tipsarevic with an ace on No. 2 Court, Novak Djokovic wrapped up his straight-set win over Denis Kudla on Centre Court.
Djokovic beat Kudla 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, while Anderson ousted Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4.
Djokovic beat Anderson in the 2018 final for his fourth Wimbledon title, and they could face each other in the semifinals of this year's tournament.
Halep, Azarenka set for clash
In recent years Wimbledon has not exactly been dreamland for Simona Halep and Victoria Azarenka, and the nightmare will continue for one of them after the former world No. 1's set up a third-round showdown.
Seventh seed Halep appeared to be heading for an easy win when she was a set and 2-0 up against Mihaela Buzarnescu before her fellow Romanian stormed back to take the second set.
Buzarnescu even stopped in her tracks midway through the seventh game of the second set to hand over a bottle of water to a spectator who had fainted in the stands.
But Halep was less charitable and turfed her compatriot out of the championships with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 defeat.
Twelve months ago Halep perished in the third round despite being top seed and she will be hoping for better fortune on Friday when she faces Azarenka.
"It's going to be a big challenge for me, tough one, because she's ... very aggressive," said Halep, who has won two of her four meetings with Azarenka, including at Wimbledon in 2017.
"I have to be strong on my legs to be ready for her strokes because she hits very strong."
Canadian Dabrowksi advances in doubles
In women's doubles first-round action, No. 4 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Yifan Xu of China downed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Fanny Stollar of Hungary 6-1, 6-3.
Dabrowski also found out Wednesday she'll be seeded third with partner Mate Pavic of Croatia in the mixed doubles draw. Dabrowski and Pavic, who get a first-round bye, are coming off a loss in the French Open final.
In men's doubles first-round play, Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil and Australia's Matthew Ebden beat Dusan Lajovic and Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
With files from Reuters