With the morning sun out at Wimbledon, a loaded schedule filled courts with matches throughout the grounds. And though there were threatening skies later in the day, there were no delays on Thursday.

Murray Rolls To the Third Round

Andy Murray was in peak form for much of his second round match, as he rolled past Yen-Hsun Lu 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 on Centre Court.

It was a strong outing by the Brit who kept Lu on his heels in impressive fashion. Murray struck 31 winners to just 12 unforced errors and broke his opponent’s serve 7 times in a three-setter that lasted just an hour and 40 minutes.

It took a handful of games before the world no. 2 found his stride, but there was no looking once he did. “I managed to hang on at the end of the first set, settled down towards the end of the second, and was hitting the ball much better in third and feeling more comfortable,” Murray said.  “If you can win matches easily it does help because you can rest. It has been a good start.”

Murray will face John Millman in the third round.

Muguruza Falters

Recent French Open Champion and 2015 Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza struggled all match and fell to Jana Cepelova, 6-3, 6-2. It is the biggest upset in the women’s draw, thus far.

The two-seed appeared flat and could not find consistency against the qualifier, misfiring with 22 unforced errors to just 9 winners. The Slovak would take advantage with steady ground strokes throughout the match. And though Cepelova had a subpar day on her serve, Muguruza was unable to capitalize.

Afterward, the Spaniard acknowledged her inconsistency despite recent success, “I’ve been through a lot of stages, and it's only half of the year,” Muguruza said. “I'm just dealing with it, honestly. I think it's hard. I'm doing things my way, trying to prepare every match, trying to be focused every practice. One day it's going to go my way, another day no. Hopefully, my consistency will improve and I'll be able to be deep in all the tournaments.”

The world no. 124 was pleased to advance, “I think I played well,” Cepelova said. “She played sometimes a lot of mistakes. I like to play on grass. My style is, I think, that I change a lot of the shots. Sometimes I play flat, sometimes I play slices.” Her ranking will spike after her success at SW19.

Radwanska Survives

2nd-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska survived 3 match points to defeat Ana Konjuh, 6-2, 4-6, 9-7. The two players fought back and forth for much of the match but the Croat had gained the momentum down the stretch. But that came to a screeching halt on a freakish point late in the third set.

 With the set tied at 7-7, Konjuh sprinted to play a drop shot from the Pole but rolled her ankle as she stepped on the ball. She immediately went to the ground in obvious pain. After an injury timeout and treatment from the trainer, the tearful 18-year old did not have the mobility to remain a factor and Radwanska quickly captured the match.

The veteran was steady enough to survive and advance despite some strong first strike tennis from the teen. After the match, she acknowledged that she was fortunate to advance. “Players who won the grand slam, they always have something like this on the way,” Radwanska stated. “Sometimes it's a little bit easier to play after you know that you probably shouldn't even be here anymore.”

A Good Day for Most Favorites

A number of top-10 seeds made their way through the draw on Thursday.  Ninth-seeded Madison Keys rebounded from a second-set stumble to defeat Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Appearing aggravated midway through the match, the American regained her focus in the third set to defeat the 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist.

Meanwhile, Simona Halep made quick work of veteran Francesca Schiavone on Court 2. The 5-seed had an exceptional day serving while she successfully attacked the Italian’s serve to gain the decisive advantage in a 6-1, 6-1 victory. The Romanian broke serve six times in the match.

Later, Australian Open Champion Angelique Kerber cruised by Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-4 on Court 18. It took just 52 minutes for the 4-seed to advance to the third round, as she exhibited clean tennis, yielding just 5 unforced errors in the match.

Venus Williams was tested by Maria Sakkari of Greece but came through with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory. Sakkari went toe-to-toe with the American for much of the match. But in the third set, Williams found the one service break she would need to get through despite a strong serving day by the 20-year old.

In the Men’s draw, Kei Nishikori defeated Julian Benneteau 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 on Centre Court. After a slow start, the 5-seed found the momentum and began to dictate play. He would mix in solid net play with big baseline strikes and finish the match with 48 winners.

Elsewhere, Milos Raonic swept past Andreas Seppi 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 on Court 3. The Italian came in as no stranger to upsets having defeated Roger Federer in a past Grand Slam, but he was no match for the 6-seed.

Note

It was a big day for American tennis as 10 Men and Women advanced on Thursday. As play resumes on Friday, there will be 12 United States players remaining in contention.