After a rather comfortable two set win over Australia’s Daria Gavrilova in round one, Irina-Camelia Begu, best known for her dirt ball skills, had between her and a new personal best run at Wimbledon Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, who sent Nicole Gibbs packing in her opening match. Almost three hours later on Court 16, the Romanian prevailed with a 7/5, 6/7, 7/5 scoreline.
The first set, a 51-minute affair, was opened on Tsurenko’s serve, and every indication of the upcoming marathon already there. After two deuces, the Ukrainian finally held to put her name on board first. Both women then alternated breaks, before Begu consolidated for 2/2. The Romanian broke again on the ninth game, and was awarded the right to serve for the set, but she failed to so, despite initially fighting off three break opportunities. The world number 31, however, would come back to win the next games, serving out the frame in the 12th game, claiming it 7/5.
The second set favored servers until the sixth game, when Begu double faulted at deuce and then hit an unforced error, gifting the break to her opponent. She would rebound in the very next game, though, bringing up a break point with a forehand winner and then counting on a double fault from Tsurenko to get back on serve. The two would exchange breaks once again in the ninth and tenth games, but a pair of holds took them to a tie-break. Down 4-5, Irina-Camelia hit two unforced errors off her two serves to drop the set, as Tsurenko claimed it 7-4.
The decider was the shortest set played by the two, at 50 minutes. Despite opening the frame with a double fault, Begu rebounded to hold her first game serving, but not the second. In the third game, after a good number of deuces, Tsurenko finally fired a forehand winner to break her counterpart and jump ahead in the scores, 2/1. Despite consolidating for 3/1, at 3/2 the Ukrainian hit a couple of double faults to open the window for the Romanian, getting her back to the set with the match leveled. The duo exchanged breaks one more time, but managed to hold their own until the 12th game. Serving to stay at Wimbledon, Lesia Tsurenko finally budged, getting broken at 15 and saying goodbye to the All England Club.
Begu now moves on to face fourth seed and 2004 champion Maria Sharapova for a place in the second week of the third Grand Slam of the season. Sharapova won their only meeting so far, at the Mutua Madrid Open clay event in 2012.