It lasted only two sets, but it had been a match battled from both sides, the one who saw young qualifier Jana Cepelova eventually prevail. The Slovakian will reach the second round at the Wimbledon Championships for the second year in a row following her victory against Mariana Duque-Mariño; last year she had been noticed by defeating third seed Simona Halep in three sets, before falling to Monica Niculescu in the second round. Her current record is the third round reached in 2012.
Duque-Mariño didn’t lose in a main draw’s first round at Wimbledon since 2010, when she fell to another qualifier, Kurumi Nara, in straight sets. The Colombian came to Wimbledon after her run in Mallorca, where she defeated Sabine Lisicki in the second round before surrendering to Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals. Cepelova hadn’t played any grass court event prior to Wimbledon’s qualifying round, attending two ITF events on clay instead.
Cepelova regains a lost advantage and books the first set
The match started with a close first game. Duque-Mariño kept the advantage in her service game until 40-30 up, but then hit two errors, delivering the points and the game to her opponent, and gifting her an early advantage.
The Colombian gained a first chance to break back right in the following game; another unforced error wasted it, and the Slovakian immediately consolidated her advantage, settling the score to 2-0 up.
Two aces helped Duque-Mariño to hold the following game, but she had no chance to win back the break as Cepelova booked her following service game to 15.
Three more comfortable holds from both players followed after, without any of them able to gain a chance to prevail during the opponent’s serve. It’s the Colombian who eventually found that chance; down 3-4, she took advantage of too many errors from the opponent to break her game and level-off the set to a 4-all scoreline. She saved one break point in the following game and took the lead for the first time since the beginning of the match. It didn’t last long; the Slovakian held her serve, and then she benefitted from two errors from her opponent at the worst timing possible, which gifted her a break point and then the chance to serve out the set.
Cepelova didn’t falter, and holding her serve to 15, she booked the first set with a 7-5 scoreline.
Cepelova comes back from a break down and claims the match
The Colombian started aggressive from the second set, serving her way until 40-0 up, but then losing three points in a row to end up in another battle for the lead. Holding the advantage, she hit a lob and forced Cepelova into an error.
Both players found consistency in their following service games, as none of them couldn’t gain any more chance to take the lead until the eight game. It’s the Colombian, who had held her previous service games without losing a point, who stroke first, breaking her opponent’s serve to love to gain an important lead of 5-3, with the chance to serve to force the match into a decider. From 30-0 up, the Colombian loses three points in a row, hitting two volleys errors to lose the break right away.
From then on it’s the Slovakian who gained the momentum. She held to level-off the score to 5-5, then broke Duque-Mariño’s game again, one more time thanks to two unforced errors from the Colombian that ended the game.
The 23-year-old qualifier then found little trouble in holding the following game and win the match with a 7-5, 7-5 scoreline, after 1 hour and 25 minutes of play.
Despite it lasted only two sets, the match had been close and battled from both sides, with similar statistics on serving and receiving points from both players. The more consistency showed by the Slovakian in the most crucial points had helped her on her way to win the match.
Cepelova will meet second seed and defending finalist Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round; the Spaniard had got rid of Italy’s Camila Giorgi in three sets.