The last American woman to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish was Serena Williams, who won her seventh Wimbledon singles title in 2016. Williams returns to the All England Club this year on a wildcard, playing her first singles event in four years, but she is not among the seven seeded American women in the draw.
Two of those seeded Americans – No. 4 Jessica Pegula and No. 16 Iva Jovic, who are projected to meet in the fourth round – began their Wimbledon campaigns on Day 1 by overcoming first-set challenges before securing more comfortable victories in the second to advance to the second round.
Pegula back into second round
Opening play on Court 2, Pegula, who lost in the first round 12 months ago, made a flying start by winning the first four games in just 10 minutes against world No. 92 Darja Vidmanova, who was making her Grand Slam main-draw debut. Vidmanova found her footing on the grass to reel off three consecutive games, but Pegula closed out the opening set 7-5.
After the pair exchanged early breaks in the second set, Pegula reasserted control with another break for a 4-2 lead before breaking again to complete a 7-5, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 13 minutes.
Pegula reached the Wimbledon second round for the fifth time in seven main-draw appearances. The fourth seed will next face Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, who defeated Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva 6-2, 6-3 to equal her best Wimbledon result by reaching the second round for the fifth time in seven appearances. She has never advanced beyond the second round.
Sorribes Tormo leads the head-to-head 2-1, with both of her victories coming before the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2018 and 2019. Pegula won their most recent meeting in 2022 but this will be their first meeting on grass.
Jovic earns first Wimbledon main-draw win
At the same time Pegula began her campaign, 18-year-old Iva Jovic, the No. 16 seed, took on world No. 37 Jaqueline Cristian in search of her first Wimbledon main-draw victory.
Neither player managed a service break in the opening set, forcing a tiebreak. Jovic dominated the breaker 7-1 before reeling off six consecutive games to complete a 7-6 (1), 6-0 victory in 1 hour, 30 minutes.
The win means Jovic has now recorded a main-draw victory at all four Grand Slam tournaments. Her best result came at this year’s Australian Open, where she reached the quarterfinals.
Jovic will next face the winner between former Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria, who finished runner-up at Eastbourne last week, and Yulia Putintseva.
Seventh-seeded Coco Gauff and No. 28 seed Ann Li are the other seeded American women in action later Monday. No. 6 seed Amanda Anisimova, No. 23 seed Emma Navarro and No. 26 seed Madison Keys, who won the Eastbourne title over the weekend, will begin their Wimbledon campaigns on Tuesday.
