London: Angelique Kerber’s defence of her singles title came to an early end at Wimbledon being knocked out in the second round by lucky loser Lauren Davis 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday.
The 31-year-old German, who came into the tournament in form having reached the final at Eastbourne, made her earliest exit since losing in the same round in 2013.
Eight-time champion Roger Federer eased into the third round beating British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to equal American legend Jimmy Connors’s record of 17 appearances in the last 32.
“I struggled to take care of business a bit from the baseline. Thankfully I played a pretty good breaker, I had some help from him as he gave me a couple of unforced errors,” said 37-year-old Federer who has now reached the third round at the Slams for the 70th time.
Federer and Rafael Nadal’s half of the draw lost two of the potentially more awkward customers in big serving duo John Isner and Marin Cilic.
Isner fell in five sets to unseeded Kazakh Mikha-il Kukushkin 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Cilic, the finalist in 2017, lost in straight sets to Portugal’s Joao Sousa, 4-6, 4-6, 4-6.
Ashleigh Barty stayed on track with a 6-1, 6-3 second round victory over Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck.
