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Karolina Pliskova pleased with improvement from first round

Karolina eases past Puig to reach third round,

Third seed Karolina Pliskova found Centre Court to her liking as she demolished Monica Puig to reach the third round.

The Czech took just one hour to wrap up a 6-0 6-4 victory over Puerto Rican Puig.

Pliskova was taken to a second-set tie-break in her opening-day win over world number 101 Zhu Lin on Court Two, but she felt more at home on Centre.

"I think it was much better than the first round, for sure," she said.

"I had a little bit of trouble in the end, but I think that's normal. She also had some chances to play good tennis. So she played.

"I felt the best here in Wimbledon today. The court was super nice, a little bit faster than the outside courts. So it was good.

"Centre for sure the fastest for me. I just like that much better than Court Two. Normally Court Two is not my favourite here."

Next Pliskova will face Hsieh Su-wei, the 28th seed, who beat Kirsten Flipkens 7-6 (3) 6-3.

Russian Margarita Gasparyan left the court in tears after being forced to
retire while leading against eighth seed Elina Svitolina.

The world number 62 was on the verge of a potential shock having won the first set and serving at 5-5 in the second.

But Gasparyan, who has a history of knee problems, seemed to injure her knee
after serving and required lengthy treatment on the baseline.

The 24-year-old attempted to soldier on but soon gave up, tearfully walking to
the net to shake hands with Ukrainian Svitolina.

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka dropped just two games in sweeping aside Ajla Tomljanovic and Anett Kontaveit – the Estonian 20th seed – beat Britain's Heather Watson 7-5 6-1.

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