‘Three foot’ Ashleigh Barty battles through with Coco Gauff on horizon

Top seed Barty made 33 unforced errors against Anna Blinkova
Coco Gauff wins 6-4, 6-3 against Elena Vesnina

Having scratched from Roland Garros in the second round after aggravating an old hip injury, Ashleigh Barty could be forgiven for wanting to ease herself into Wimbledon as gently as possible. In that respect at least, her 6-4, 6-3 second-round defeat of Anna Blinkova on Thursday was mission accomplished for the No 1 seed, who remains the favourite to claim a first singles title here on Saturday week.

Scratch the surface, though, and this was an unconvincing success for Barty, who handed freebies to her Russian opponent almost from the first point to the last and ended the match with no fewer than 33 unforced errors against her name. Blinkova, ranked 89 in the world, did not have the quality to make Barty pay, but stronger opponents await her in the second week and they are unlikely to be as generous.