Wimbledon 2019: Day 4, Match Points

LEARNING

For the second round in a row, No.11 seed Serena Williams faces a Wimbledon debutante - this time a teenager rather than a veteran in the form of 18-year-old Kaja Juvan. Williams has never lost before the third round in 18 previous Wimbledon appearances.

Qualifier Kaja Juvan's match against five-time champion Serena Williams will be the first time the 18-year-old Slovenian has faced a Top 10 player. Juvan, the Youth Olympic Games gold medallist, made her WTA-level debut as a lucky loser at Roland Garros a month ago, and has since qualified for both of her grass tournaments in Mallorca and Wimbledon.

No.6 seed Petra Kvitova leads the head-to-head against Kristina Mladenovic 7-1, and has not lost a set to the Frenchwoman in six matches since 2013. Mladenovic's only win in the series came 6-3, 6-4 in the 2013 Paris quarterfinals indoors, and since then she has only taken Kvitova to a tiebreak twice: in their 2017 Birmingham quarterfinal (their only previous grass meeting), losing 6-4, 7-6(5), and this year in the second round of Madrid, losing 6-3, 7-6(5).

World No.1 Ashleigh Barty's only prior meeting with Alison Van Uytvanck was a 7-6(7), 6-2 win for the Australian in the second round of Montréal last year. Van Uytvanck's sole Top 10 win in her career so far was at this stage of Wimbledon one year ago, when the Belgian upset defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Pauline Parmentier is 3-2 against No.26 seed Carla Suárez Navarro - but all three of the Frenchwoman's wins came in ITF clay tournaments between 2007 and 2011. Suárez Navarro has triumphed in both of their WTA-level matches, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the first round of Roland Garros 2008 - the Spaniard's Grand Slam debut - and 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of Cincinnati 2014.

Katerina Siniakova, who scored her first win over a reigning World No.1 when she upset Naomi Osaka at Roland Garros last month, won her only previous meeting with No.19 seed Johanna Konta 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of Shenzhen in 2017 en route to the Czech's maiden title.

2013 quarterfinalist Barbora Strycova is 1-1 against Laura Siegemund, having defeated the German in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 epic in the first round of Beijing in 2016 but lost 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of Stuttgart in 2018.

No.5 seed Angelique Kerber won her only prior encounter with Lauren Davis 7-6(3), 6-3 in the first round of the 2011 US Open en route to her first Grand Slam semifinal. The American lucky loser owns three Top 10 wins in her career, with the best by ranking being her 6-0, 7-6(2) upset of Victoria Azarenka in the second round of Indian Wells in 2014.

Kaja Juvan, Tamara Zidansek and Polona Hercog's first-round wins meant that three Slovenian players made it to the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2004 US Open, when Katarina Srebotnik and Maja Matevzic made it to round two and Tina Pisnik progressed to round three. Today, Juvan and Zidansek are bidding to make two Slovenians in the third round of a major for the first time in history.

World No.1 Ashleigh Barty is on a 13-match winning streak - the longest both of her career and of any player this year. It is the longest winning streak since Petra Kvitova won 13 in a row across Prague, Madrid and Roland Garros last year; a win for Barty today would tie Kvitova's 14 consecutive wins across St. Petersburg, Fed Cup and Doha last year.

Beatriz Haddad Maia is seeking to become the first Brazilian woman to reach the third round of Wimbledon since Patricia Medrado in 1982.

TRENDING

ORDER OF PLAY

For full order of play, visit wimbledon.com.

READING

Following Monday's litany of on-paper upsets, including losses for Naomi Osaka and Garbiñe Muguruza, Louisa Thomas argues that "tennis isn't linear - it's iterative" in a New Yorker column arguing against buying into easy sporting narratives. However, writes Kevin Craft in The Atlantic, it's also the case that young ATP up-and-comers can learn from the youthful breakthroughs on the WTA Tour.

In a column for BBC Sport, Petra Kvitova writes of her relief in playing without pain and her sense of familiarity with the environs of the All England Club.

The upcoming blockbuster third round between Simona Halep and Victoria Azarenka has added significance given their rivalry's past pattern, writes Matt Zemek for Tennis With An Accent.

Get to know Serena Williams's opponent today, Kaja Juvan - Youth Olympic Games gold medallist, Descartes enthusiast and amateur painter - in an interview with Alex Macpherson for wtatennis.com.