Past Sacramento finalist reaches Wimbledon round of 16

Ajla Tomljanovic advanced to the round of 16 in a Grand Slam tournament
for the second time. 2017 photo by Rob Vomund

   Ajla Tomljanovic, the runner-up in the last Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger in 2017, defeated Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 today in a third-round matchup of unseeded players at Wimbledon.

   Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, led 2-0 in the second set and took an off-court medical timeout at 0-4 in the third set. She said she pulled an abdominal muscle in the second set.

   Tomljanovic (pronounced Tom-yon-o-vich), a 28-year-old Australian originally from Croatia, reached the round of 16 in a Grand Slam tournament for the second time. She also advanced to the fourth round of the 2014 French Open.

   Tomljanovic had shoulder surgery in early 2016 and missed the rest of the year. In February, she led second-ranked Simona Halep 5-2 in the third set in the second round of the Australian Open but dropped the next five games.

   Tomljanovic is scheduled to meet Emma Raducanu, an 18-year-old British wild card born in Canada, on Monday. Raducanu, ranked No. 338, eliminated unseeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 7-5. 

   Also advancing were top seed Ashleigh Barty; No. 14 seed Barbora Krejcikova, the recent French Open champion; No. 20 seed Coco Gauff, 17; and No. 25 seed Angelique Kerber, the only remaining past Wimbledon women's singles champion.

   In the men's draw, No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia overcame No. 32 seed and 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-7 (3), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.

   Recovering from two sets down in a major for the first time, Medvedev extended his winning streak to seven matches. He won his first grass-court title last week in Mallorca.

   No. 6 seed Roger Federer, who will turn 40 next month, beat No. 29 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Norrie, a 25-year-old left-hander, won back-to-back Northern California Challengers in Tiburon and Stockton in 2017.  

   In the second round of women's and men's doubles:

   —No. 5 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan routed Tereza Martincova and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2. Shibahara, 23, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA.

   —No. 9 seeds Sharon Fichman of Canada and Giuliana Olmos, a 28-year-old product of Fremont in the Bay Area who represents Mexico, defeated Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine and Ostapenko by walkover.

   —No. 6 seeds Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain dispatched Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and Stefano Travaglia of Italy 6-3, 6-4.

   —No. 14 seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) of Japan outlasted Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania and Dominik Koepfer of Germany 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Koepfer advanced to the singles final in the 2019 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger.

   In mixed doubles:

   —No. 5 seeds Ram and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of Phoenix topped Nick Monroe of Austin, Texas, and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round after receiving a first-round bye.

   —Alternates Arthur Fery, who recently completed his freshman year at Stanford, and Tara Moore of Great Britain edged Ken Skupski of Great Britain and Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 in the opening round.