AN eye-catching performance from Ashlyn Krueger turned into a nightmare for talented Russian Mirra Andreeva as the American put the 21st seed to the sword and waltzed into the third round with a 64-minute demolition job. In front of home fans, the 39th ranked 20-year-old gave an indication of what she is capable of, winning 6-1 6-4.

Kreuger won the last five games of the first set to dismantle the normally damaging Andreeva, and continued to have the foot down throughout the second set. Both players could not hold a serve to save themselves across the first five games until Kreuger finally accomplished the feat in the sixth game. She broke once more against the Russian to go 5-2 up, before Andreeva continued the trend to respond immediately.

It took until the ninth game of the second set for Andreeva to finally hold a service game, only for Kreuger then to hold for a second time and take out the set 6-4, and the match in one hour and four minutes on Grandstand.

The result marked Kreuger’s second consecutive main draw Grand Slam win, having not been successful in majors to-date, and had to come back from a bagel first set against Shuai Zhang to win 0-6 6-1 7-5 in that contest. Following her most recent success, Kreuger spoke fondly of the sport growing up.

“I really fell in love with it from a young age,” she said. “Especially as a girl, I love just being able to figure it out on my own on the court.”

The key to the success is not necessarily thinking too much about it, but rather relaxing and enjoying the experience.

“A lot of it stems from being relaxed outside of the tennis court,” Krueger said. “When you get wins, obviously you get more confident. But I think enjoying myself outside of tennis and just being myself on the court, that’s where my confidence comes from.

“I try to have fun in everything that I do, and I love laughing, and I enjoy positive people.”

Kreuger hit 15 winners and 15 unforced errors to Andreeva’s 14 and 25 respectively, while breaking six times to three. Critically her work on serve, particularly early, helped her build the lead and the confidence, winning 77 per cent of her first serve points, while still scraping together 43 per cent. By comparison, Andreeva won just two of 16 off her second serve (13 per cent) in the loss.

Krueger has a few big matches coming up in her horizon, with 16th seeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova waiting in the third round, before a potential date with world number one Iga Swiatek in the Round of 16 should she make it that far.

AROUND THE COURTS

Swiatek crushed Japan’s Ena Shibahara in 65 minutes 6-0, 6-1 while Samsonova took down Czech Marie Bouzkova in a three-set battle, 3-6 7-6 6-3. She was joined in the third round by compatriots Anna Kalinskaya, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Diana Shnaider and Anastasia Potapova to ensure a strong Russian representation despite Andreeva’s loss.

Unfortunately the withdrawal of fourth seed Elena Rybakina was a sour note on the day, allowing Frenchwoman Jessika Ponchet safe passage through to the next stage. It was better news from another Kazakh in Yulia Putintseva who advanced, as did former number one Caroline Wozniacki and veteran Italian Sara Errani.

In one of the earliest mid-match retirements, Karolina Pliskova pulled out after just a couple of points against fifth seed Jasmine Paolini after a bad rolled ankle. In other results, Karolina Muchova took down past champion Naomi Osaka, while Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro defeated 31st seeded Brit Katie Boulter. Sixth seed Jessica Pegula and 22nd seed Beatriz Haddad Maia also stamped their ticket into the Round of 32.