Elena Rybakina booked her place in the third round of Wimbledon with a clinical 6-1 6-2 victory over Caty McNally on Centre Court on Thursday.

The 2022 Wimbledon victor and Australian Open champion from earlier this year laid down a statement against McNally, who is nestled just inside the top 50 of the WTA Rankings, as she got the job done in only 71 minutes.

Rybakina was close to faultless throughout the opener, only truly being tested once on her own serve – when saving two break points in game three – and getting back-to-back breaks to pull clear.

The second set involved several back-and-forth games on Rybakina's serve, but she only faced break point in one of those, and she got the better of McNally's in games one and seven to book her spot in the next round.

There, she will face Elise Mertens, who fought back to defeat qualifier Maria Timofeeva 2-6 6-3 6-0 in her second-round matchup.

Jasmine Paolini – the runner-up at SW19 two years ago – also advanced, though she had to work for a 7-6 (7-0) 6-4 victory over Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic.

Maria Sakkari will be Paolini's opponent in round three, after the former world number three overcame Kamilla Rakhimova 6-3 6-0 7-6 (10-7).

Last year's beaten finalist Amanda Anisimova also had to come through a third-set tie-break, beating fellow American Sofia Kenin 6-2 4-6 7-6 (10-3) to tee up a meeting with another compatriot, Madison Keys, in the next round.

Rybakina maintains early-round consistency

Alongside reigning champion Iga Swiatek, Rybakina is one of only two women to make at least the third round at each of the last six editions of Wimbledon (since 2021).

She fell at the third hurdle last year but reached the quarter-finals as a minimum at each of the previous three editions. And if this performance is anything to go by, she appears in the mood for another deep run.

The world number two forced 10 break points and converted four, while winning an impressive 54% of points when returning McNally's first serve (20/37). By contrast, 81% of Rybakina's own first-serve points went her way (25/31).

Anisimova is another player looking to return to the Wimbledon showpiece, following her humbling loss to Swiatek last year.

And she put on a serving clinic against Kenin, firing in 20 aces – her most in any WTA Tour-level match, after serving 17 versus Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Washington in 2024.