Jelena Ostapenko's grass swing began with 7 wins; Sorana Cirstea ends it in Wimbledon rally

At last year’s Wimbledon, Jelena Ostapenko was twice a point away from reaching the quarterfinals. Tatjana Maria saved both match points to eventually prevail 7-5 in the third and afterwards, Ostapenko called her opponent “lucky” in defeat.

Coming into SW19 this time around, Ostapenko solidified herself as a tournament dark horse by winning her first seven matches of the grass swing—picking up the Birmingham crown along the way. Or so we thought.

It wasn’t quite a case of déjà vu, but after being within two points of the third round, the Latvian is instead out in round two. Her conqueror: Sorana Cirstea, who just so happened to prevent a rematch between Ostapenko and Maria from happening after getting her own Wimbledon revenge against the German. The 33-year-old battled past the No. 17 seed, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, withstanding 48 winners from Ostapenko's racquet to prevail after two hours and 35 minutes.

In the second-set tiebreaker, Cirstea saw a 4-1 lead erased and was on the brink of defeat when Ostapenko drew even for 5-5 and 6-6—but the 2017 Roland Garros champion never managed to take the lead in the crucial juncture of the clash.

A patient Cirstea would later seal the lone break of the deciding set in the seventh game and eventually shut the door with a hold at love. For those wondering, Ostapenko's handshake involved a drive-by exchange.

The Romanian is through to the third round for the fifth time, though will hope to overturn her 0-4 record in this phase of the event.

Francisco Cerundolo, who arrived on the back of winning his first grass-court trophy at Eastbourne, wasn’t able to follow up that winning performance with an extended stay in London. Jiri Lehecka blew past the No. 18 seed, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, after holding in all of his service games while breaking the Argentine twice in each set. Lehecka was a quarterfinalist at this year’s Australian Open.