Shelton needs 4 points, a minute to wrap up win

LONDON — Four points. Three aces. About a minute. That's all it took for Ben Shelton to wrap up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Rinky Hijikata on Friday in a second-round Wimbledon match suspended the night before because of darkness at 5-4 in the third set. "I wasn't really going for four aces," the 10th-seeded Shelton said. Either way, the two-time Grand Slam semifinalist was in a much better mood than he was Thursday night around 9:30 p.m., when he didn't agree with the decision to stop right as he was about to try to serve out the victory at No. 2 Court. There are no artificial lights there, plus Shelton said he was told that the electronic line-calling system was about to stop working. He looked rather animated, and someone came between Shelton and the chair umpire, although the player said Friday that wasn't really necessary. "I guess when he saw a guy my size walking quickly towards the umpire, maybe he thought I was ready to throw hands or something. I definitely wasn't," Shelton said. "I got over it pretty quickly... It probably looked more tense than it was." The American, who reached the final four at the 2023 U.S. Open and this year's Australian Open, and Hijikata, an Australian ranked 87th, returned to the same stadium a little less than 16 hours later after the suspension for what turned out to be just one game. "A little bit bizarre," Hijikata said. After a warmup period quite a bit longer than the resumption of actual play, Shelton began with a 141 miles per hour ace. The 22-year-old left-hander then hit a second serve that resulted in a framed return by Hijikata, followed with an ace at 140 MPH and one more at 118 MPH to end things quickly. "I'm just happy with the way I handled it coming out today and taking care of my business," said Shelton, who will face 105th-ranked Marton Fucsovics of Hungary for a chance to reach the fourth round at the All England Club for the second consecutive year. "It's never ideal, mentally, having to wake up another day and be on and know that it's a match day. Obviously I went out there prepared to play 2 1/2 sets. You can't just go out there (and) be like, 'Yeah, I'm going to hold.' What happens if you don't?" Right before things were halted Thursday — both players thought they should have stopped sooner, because it was tough to see for a while and slippery on the grass — Shelton held three match points while leading 5-3 and at love-40 on Hijikata's serve. Hijikata grabbed the next five points to extend the contest. But not for long. Madison Keys upset by Siegemund LONDON — This most unpredictable of Wimbledons delivered yet another surprise Friday when reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the No. 6 seed, was a lopsided loser in the third round, eliminated 6-3, 6-3 by 104th-ranked Laura Siegemund of Germany. Keys' exit left just one of the top six women in the bracket before the end of Week 1: No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who was scheduled to face 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu later in the day. No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 4 Jasmine Paolini and No. 5 Zheng Qinwen already were out. The men's field also has seen its share of surprises, including a Wimbledon-record 13 seeds gone in the first round. "At times, it wasn't the best quality, let's say. But I managed, and in the end, it's just important to find solutions and I did that well. Kept my nerves in the end," Siegemund said, then added with a laugh: "There are always nerves. If you don't have nerves in this moment, you're probably dead." Wimbledon might be the only Grand Slam event where Keys hasn't reached at least the semifinals, but she has participated in the quarterfinals there twice and is enjoying a breakthrough 2025, including her title at Melbourne Park in January. Keys' power vs. Siegemund's spins and slices offered quite a contrast in styles, and this outcome was surprisingly one-way traffic on a windy afternoon at No. 2 Court. The key statistic, undoubtedly, was this: Keys made 31 unforced errors, 20 more than Siegemund. When it ended with one last backhand return from Keys that sailed wide, Siegemund smiled broadly, raised her arms and jumped up and down repeatedly. "You can't not be happy when you beat a great player like Madison," Siegemund said. How unexpected is this for Siegemund? Before this year, her career record at the All England Club was 2-5, and she'd never made it past the second round. Taking into account all four Grand Slam tournaments, she had reached the third round only once in 28 previous appearances, getting to the quarterfinals at the 2020 French Open. "There is technically no pressure for me," said Siegemund, at 37 the oldest woman remaining in the tournament. "I try to remember that I only play for myself. I don't feel like I need to prove anything anymore. My boyfriend often tells me that." No. 1 Aryna Sablenka holds off Raducanu LONDON — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staved off an upset bid by resurgent Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon by beating the home favorite 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the third-round at a raucous Centre Court on Friday night. Sabalenka, a two-time semifinalist at the All England Club, fought back in both sets against the the 2021 U.S. Open champion, who had been playing some of her best tennis since her title run at Flushing Meadows as a qualifier at age 18. In a 74-minute first set, Sabalenka converted her eighth set point, which came 30 minutes after the first.Raducanu went up 4-2, only to see Sabalenka reel off 11 of 12 points during one stretch while moving out front by a 5-4 score. Then arrived an epic game, lasting 13 minutes and containing 22 points, eight deuces, and seven set points for Sabalenka — all ending with Raducanu holding serve. Then, Raducanu had a set point while leading 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but Sabalenka saved it with a drop-shot winner and took the last three points of the set — ending it with a volley winner. The fans provided extra energy for the British player, cheering wildly when Raducanu fired winners and exhaling "aww!" when she missed. Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, said she pretended the cheers were for her. "Guys wow — what an atmosphere. My ears are still hurting. It was super loud," she said in an on-court interview. In the second set, Raducanu broke to 3-1 and led 4-1 at the 1-hour, 35-minute mark, but Sabalenka reeled off the last five games. Raducanu, ranked No. 40, defeated 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the previous round. "She pushed me really hard to get this win. I'm happy to see her healthy and back on track," Sabalenka said. "I'm pretty sure that soon she's going to be back in the top 10." Sabalenka reached the final at each of the past three Grand Slam tournaments, winning the U.S. Open last September and finishing as the runner-up to Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and to Coco Gauff at the French Open in June.